2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

For ease of use, there is one thread per grand prix where you can discuss everything during that specific GP weekend. You can find these threads here.
f1isgood
f1isgood
4
Joined: 31 Oct 2022, 19:52
Location: Continental Europe

Re: 2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

Post

basti313 wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 14:04
mzso wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 13:27
Badger wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 23:34

-309 OP
-275 LN
-205 MV
-185 GR

Max has outscored OP and LN by 108 and 58 points respectively... in 8 races... against a dominant car.
It wasn't eve a dominant car. It was a faster car. Earlier in the year. Nowadays depending how set-ups turn out it's either slightly faster or slightly slower than the Red Bull.
chrisc90 wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 23:34
Yeah, that’s just insane. Especially given the dominance of the Mclaren.
The last time McLaren was dominant was in the 80s. The last time an F1 car was dominant was in 2023, the Red Bull.
Strange comment. McLaren owned completely the first half of the season until Monza. With two good drivers and decent strategies, this could have been only 1-2 finishes excluding Kanada and even in Kanada one needs to ask the question what would have been possible without fumbling Q3.
Same, not only faster, but dominant pace they held in Maxico, Brazil and Qatar, but fumbled with at least one car in all of these. Especially Qatar showed this in the first stint, they gapped the competition on older tires by a large margin.

I think it is simply wrong to talk down this car. This is clearly one of the best cars in F1 history, clearly the best of this rule set.

I think the McLaren car has no weaknesses with how well-balanced it is. Even the RB19 had weaknesses and was simply off pace at Singapore. Not a single race did the McLaren car not have pace to at least get a P2.
Call a spade, a spade.

basti313
basti313
28
Joined: 22 Feb 2014, 14:49

Re: 2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

Post

f1isgood wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 14:05
basti313 wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 14:04
mzso wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 13:27


It wasn't eve a dominant car. It was a faster car. Earlier in the year. Nowadays depending how set-ups turn out it's either slightly faster or slightly slower than the Red Bull.



The last time McLaren was dominant was in the 80s. The last time an F1 car was dominant was in 2023, the Red Bull.
Strange comment. McLaren owned completely the first half of the season until Monza. With two good drivers and decent strategies, this could have been only 1-2 finishes excluding Kanada and even in Kanada one needs to ask the question what would have been possible without fumbling Q3.
Same, not only faster, but dominant pace they held in Maxico, Brazil and Qatar, but fumbled with at least one car in all of these. Especially Qatar showed this in the first stint, they gapped the competition on older tires by a large margin.

I think it is simply wrong to talk down this car. This is clearly one of the best cars in F1 history, clearly the best of this rule set.

I think the McLaren car has no weaknesses with how well-balanced it is. Even the RB19 had weaknesses and was simply off pace at Singapore. Not a single race did the McLaren car not have pace to at least get a P2.
Yes, I agree with that. But that goes more into the "fastest car" discussion. I think the sign of utter dominance is if you can finish the races easily 1-2 and just limit your pace by what is needed like Lando did in Mex.
The 23 RedBull in this regard is interesting. First half of the season it was dominant (and/or had no competition, first 8 races we had an Aston 7 times on the podium!?!), second half it reached a point where Perez could not drive it anymore. Complete difference to today, where they drive the McLaren at maximum pace without a single wobble.
Don`t russel the hamster!

Badger
Badger
3
Joined: 22 Sep 2025, 17:00

Re: 2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

Post

mzso wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 13:27
Badger wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 23:34
chrisc90 wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 23:26
I’d love to see a post summer break table of F1 points.

How McLaren have effectively thrown it away (the haven’t as Norris likely to be WDC in AD) but the amount of errors, strategy and team decisions has cost him wrapping the WDC up about 4 races prior.
-309 OP
-275 LN
-205 MV
-185 GR

Max has outscored OP and LN by 108 and 58 points respectively... in 8 races... against a dominant car.
It wasn't eve a dominant car. It was a faster car. Earlier in the year. Nowadays depending how set-ups turn out it's either slightly faster or slightly slower than the Red Bull.
chrisc90 wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 23:34
Yeah, that’s just insane. Especially given the dominance of the Mclaren.
The last time McLaren was dominant was in the 80s. The last time an F1 car was dominant was in 2023, the Red Bull.
It's a dominant car vs a dominant driver, it evens out the results slightly. McLaren could have had 20+ wins this year if their execution was top notch from the drivers and strategy.

ToffeeTyres
ToffeeTyres
0
Joined: 09 Jun 2024, 11:54

Re: 2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

Post

Lando and Piastri just aren’t top tier drivers. They could have wrapped the drivers championship way earlier. Pit strategy has been rubbish they always have been rubbish. Their car has been dominant and compliant on nearly if not every race track they’ve been at. The drivers just aren’t great they should have won way more

User avatar
Artur Craft
40
Joined: 05 Feb 2010, 15:50

Re: 2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

Post

mzso wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 13:23
Artur Craft wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 22:24
AR3-GP wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 22:11
Unlucky? He's driving an MCL39.
So what? Every season someone gets to drive the best car and Mclaren is nowhere near as dominant as Mercedes, for instance, from 2014-2021. Without his car failure on Netherlands, Lando would have been champion already. Oscar would be a horrible champion, he doesn´t deserve it
He did far more than Norris this year for it, Norris was just blundering around for 3/4 of the season...
Not to say that, I'm particularly impressed by either of them. I think there are 5-6 better drivers on the grid.
So, Oscar "did far more" and Norris is still far ahead despite a car failure that Piastri didn´t have.

I´m still not quite sure why there is so much "love" for Piastri and/or hatred for Norris. Anyway, I´m happy he has the lowest chances

fourmula1
fourmula1
0
Joined: 16 Nov 2021, 23:22

Re: 2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

Post

How do you not give 100% priority to your leading WDC driver with 2-3 races left with the 2nd/3rd tied for points. The money and advertising from a WDC....if they lose it would be a massive leadership failure. Mclaren getting hate for not being fair to their drivers is insanity. No other team has tried to be this "fair" in recent history. If they prioritized one driver all season it would have been case closed....domination of points. Instead they split the points evenly between their drivers. Its just crazy from a business point of view.

ToffeeTyres
ToffeeTyres
0
Joined: 09 Jun 2024, 11:54

Re: 2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

Post

Artur Craft wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 16:12
mzso wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 13:23
Artur Craft wrote:
30 Nov 2025, 22:24

So what? Every season someone gets to drive the best car and Mclaren is nowhere near as dominant as Mercedes, for instance, from 2014-2021. Without his car failure on Netherlands, Lando would have been champion already. Oscar would be a horrible champion, he doesn´t deserve it
He did far more than Norris this year for it, Norris was just blundering around for 3/4 of the season...
Not to say that, I'm particularly impressed by either of them. I think there are 5-6 better drivers on the grid.
I´m still not quite sure why there is so much "love" for Piastri and/or hatred for Norris. Anyway, I´m happy he has the lowest chances
Norris isn’t very likeable that could be why. If he wins this years drivers championship it will go to his head guarantee it. Piastri wouldn’t change what you see is what you get Norris seems fake big headed and with the car that he has should already be champion but he’s just not top tier neither is Piastri.

ToffeeTyres
ToffeeTyres
0
Joined: 09 Jun 2024, 11:54

Re: 2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

Post

ToffeeTyres wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 16:26
Artur Craft wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 16:12
mzso wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 13:23

He did far more than Norris this year for it, Norris was just blundering around for 3/4 of the season...
Not to say that, I'm particularly impressed by either of them. I think there are 5-6 better drivers on the grid.
I´m still not quite sure why there is so much "love" for Piastri and/or hatred for Norris. Anyway, I´m happy he has the lowest chances
Norris isn’t very likeable that could be why. If he wins this years drivers championship it will go to his head guarantee it. Piastri wouldn’t change what you see is what you get Norris seems fake big headed and with the car that he has should already be champion but he’s just not top tier neither is Piastri. Would prefer Piastri to win it. Max and Lando take each other out at the finale

basti313
basti313
28
Joined: 22 Feb 2014, 14:49

Re: 2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

Post

Artur Craft wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 16:12
So, Oscar "did far more" and Norris is still far ahead despite a car failure that Piastri didn´t have.
I think it might be the trajectory: From a rookie year he developed upwards to delivering really nice, solid qualifying results and clearly solved/improved his tire wear issues.
He was also just unlucky in Oz, that he got stuck and Lando did not. Taking this away, Oscar showed a very good first half of the season, impressive, while Lando did not impress at all in my point of view.
Oscar just could not handle wind and low grip.
Artur Craft wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 16:12
I´m still not quite sure why there is so much "love" for Piastri and/or hatred for Norris. Anyway, I´m happy he has the lowest chances
Well, Norris feels like Button in the Brawn. Just lucky to be a very good Nr2 driver sitting in the fastest car without a Nr1 driver next to him. So I totally get the point of "love" for the underdog in this scenario.
Don`t russel the hamster!

User avatar
Artur Craft
40
Joined: 05 Feb 2010, 15:50

Re: 2025 Qatar Grand Prix - Lusail, Nov 28 - 30

Post

fourmula1 wrote:
01 Dec 2025, 16:18
How do you not give 100% priority to your leading WDC driver with 2-3 races left with the 2nd/3rd tied for points. The money and advertising from a WDC....if they lose it would be a massive leadership failure. Mclaren getting hate for not being fair to their drivers is insanity. No other team has tried to be this "fair" in recent history. If they prioritized one driver all season it would have been case closed....domination of points. Instead they split the points evenly between their drivers. Its just crazy from a business point of view.
Fully agree. Oscar´s fans are pushing this narrative of Mclaren favouring Norris but they have been, actually , quite fair to both. Isn´t that what people were complaining about when Ferrari favoured Schumacher, Alonso and Vettel or Mercedes with Hamilton?!