Red Bull’s podium act pours salt into McLaren wounds after Qatar GP
McLaren paid the ultimate price over a botched strategy call with rival Red Bull adding to their misery with one provocative move.
McLaren’s self-inflicted nightmare in Qatar didn’t get much better following the chequered flag, with Red Bull pouring salt into their wounds on the podium.
The Woking-based outfit botched a potential double podium by making a monumental blunder on lap seven of the race on Monday (AEDT).
Following a safety car, the team elected not to pit their drivers despite a mandatory two-stop pit-stop being implemented by tyre manufacturer Pirelli.
The decision backfired instantly with every other driver diving into the pits and leaving egg all over the face of the McLaren pit wall.
The call all but handed the race victory to Max Verstappen, with Piastri unable to chase down the Dutchman in the latter stages of the race.
Red Bull, however, wasn’t content enough with the victory and decided to get a parting shot in before the season finale.
After every race, a member from the winning team stands on the podium to collect a trophy on behalf of the constructor.
Red Bull sent Hannah Schmitz, principal strategy engineer. Schmitz was the one who made the call to pit Verstappen when McLaren elected to stay out.
Hard not to see that as just a little dig at their rivals.
Verstappen was sitting second at the time, sandwiched between Piastri and Norris, when the safety car came out onto the Losail Circuit.
As the grid piled up behind the safety car, the realisation of the mistake began to sink in with Norris questioning the team on the decision to stay out.
“We should’ve just followed him in, no? If we knew the car ahead was staying out,” Norris asked.
But McLaren were defiant at the time they’d made the right call with race engineer Will Joseph saying: “They have lost all of their flexibility for the remainder of the race.”
Come the chequered flag, and the already questionable call looked even worse with Piastri crossing second while Norris escaped with a lucky fourth.
McLaren boss Zak Brown then admitted the team got it horribly wrong.
It means the three-way race for the drivers’ championship is wide open ahead of the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Norris heads into the 24th and final race of the season on 408 points, 12 ahead of Verstappen on 396 and 16 ahead of Piastri on 392. All three drivers have won seven races each this season, and it all comes down to the last race of the season.
As it stands, Verstappen can win the title if he wins in Abu Dhabi and Norris comes fourth — if Norris finishes on the podium, he’ll have done enough to claim his maiden drivers’ championship.
To become champion, Piastri needs to win the race and for Norris to DNF, or finish sixth or lower.
The scenario has once again cast McLaren’s “papaya rules” into the spotlight with team principal Andrea Stella adamant they wouldn’t favour one driver for the final race.
“In terms of adapting the way we go racing, we just want to always keep options for both drivers,” Stella said.
“They are both in condition to win the championship. There’s often been a situation where the third driver wins the championship. I remember 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen, the same in 2010 with Sebastian Vettel.
“We have to respect Oscar has his chance to win and we will let them race.”
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will take place next weekend with coverage of the final race starting from 11pm (AEDT) on Sunday, December 7.
Originally published as Red Bull’s podium act pours salt into McLaren wounds after Qatar GP
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