2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

[Gillian]

I think Gasly is one of the most underated drivers on the grid.

Btw, I think Norris will get pole today and become champion already tomorrow

As are all (ex-)Verstappen teammates.

[venkyhere]

The big question now is which McLaren will be taken out in T1-2 tomorrow, and what impact will the penalty Max will receive will have for Abu Dhabi.

What if both of them ? will that make you happy or sad ?

[Artur Craft]

As are all (ex-)Verstappen teammates.

I agree. Albon is also very good. Sainz has had more trouble this year than when he faced Leclerc (btw, what a spin he had!!!).

Hope we have a clean race tomorrow

[Tvetovnato]

The big question now is which McLaren will be taken out in T1-2 tomorrow, and what impact will the penalty Max will receive will have for Abu Dhabi.

What if both of them ? will that make you happy or sad ?

I am happy when there is clean racing. That is all I care about, so I hope to be proven wrong.

[Xaniesta]

Will be interesting if there will be clean start and if Max stays behind Lando 1-2 seconds. I would expect then RedBul to try with undercut, with earlier pit. At the same time Lando needs to think about Piastri also.

[venkyhere]

Will be interesting if there will be clean start and if Max stays behind Lando 1-2 seconds. I would expect then RedBul to try with undercut, with earlier pit. At the same time Lando needs to think about Piastri also.

No he doesn't. He just has to 'not lose a position' at the start and bring home the car in P2. Then just finish on the podium in AbuDhabi (where the McLaren will probably have 0.3-0.4 advantage on the second best car)

[Ben1980]

I think Oscar has to think more of Max than Lando.

[Vettel165]

Its not over until the fat lady sings it…

[f1isgood]

What do Oscar and Max have to lose? Very little and Nothing respectively.
For Oscar the only goal is to stay ahead of Lando. If he does that he has a chance. Otherwise his title is over.
For Max, the only goal is to try to stay ahead of Lando but he drives a much worse car - so it's even less in his hands so he has even less to lose.
All in all, Lando is the only person who has anything at all to lose.

It might be a boring finish but if Lando doesn't at least get P3 tomorrow, it can become pretty tense for him at Abu Dhabi.

[venkyhere]

I am going out on a limb here and say that Russel (I call him Osama) is going to play a pivotal role in tomorrow's result and decide how the WDC pans out - whether it's over in Qatar or whether it 's 2-way fight to AD or whether it's a 3-way fight to AD.

[Hammerfist]

I think the track is actually ok for racing it's just the damn cars that completely failed to deliver on the premise that they would be better at following in dirty air.. Hamilton, when he halfway still drove like the real Hamilton pulled off a move there a couple of years ago on Sainz and it was fun to watch that. If you can get close enough to the car in front you can compromise their line by getting halfway alongside and mug them in the following corner. The problem now is that all the downforce they've added to the cars since then have made the racing impossible and you just cannot get close at all. Especially with that 25 laps limit on the tires, noone will have a tire advantage so it just completely kills the race.

[search]

Final tire update:



Albon and Bearman returned a medium from SQ, so I guess those are cars that suffered from cuts. In the end it was a non issue.

Strategy suggestions:


https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... vf6sAvvhvG

I saw that former Sauber strategist Ruth Buscombe sends out a weekly strategy newsletter now. I know, Sauber talking strategies is like Isola doing a tire podcast, but here's what she thinks as well:

Most likely sequences are:
• Medium, Hard, Medium (M, H, M): the expected default — balances grip, endurance, and flexibility.
• Medium, Medium, Hard (M, M, H): possible if the team preserves both race Mediums, offering strong undercut power.
• Medium, Hard, Hard (M, H, H): conservative — viable if degradation spikes or if the team runs out of Mediums after Sprint duty. [not possible anymore]
• Soft, Medium, Medium (S, M, M): aggressive — possible from the midfield if someone wants to clear traffic early and undercut into clean air. A strategy that front-loads the risk for late-race gain.

[search]

According to Schmidt from AMuS, the FIA discussed an extension of the DRS zone back to 2023 level on Friday, but most teams were against it due to software and setup trouble coming with it.

[venkyhere]

Any idea how much is the pace delta needed to execute a DRS pass (when all are at similar DF levels) ? Any stat from 2024 ?

[marcel171281]

What do Oscar and Max have to lose? Very little and Nothing respectively.
For Oscar the only goal is to stay ahead of Lando. If he does that he has a chance. Otherwise his title is over.
For Max, the only goal is to try to stay ahead of Lando but he drives a much worse car - so it's even less in his hands so he has even less to lose.
All in all, Lando is the only person who has anything at all to lose.

It might be a boring finish but if Lando doesn't at least get P3 tomorrow, it can become pretty tense for him at Abu Dhabi.

The most rational thing for Norris to do is just drive, with no risk, behind Piastri. And if Verstappen has good speed, just let him go and make sure to finish P3. That way, he can do the exact same thing in AD and will be certain of the WDCC.

But, I think Norris is not going to do that, he is going to do the irrational and will fight Piastri and/or Verstappen, because he thinks he needs to show everyone he can win these races. And that will be, potentially, his biggest challenge. I think he will bottle it, by doing that.