Over a championship season spanning 22 rounds across 20 nations and almost every major continent on the planet, how ill-fitting it is that Max Verstappen should be crowned as 2023 champion in front of the smallest assembled crowd of the year after a 19-lap Saturday sprint race.
Much like the sun setting over the desert, Verstappen’s victory was an inevitability. Yet after one of the most dominant seasons in Formula 1’s history, Verstappen’s coronation as a three-times world champion did not take place in front of the eclectic crowds of Suzuka, over 100,000 people in Austin or in the unique atmosphere of the Foro Sol stadium in Mexico City, but in the Qatari desert.But sealing the deal as far as the title was never the focus for the new champion. From the moment he landed in Qatar, Verstappen’s eyes have always been on Sunday’s grand prix – and ensuring he can celebrate his title with his 14th victory of 2023.
“Of course, I know that if I win or whatever I achieve on Saturday, then you win the championship,” he told media including RaceFans on Thursday. “But I think we’re very focussed on the main job anyway.”
“I always keep saying that once we do a sprint race, you will get the big picture anyway for the main race,” Verstappen explained. “So you know more or less already ‘ah well, this car is going to be really good in the race, the other one’s going to drop back’. So it takes a little bit of the excitement away.”
Having clinched the title with a second place in the sprint race, Verstappen will be in a stronger position to win on Sunday by starting from pole position. But rather than the two McLarens lining up ahead of him like Saturday’s sprint, Verstappen will have two Mercedes behind him thanks to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both failing to keep within the lines in Friday’s qualifying session.
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Typically, there would be intense intrigue for the grand prix due to the volume of Verstappen’s rivals out of position on the grid. McLaren are clearly the closest to the Red Bull driver around Losail – as their Saturday showing demonstrated – but Piastri and Norris will start down in sixth and tenth, respectively, as penance for their track limits offences. Similarly, Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Ferrari will be forced to make its way up the order from 12th on the grid, with Verstappen’s hapless team mate Sergio Perez starting one place further back from Sainz after yet another frustrating qualifying session.
As a result, the 19 laps of the sprint race would typically offer the best indication of how much of a challenge the Mercedes duo may be able to offer to Verstappen over the 57 laps of the grand prix. However, the split in strategies between the McLaren drivers and Verstappen on mediums and Russell opting to race on the soft tyres, as well as the multiple Safety Cars, make direct comparisons difficult to make.
After starting down in 12th place, Lewis Hamilton was able to rise up to fifth by the chequered flag, behind Russell, after finding a way by both of the Ferraris. That suggests that with their likely faster cars, Norris and Piastri will be able to make progress up the order on Sunday. However, Hamilton’s rise was largely assisted by five of the cars he moved ahead of during the race having soft tyres, which faded as the race progressed and made those drivers vulnerable to him.
On Sunday, there’s likely to be much less variability between the compounds that drivers run through the race, as McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained.
“I think we have to be realistic that today we saw so much overtaking because there was a disparity of compounds,” Stella explained after the sprint race. “I don’t think this will be the case tomorrow. So starting P6 and P10, we have quite a lot of work ahead of us and we are realistic that it will be difficult to repeat such an important result like today.”
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Stella also believes that it is unlikely the soft rubber will feature much during the grand prix.
“Today’s sprint was actually very important to see how the tyres behave, what kind of length of the stint you can afford, how the medium tyres behave,” Stella said. “I don’t think we will see many soft tyres tomorrow, so I think that’s what we’ve learned.”
“During our usual analysis last night after free practice, we discovered that some tyres that had done 20 or more laps were showing signs of micro lacerations in the sidewall, between the topping compound and the carcass cords,” explained Pirelli’s motorsport director, Mario Isola. “This was most likely caused by the impact generated by repeatedly going over the kerbs at some corners, especially turns 12 and 13.
“Looking ahead to tomorrow, it is not worth speculating about strategies, given that we must wait for the outcome of our ongoing analysis and then see if this has any regulatory effect on how the race will be run.”
For now, it’s unknown what Pirelli’s analysis from the second day of running on a revised track will reveal about the health of their tyres. Frustratingly for the tyre supplier, the multiple Safety Car interruptions in the sprint race limited the data they could collect when only nine of the 19 laps of the sprint were completed under full green flag conditions.
Discussions between the teams and Pirelli will take place at 2pm local time today. Should the FIA decide it is in the interests of safety to limit maximum stint lengths, that could have a major impact on the outcome of the grand prix. With just 12 sets of dry tyres for each driver over a sprint race weekend and three competitive sessions already in the books, there are many drivers who simply do not have the fresh sets available to make a viable three stop strategy work without being forced to run old soft tyres or even make a fourth stop – including Saturday’s winner Piastri.
But whatever rules are devised, it’s difficult to foresee Mercedes being able to offer the challenge to Verstappen that both Russell and Hamilton would ideally want to. And with Russell admitting that he likely would have finished behind Piastri and Norris even had he started on medium tyres, it seems that Mercedes may have more to worry about with the McLarens behind them, rather than the likes of Fernando Alonso or Charles Leclerc.
“The main thing is staying out of harm’s way the first few laps,” said Norris. “We have the pace.
“We want to score good points. I think we have pace to be on the podium but whether we can do it or not from P10 is going to be the question. So, it’s a long race, we don’t know what rules and stuff Pirelli are going to make us do with the tyres and things like that yet, but we’ll find out soon.”
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Qualifying times in full
| P. | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 (v Q1) | Q3 (v Q2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1’25.007 | 1’24.483 (-0.524s) | 1’23.778 (-0.705s) |
| 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1’25.334 | 1’24.827 (-0.507s) | 1’24.219 (-0.608s) |
| 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’26.076 | 1’24.381 (-1.695s) | 1’24.305 (-0.076s) |
| 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 1’25.223 | 1’25.241 (+0.018s) | 1’24.369 (-0.872s) |
| 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’25.452 | 1’25.079 (-0.373s) | 1’24.424 (-0.655s) |
| 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1’25.266 | 1’24.724 (-0.542s) | 1’24.540 (-0.184s) |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 1’25.566 | 1’24.918 (-0.648s) | 1’24.553 (-0.365s) |
| 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1’25.711 | 1’24.928 (-0.783s) | 1’24.763 (-0.165s) |
| 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 1’26.038 | 1’25.297 (-0.741s) | 1’25.058 (-0.239s) |
| 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1’25.131 | 1’24.685 (-0.446s) | |
| 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1’26.058 | 1’25.301 (-0.757s) | Missed by 0.004s |
| 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1’25.808 | 1’25.328 (-0.480s) | Missed by 0.031s |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1’25.991 | 1’25.462 (-0.529s) | Missed by 0.165s |
| 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 1’26.118 | 1’25.707 (-0.411s) | Missed by 0.410s |
| 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 1’25.904 | 1’25.783 (-0.121s) | Missed by 0.486s |
| 2 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 1’26.210 | Missed by 0.092s | |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1’26.345 | Missed by 0.227s | |
| 40 | Liam Lawson | AlphaTauri | 1’26.635 | Missed by 0.517s | |
| 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1’27.046 | Missed by 0.928s | |
| 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 1’27.432 | Missed by 1.314s |
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Sector times
| P. | # | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate lap (deficit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | 30.791 (1) | 28.536 (7) | 24.451 (1) | 1’23.778 |
| 2 | 4 | Lando Norris | 30.959 (2) | 28.441 (2) | 24.524 (3) | 1’23.924 (+0.761) |
| 3 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | 30.994 (3) | 28.508 (5) | 24.635 (4) | 1’24.137 (+0.403) |
| 4 | 63 | George Russell | 31 (4) | 28.459 (3) | 24.705 (7) | 1’24.164 (+0.055) |
| 5 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | 31.022 (5) | 28.437 (1) | 24.796 (8) | 1’24.255 (+0.050) |
| 6 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | 31.075 (6) | 28.832 (12) | 24.462 (2) | 1’24.369 |
| 7 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | 31.165 (7) | 28.515 (6) | 24.692 (6) | 1’24.372 (+0.052) |
| 8 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | 31.241 (8) | 28.47 (4) | 24.842 (10) | 1’24.553 |
| 9 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | 31.321 (9) | 28.614 (9) | 24.688 (5) | 1’24.623 (+0.140) |
| 10 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | 31.433 (11) | 28.605 (8) | 25.02 (14) | 1’25.058 |
| 11 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 31.476 (12) | 28.828 (11) | 24.925 (12) | 1’25.229 (+0.099) |
| 12 | 11 | Sergio Perez | 31.409 (10) | 29.001 (15) | 24.865 (11) | 1’25.275 (+0.187) |
| 13 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | 31.583 (14) | 28.905 (14) | 24.809 (9) | 1’25.297 (+0.004) |
| 14 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | 31.798 (16) | 28.72 (10) | 24.952 (13) | 1’25.470 (+0.313) |
| 15 | 23 | Alexander Albon | 31.595 (15) | 28.885 (13) | 25.024 (15) | 1’25.504 (+0.203) |
| 16 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | 31.931 (17) | 29.098 (16) | 25.096 (16) | 1’26.125 (+0.085) |
| 17 | 18 | Lance Stroll | 31.543 (13) | 29.526 (20) | 25.276 (18) | 1’26.345 |
| 18 | 40 | Liam Lawson | 32.007 (18) | 29.318 (18) | 25.188 (17) | 1’26.513 (+0.122) |
| 19 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | 32.216 (19) | 29.278 (17) | 25.552 (20) | 1’27.046 |
| 20 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | 32.601 (20) | 29.335 (19) | 25.496 (19) | 1’27.432 |
Speed trap
| P. | # | Driver | Car | Engine | Model | Max kph (mph) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | Mercedes | AMR23 | 324.0 (201.3) |
| 2 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | Mercedes | AMR23 | 322.8 (200.6) |
| 3 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | Mercedes | FW45 | 321.7 (199.9) |
| 4 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | Honda RBPT | RB19 | 321.6 (199.8) |
| 5 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | Ferrari | SF-23 | 321.3 (199.6) |
| 6 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | Mercedes | W14 | 321.1 (199.5) |
| 7 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | Mercedes | MCL60 | 320.6 (199.2) |
| 8 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams | Mercedes | FW45 | 320.5 (199.1) |
| 9 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | Honda RBPT | RB19 | 320.5 (199.1) |
| 10 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | Ferrari | VF-23 | 320.3 (199.0) |
| 11 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | Mercedes | MCL60 | 319.9 (198.8) |
| 12 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | Ferrari | VF-23 | 319.5 (198.5) |
| 13 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | Ferrari | SF-23 | 319.3 (198.4) |
| 14 | 40 | Liam Lawson | AlphaTauri | Honda RBPT | AT04 | 318.2 (197.7) |
| 15 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | Renault | A523 | 317.4 (197.2) |
| 16 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | Mercedes | W14 | 317.1 (197.0) |
| 17 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | Renault | A523 | 316.9 (196.9) |
| 18 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | Honda RBPT | AT04 | 316.2 (196.5) |
| 19 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | C43 | 314.4 (195.4) |
| 20 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | C43 | 313.5 (194.8) |
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Over to you
What can the McLaren drivers recover from their compromised starting positions? Is anything likely to keep Verstappen from another win?
Share your views on the Qatar Grand Prix in the comments.
2023 Qatar Grand Prix
- Albon fears Qatar GP conditions risked creating dangerous “wet bulb effect”
- Alonso: New-spec fireproofs and pre-race anthem timing made Qatar heat worse
- Magnussen admits he took “too long to learn” Losail circuit
- Analysis: Sargeant’s Qatar radio reveals his painful struggle to end point-less run
- Alfa Romeo ‘finally understand their upgrade’ Bottas believes as team target Williams
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
8th October 2023, 6:56
Curious to see how this race is affected by safety cars, which for some reason are shown even for a simple car in the gravel which used to be double waved yellows at best.
Very safe way to do a Crashgate…
Jere (@jerejj)
8th October 2023, 11:19
A car stuck in gravel wouldn’t cause a full SC caution if it could get recovered without a recovery vehicle entering the runoff areas.
Simon
8th October 2023, 23:07
Number 7, Lucky seven
MichaelN
8th October 2023, 11:54
I’m surprised that Monaco’s and Zandvoort’s excellent mega-cranes haven’t been replicated elsewhere. They can lift those cars out in no time from pretty much everywhere. It’s great stuff.
If F1 doesn’t want to bring back enforcement of yellow flags, which is always preferable, then the cranes offer a much better solution that messing about with recovery vehicles the run off and then ruining the strategic element of races with frequent safety cars.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
8th October 2023, 13:21
I hope more than 50% of laps are at racing speed this time!
PacificPR (@streydt)
8th October 2023, 7:30
Maybe it’s better to cancel the main event. I mean we had some fun yesterday and it probably won’t get any better – the champion is crowned, so let’s move on to some proper tracks.
Facts&Stats
8th October 2023, 10:15
The track itself is quite good, but the sand off line ruins it a bit.
Jimmy Cliff
8th October 2023, 8:28
“ Hamilton’s rise was largely assisted by five of the cars he moved ahead of during the race having soft tyres, which faded as the race progressed and made those drivers vulnerable to him.”
The rise was largely assisted by 3 cars ahead of him disappeared in 1 corner – Lewis would never have been able to overtake the Ferrari’s if that didn’t happen as he would have lost time to try and overtake these 3 cars with Perez and Hulkenberg both on mediums.
Before it happened Lewis was 11th then 8th, after the restart he was 9th 1.8 seconds behind Sainz. The 5 soft tire cars in front of him then started to drop pace still it took Lewis till start of lap 17 to pass Gasly.
Luckily for Lewis the gap to 5th was just 1.2 seconds with nearly 3 laps to go and those ahead running on aging sliding softs.
Despite the Ferrari’s fighting with each other, a massive grip advantage and trying a Max Austin 2018 move didn’t get passed Leclerc till the start/finish straight.
Sainz sliding wide half way through the final lap opened the door for Lewis to take 5th but finishing 6.3 seconds behind his team mate on softs in just 5 laps after the restart.
Electroball76
8th October 2023, 9:57
If a component failure or a racing incident takes Max out of the race then it will be even more of a damb squib.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
8th October 2023, 13:20
Really? Would it not generate excitement for a legitimate lead battle for a change?
You must have hated Singapore!
kuvemar
8th October 2023, 9:58
Ah yes, the mistery of the Sunday. Will Magnussen win the GP? Will Verstappen struggle to reach P19? Will Seargant lap the field? Imagine how exciting it would be without the sprints. We would have suprises left and right, people sitting in front of their TVs not believing their eyes. There would be celebrations in the streets. Maybe somehow Vettel would’ve been crowned champion today if it wasn’t for those sprints.
Because you’d never know what to expect.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
8th October 2023, 10:51
The McLarens are stuffed as they’re in even-numbered grid slots.
Surely Qatar can afford to provide a clean, fair starting grid that’s fit for purpose?
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
8th October 2023, 13:22
More likely one that’s sandy in both sides, for equal disadvantage!
MichaelN
8th October 2023, 10:54
Although it’d be a big embarrassment to F1, perhaps a directive on strategy is just what it needs to push things out of this pretense that it’s all fine.
F1 desperately needs a new approach to its tyres.
S
8th October 2023, 11:16
I’d suggest that F1 needs (and would benefit far more from) a new approach to what actually causes the tyres to be so stressed in the first place.
Cut the downforce.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th October 2023, 11:18
What can the McLaren drivers recover from their compromised starting positions?
– I reckon P4-P6 range, or even P3 for one of them.
Is anything likely to keep Verstappen from another win? – No.
Coventry Climax
8th October 2023, 12:14
This track is as inviting as a stainless steel urinal. Only when you really need to go, you go.
Its surface is fit for a speed skating match.
Its curbs demolish the floors and tyres.
You can keep track of the numbers of visitors on an abacus.
But they pay good money to have it.
Coventry Climax
8th October 2023, 12:29
So I read here that if the FiA decides that the teams have to do a minimum of three pitstops, there are teams that don’t have enough tyres left, and are forced to run old softs.
That makes it a downright ridiculous option, as having to run used tyres is exactly the same as running longer stints.
Unless Pirelli convinced the FiA of yet another tale and how their tyres fairies magically repair them overnight.
When I turn on my TV later on today, to find out they have come up with this, I’ll likely switch it off again. For the first time in some 50 years.
Michael
8th October 2023, 13:29
If the limit is 20 laps even 19 laps as per the sprint they only need 2 stops.
Yamamato
8th October 2023, 13:04
But with Lewis in the clean side it’s very possible he does a Silverstone again.
So do not count him out yet
PlosslF1
8th October 2023, 13:19
I doubt it, I think he learnt the hard way that you dont shut the door on Lewis when the corner is lost at 150mph+…. :)
Yamamato
8th October 2023, 15:26
Interesting to see how reality distortion works in real world.
It was Lewis who attacked max, not the other way around.
He should have received a black flag for it!
F1 Fan
8th October 2023, 17:30
Trying to reason with some here is basically pointless. They don’t understand basics of racing and would literally jump from a building should Lewis tell them to. When you have a cult like following it is basically game over.
This unironically applies to even reporters who can’t see past their biases not so much on this motorsport website but elsewhere.
Humans are inherently biased but with logic and reasoning one would expect would help the deluded get a clearer picture. But unfortunately that never happens.
PlosslF1
8th October 2023, 17:45
Lewis was almost side by side going into the corner, hence some of the blame was placed upon Max as he turned into a corner while Lewis was there…. It was a racing incident that somehow got turned into an assassination plot.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
8th October 2023, 13:26
A cynic might say that it was a perfect way for the elite few who contribute more financially to this international circus to reap their rewards and exposure.
In the most anticlimactic championship in living memory, in a few years time, no one will remember where this title was secured or how!