2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

[rbirules]

It would suggest that Mclaren will be tough to beat.

I really can't tell anything from that graph tbh ... 1.16 secs faster than the average pace over the rest of the tracks over a 3 season timespan.

It kinda feels like "One in 6 people has 5 other people around him/her".

I mean, I understand what they are trying to do here, but there was no 2022 race for starters, so is Qatar still being measured against 2022 track-times, or is it just 2023/2024 ?

In 2024 they had the Miami update that brought them forward, which means if you compare against way worse results from 2022 up until Mia 2024 it's gonna skew things.

McLaren was really strong at this track in 2023 as well. They took a big step forward from Austria onward that year, IIRC, but they were the only cars within 30 seconds of Max in Qatar (5-6 seconds back). They were also 2-3 in Japan (race before Qatar) in 2023 but were 20 seconds back. Qatar also had stint length maximums in 2023 I believe which might have negated some of Max's potential advantage.

Oscar even beat Max in the sprint in 2023.

[purestpurist]

I really can't tell anything from that graph tbh ... 1.16 secs faster than the average pace over the rest of the tracks over a 3 season timespan.

It kinda feels like "One in 6 people has 5 other people around him/her".

I mean, I understand what they are trying to do here, but there was no 2022 race for starters, so is Qatar still being measured against 2022 track-times, or is it just 2023/2024 ?

In 2024 they had the Miami update that brought them forward, which means if you compare against way worse results from 2022 up until Mia 2024 it's gonna skew things.

McLaren was really strong at this track in 2023 as well. They took a big step forward from Austria onward that year, IIRC, but they were the only cars within 30 seconds of Max in Qatar (5-6 seconds back). They were also 2-3 in Japan (race before Qatar) in 2023 but were 20 seconds back. Qatar also had stint length maximums in 2023 I believe which might have negated some of Max's potential advantage.

Oscar even beat Max in the sprint in 2023.

I never hear it discussed but that Sprint was probably the best race all year, at least in part because it gave us the only non-Max pass on track for the win

[AR3-GP]

I never hear it discussed but that Sprint was probably the best race all year, at least in part because it gave us the only non-Max pass on track for the win

A factor in that was the mandatory stint lengths in the GP a day later. Some teams tried to save tires for the GP (min 2 stops) so that meant there was a mix of soft and medium tires on the sprint grid. 1 year later without mandatory stints for the GP, everyone did mediums for the sprint, and then did an easy 1 stop for the GP.

That formula should repeat itself here. Teams will want to save tires for the GP which could produce a mix of tires and a more interesting sprint.

[search]

That formula should repeat itself here. Teams will want to save tires for the GP which could produce a mix of tires and a more interesting sprint.

2023 was a bit different though, with the late announcement and a mandatory three-stopper in the race. This time it's two stops only.

[search]

I mean, I understand what they are trying to do here, but there was no 2022 race for starters, so is Qatar still being measured against 2022 track-times, or is it just 2023/2024 ?

In 2024 they had the Miami update that brought them forward, which means if you compare against way worse results from 2022 up until Mia 2024 it's gonna skew things.

normally it should include only the results per season ("Saisonschnitt"), therefor excluding 2022 completely, but maybe they made a mistake, or only having two races (and quite a large up and down of performances before) screwed up things a bit. The gap looks a bit too large indeed.

For comparison, this is what they showed for Abu Dhabi:

[f1isgood]

I really can't tell anything from that graph tbh ... 1.16 secs faster than the average pace over the rest of the tracks over a 3 season timespan.

It kinda feels like "One in 6 people has 5 other people around him/her".

I mean, I understand what they are trying to do here, but there was no 2022 race for starters, so is Qatar still being measured against 2022 track-times, or is it just 2023/2024 ?

In 2024 they had the Miami update that brought them forward, which means if you compare against way worse results from 2022 up until Mia 2024 it's gonna skew things.

McLaren was really strong at this track in 2023 as well. They took a big step forward from Austria onward that year, IIRC, but they were the only cars within 30 seconds of Max in Qatar (5-6 seconds back). They were also 2-3 in Japan (race before Qatar) in 2023 but were 20 seconds back. Qatar also had stint length maximums in 2023 I believe which might have negated some of Max's potential advantage.

Oscar even beat Max in the sprint in 2023.

McLaren made a car super good in high speed corners in 2023. They got a better balance with the Miami upgrade to become super good everywhere.

[AR3-GP]