The Qatar Grand Prix provided the points we wanted but not the race we expected. So, how did our strategists cope with an unprecedented rule change for Formula 1?

Having scored podiums on both legs of our Asian double-header, and on two very different types of circuit, McLaren went to Qatar with high hopes… perhaps even high expectations. The Lusail Circuit was absolutely in the sweet-spot for the MCL60, which made the prospect of a Sprint weekend a double-edged sword…

On the one hand, an excellent chance to score heavily, on the other, a format filled with pitfalls: heat, our first night Sprint, a new, unknown track surface and a single practice session before the parc fermé specification freeze. Plenty there to miscalculate and plenty to go wrong.

It certainly looked difficult. The surface was slippery, and both drivers lost laps in Q3, relegating them to sixth and 10th on the grid, respectively, when both had the pace for a front-row start. But then came the bombshell: Pirelli’s routine inspection of FP1 tyres on Friday evening revealed areas of concern.

The teams were informed of potential life limits for tyres in Sunday’s Grand Prix… or possibly not, subject to a further investigation after the Sprint. Having pulled the track limit in by 80cm around the ultra-high speed T12-T14 right-hander, Pirelli were hopeful that the potential for damage had been negated. For the teams, with no clear indication one way or the other, this was unchartered territory.   

In association with FxPro and with exclusive insight from McLaren F1 Director of Strategy and Sporting Randy Singh, here’s how the Qatar Grand Prix unfolded…

The race in numbers

	Lando Norris	Oscar Piastri
Starting position	P10	P6
End of first lap	P6	P2
Average speed	P3	P2
Finishing position	229.938	229.724
Pit-stop #1	28.134 (12th of 54)	28.875 (31st)
Pit-stop #2	27.611 (4th) [1.8s stationary – WR]	27.868 (9th)
Pit-stop #3	27.677 (5th)	27.489 (1st)
Fastest Lap	1:24.842	1:24.921

The Tyres

Lando’s compound strategy: Used Mediums (13 laps remaining) > Used Mediums (14 laps remaining) > New Mediums (13 laps remaining) > New Hards (18 laps remaining)

Oscar’s compound strategy: Used Medium (14 laps remaining) > Used Medium (13 laps remaining) > New Medium (18 laps remaining) > New Hard (18 laps remaining)

 

The Strategy… in theory

Tough to tell what might have been without the tyre limits being imposed, but heavy usage of the Hard tyre in FP1 was indicative of teams looking at a one-stop race. The potential for a mandatory three-stopper will have given some pause for thought on Saturday morning, and may have influenced their tyre decisions for the Sprint – depending on what they’d used in FP1.

Certainly, everyone went into the race with sufficient mileage on their Hard and Medium compounds to complete the 57 laps without having to resort to using a Soft tyre. Eighteen lap limits placed on the tyres ensured everyone would have to do at least four stints. The two McLaren drivers had identical allocations of one new Hard and one new Medium, plus a Medium with 13 laps remaining and another with 14.

“Given when we heard about the changes to the race, we were certainly less prepared than would usually be the case – but after we received the information, we did an enormous amount of preparation, much more than we would normally do,” says Randy Singh, director of Strategy and Sporting.

“We had the key principles of how we were going to run the race sorted before our pre-race briefing on Sunday afternoon, but were still discussing the details and the finer points all the way up to the time when the cars were on the grid. The situation was a lot more fluid and less planned than a normal race, and I guess we were less refined with our thoughts – but I think the approach we took was fairly sensible.”

What really happened

Both drivers made excellent starts, avoiding the Mercedes collision and passing cars ahead of them, with Oscar gaining four places for P2, and Lando also gaining four places for P6.

Oscar went with Verstappen – without really threatening the race leader – and pulled out a sizeable gap on the chasing Alonso. He maintained a net P2 throughout the rest of the race.

Lando had good pace in the car and made up three more places in the race by using what free air he got to overcut Ocon and Alonso… but he also demonstrated the pace by passing Leclerc on track.

The strategy explained

A big decision for McLaren – and many others – was whether to use their new tyres at the start of the race, or save them for later. We opted to run our used tyres – with fewer laps available – at the start.

“We knew from Saturday [in the Sprint] that the car would be quick in the race and that was an important factor when we had to make the unusual choice of where to put our long stints,” says Randy. “We needed to put our long stints where we thought we’d likely be in free air, and so we wanted to keep them for later in the race.

“We also thought that would give us better protection for things like Safety Cars – because you’re more likely to be able to fit a long-stint tyre and get to the end without having to add another stop.”

Lando started the race on a Medium with 13 laps available, and Oscar one with 14, simply to avoid the potential for a double-shuffle pit-stop. “We split it purely so we wouldn’t have to box both cars on the same lap, if we decided to extend their stints to the maximum,” says Randy. “We then flipped those around for the second stints, with Lando onto his 13-lap tyre and Oscar his 14.”

The original plan for the team was to maximise those shorter stints to build-in a few more laps of flexibility later in the race, and use the free air when other cars pitted-off. Ultimately, however, Oscar’s first stint didn’t go the distance. He’d built up enough of a gap on Alonso in the opening laps to be relatively free of pressure. Lando, however, was embroiled in a tough fight with Ocon. Thus, the team decided to box Lando on Lap 13. Oscar could have gone to Lap 14, but the thinking was that this might be risky, and so he was bought in two laps early, on Lap 12.

Having had a chance to examine the tyres in the garage, the team were confident in maximising the second stint, and thus Oscar ran his full 13-lap allocation to Lap 25, and Lando did his full 14 laps to 27. Oscar then ran his full 18-lap stint on a new Medium and made his final pit-stop on Lap 43 for Hard tyres. Lando came in one lap later for his final stop on 44 to do the same.

Were tyre limits a help, or a hindrance?

Whenever the ground shifts beneath the feet at an F1 event, the first thought is: does this help us, or hinder us? Usually, this comes from a more mundane source – rain, Safety Cars, Red Flags – but the principle applies just as readily for Qatar’s unusual proscriptions on tyre use.

The MCL60 was very competitive at Lusail. And traditionally, if you have a car that’s going to run at the front in the normal course of events, the very last thing you want is to see that course diverted. On the other hand, the cars were out of position on the grid, and those are precisely the circumstances under which an atypical race often provides the best opportunities to recover ground. So, which way did the team lean at the weekend?

“Tricky,” says Randy. “Tricky to answer because, without these rules, you have more freedom in your strategy, particularly to extend stints. We were quick, and we were out-of-position, so I think having the greater flexibility of a ‘normal’ race would have helped us. It would have allowed us to deviate more, and build more free-air potential.

“On the other hand, the mandatory three-stops effectively created a lot of gaps in the race for free air. And that meant drivers could push more in every single stint, rather than having to manage their pace. We’re still analysing this – but at the moment, it’s really hard to say which of these factors is dominant and whether the change helped us or not.”

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