McLaren’s 15-second blunder sets up an F1 championship showdown in Abu Dhabi – The Athletic
LUSAIL, Qatar — Sat alone on the sofa for the post-race FIA news conference after the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri cut a downcast figure.
He’d crossed the line second, keeping himself in contention to score a first Formula One world championship in next weekend’s season finale in Abu Dhabi. But he knew this was a race he could — and absolutely should — have won.
The press conference MC took a seat next to Piastri, who only perked up once the conversation turned to cricket and Australia’s demolition of England in the opening Ashes test. The wait for race winner Max Verstappen and third-place finisher Carlos Sainz went on, as they completed their other media duties much more slowly.
As he’d been the entire weekend, Piastri was quicker than his rivals. But biting his tongue while digesting such a galling defeat meant the TV interviews he’d conducted outside in the Qatar paddock were brief.
He’d said on his team radio on his cool-down lap immediately after the finish that he was “speechless” about what happened.
“Clearly, we didn’t get it right today, which is a shame because the whole weekend went very well,” Piastri said once the news conference had formally started. “We had a lot of pace. I felt like I drove well. It’s pretty painful.”
McLaren’s Las Vegas double disqualification hurt the team, but it had only snatched fourth place away from Piastri. This latest mistake denied him a likely victory.
A stunning strategy error by McLaren was to blame in Qatar, as its cars went from running first and third to crossing the line second and fourth.
Although Lando Norris still has a 12-point lead at the top of the drivers’ standings, by opening the door for Verstappen to win the race, the Dutchman — not Piastri — is now his closest title challenger.
The pressure on McLaren has ramped up significantly in Abu Dhabi. And it’s all thanks to its own mistake.
Qatar was meant to be a processional grand prix, where positions gained, maintained or lost on the opening lap would prove critical. The difficulty of overtaking on the fast track, plus the limited strategy options forced by Pirelli’s restriction of each set of tires to 25-lap maximum-length stints on safety grounds, promised little variety throughout the pack.
Oscar Piastri leads early in the 2025 Qatar GP (Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)
How the cars ended the first lap would more than likely be how they finished.
That would’ve suited McLaren just fine. Norris was passed by Verstappen for second on the run to Turn 1, but third place with Piastri winning would’ve given him a 12-point buffer at the top of the standings. Verstappen would’ve been 22 back, making it a serious long shot for him to upset the papaya party in Abu Dhabi.
But Lap 7 of 57 changed everything. A clash between Nico Hülkenberg and Pierre Gasly brought out the safety car, giving teams the chance to stop and significantly reduce pit-lane time. It also perfectly aligned for two further 25-lap stints, prompting every team to pit its cars for a tire change.
Every team except McLaren, which kept both Piastri and Norris out, and Haas, which waited one more lap before bringing in Esteban Ocon. Verstappen was down to third place, but with one pit stop complete and Ocon soon out of his way, he’d essentially gained 25 seconds on both McLarens.
“When I got told that everyone had pitted except for me, Lando and Ocon — and then Ocon pitted the next lap — I knew we were in some trouble,” Piastri admitted afterwards.
It was a blunder that would define McLaren’s race. Yes, it had the quicker car, with Piastri and Norris pulling over a second per lap on Verstappen early on after the subsequent restart. But as the tires started to wear, the picture became clear: there was just no way McLaren was going to win this race.
Verstappen knew it, too. “I thought at that moment that there was a big chance of winning it,” he said of when the McLarens didn’t pit under the safety car.
Instead, Piastri and Norris pitted on Laps 24 and 25, emerging in clear air just ahead of Fernando Alonso, but down in fourth and fifth.
Piastri’s superior pace was enough to vault him ahead of Carlos Sainz and Kimi Antonelli to get back to second after his second stop, which had been brought forward in a futile attempt to hunt down Verstappen at the front.
But Norris simply didn’t have the pace, toiling behind Antonelli after his second stop, before a late mistake by the Mercedes driver let him grab fourth on the penultimate lap.
“Thank you, Kimi,” Norris quipped as he left the Qatar media pen, the error giving him two precious extra points and a millimeter of extra breathing room at the top of the standings. A win in Qatar would have clinched the title, but he will still go to Abu Dhabi as the favorite with a 12-point buffer at the top.
But just how did McLaren, which has swept to a dominant constructors’ championship win this year, get it so wrong?
When the safety car came out, it had three choices: pit both Piastri and Norris, split their strategies, or leave them out. All options would come with some kind of cost for Norris, who was the trailing car of the two.
Had the McLarens pitted on the same lap, Norris would have been forced to wait behind Piastri in the pit box — known as ‘double stacking’ — and lost a few seconds that may have cost him some positions.
George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll all lost track position while waiting for their respective teammates at Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin to complete their stops. Although it would have hurt Norris a bit, it would have ensured Piastri kept the lead. Norris was also several seconds behind Piastri, which would’ve minimized any double-stack pain.
An alternative would’ve been to pit Piastri with everyone else on Lap 7, giving the Australian priority as the leading car on the track, and keeping Norris out. It would have been in the same difficult spot he ended up in, but at least a McLaren car would have kept the lead.
“I would have been had over either way,” Norris told reporters after the race, having asked McLaren on the radio why he didn’t follow Verstappen into the pits.
“We would have double-stacked, and potentially I would have lost time. A bit of time, maybe. I wouldn’t have lost a position, I don’t think. But yeah. (It’s) something we’ll go and talk about and review.”
Piastri knew the team was weighing up its options after not hearing about the decision to stay out until late in the lap.
“In that situation, you have to trust the team because they have a lot more information than the driver in the car — where gaps are and stuff like that,” Piastri said. “In that scenario, I have to trust what the team decides.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained after the race that the decision not to pit was fueled by concerns over traffic behind.
Given the difficulty in overtaking around the Lusail track, emerging from the pits stuck behind even a small train of cars could have hurt McLaren’s race, on the assumption that others would opt to stay out. The fact that the other nine teams did not caught McLaren out.
“We didn’t expect everyone else to pit obviously,” Stella said on Sky Sports. “Everyone else behind you pits, then it makes it definitely the right thing to do. Obviously, when you are the lead car, you don’t know exactly what the others are going to do. There could have been a loss for Lando in pitting, pitting both cars with the double stack.
“But effectively, the main reason was related to not expecting everyone else to pit. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t the correct decision.”
There is also the subtext of McLaren’s steadfast commitment through 2025 to ensure parity in their drivers’ opportunities to win this world championship. Keeping both drivers out may have looked like a move made with that in mind, but the priority had to be the team result.
“We got it wrong because we thought it was the right thing to do, not because we were concerned about what was fair or what was not,” said Piastri.
“I don’t think we need to change that approach. I think it yields a lot of positives. Yes, there are some tough moments, but there are also a lot of tough moments if you go in a different direction from that. I don’t think we need to change anything.”
It’s an approach that will face its toughest stress test heading into the Abu Dhabi finale. After the double disqualification in Las Vegas and this fumbling of the pit calls handed Verstappen back-to-back wins, Piastri has now slipped to third in the standings, 16 points behind Norris.
The disappointment of losing the victory would have weighed that much heavier on Piastri, knowing the points picture is also now far less favorable. With Verstappen in the picture, McLaren may have to intervene to ensure one of its drivers wins the title — and it would be Piastri who would be the one to be the team player.
That, of course, is hypothetical for now. Stella made clear to reporters that for now, nothing would change. “Between now and Abu Dhabi, there will be a further conversation with Lando and Oscar,” he explained.
“We will confirm our racing approach, but certainly what I can say is that if any of the drivers is in a condition to pursue the quest to win the title, then we will respect this.
“There will be no call that excludes the other driver when the other driver is in a condition to win.”
With one race to go, the championship dynamic has shifted once again, bringing Verstappen firmly back into the hunt. If he ends up snatching the title away in Abu Dhabi, it would complete what would surely be F1’s greatest championship comeback.
And if that happens, the call to not pit on Lap 7 in Qatar will come back to haunt McLaren.
