Three safety cars, a veritable smorgasbord of penalties, and a series of surprise results all defined this year’s trip to the Losail circuit: a featureless expanse in the Qatari desert that has inexplicably become a favourite among the drivers. The racing might have been a little stilted at the front in the opening half of the race, but it only needed Alex Albon’s displaced wing mirror to set off a chain of events that delighted and dismayed in equal measure.
The subsequent fallout from Sunday’s race made everyone question if there had truly been a sprint race at all this weekend, as the McLarens had controlled everything so well in Saturday’s 19-lap affair that it never really got going. Indeed, the Woking squad had let its grasp slip overnight; its perceived constructors’ championship match point did not last by the time night had fallen ahead of the grand prix.
Even after the dust had settled on the race, the paddock’s hum of activity continued; a flurry of late-season driver dealing here, publicly aired grievances there. Familiarity breeds contempt and, with such a long season, everybody is sick and tired of each other. Here’s what we learned from this weekend’s proceedings in Qatar.
1. Verstappen and Red Bull’s night-shifters are second to none
From anonymous in the sprint, Red Bull turned things around for Verstappen to set the fastest time in qualifying and win the Grand Prix
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
It’s not the first time this season that Red Bull has had more than a few loads of washing to iron out overnight. As far back as May, the team was short on pace during Imola’s practice sessions, and needed to dust off Sebastien Buemi for a stint in the simulator to understand why it had missed the mark.
Indeed, after Qatar’s sprint race in which Max Verstappen trundled to an eighth-place finish, it appeared that the RB20 had a comparable level of speed and dynamism as a splodge of clotted cream on a slide. Indeed, Christian Horner relayed that the team had thrown “the kitchen sink” at sorting the car out between the sprint race and qualifying for the grand prix, a turnaround that offered pole (until George Russell got involved, that is…).
Part of the issue was in firing up the tyres in cooler conditions, which led to the drivers struggling with the overall balance between the front and the rear.
From there, Verstappen pressed home the advantage that his reconfigured chariot had conferred upon him. Aside…
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