Welcome to The Briefing, where you can get a jumpstart on the Qatar Grand Prix with our guide to the key topics.

Every race weekend, we’ll speak to one of our engineers to discuss the key talking points ahead of the upcoming Grand Prix and simplify them so that you can dive straight into the action with a better idea of what to expect and what you should be looking out for.

This week, powered by Google Cloud, Cédric Michel-Grosjean has joined us. This is only our third time racing in Qatar, and there’s been some changes this year, so there’s still lots to learn. Cédric will be explaining what these differences are and the impact of them, including the race’s new date and some alterations to the track. He’ll also be assessing the circuit’s Qualifying bias and our potential strategy options.

Here’s what we’ll be working on and what you need to know…

1. The impact of racing in Qatar at a different time of year

The penultimate Grand Prix weekend of the year is our final Sprint weekend of the year. This means we have just a single hour of practice to cram-in as much learning as we can. A lot has changed at Lusail since last year, so we have a lot to discover.

The first thing to note is that we’re coming to Qatar six weeks later in the year than we did in 2023. We’re expecting that to bring with it much cooler temperatures: perhaps 20-25°C, which would be 10-15 degrees cooler, so quite pleasant!

It’s also looking a bit less windy, but still significant – and the wind is perhaps more of a factor here than it is at other circuits. The track is uniquely open. The wind impacts every corner, with the looping layout meaning it’s constantly turning from headwind to tailing, to inside wind to outside wind. It all affects handling and balance.

2. There have been some changes to the track

Last year’s Qatar Grand Prix was heavily influenced by structural issues with the tyres, caused by impacts with the kerbs. To avoid that this year, the track has changed significantly. At many of the corner exits, the kerb height has been reduced from 50mm down to approximately half that.

Gravel strips behind the kerbs have also been added at many of the exits to minimise track limit infringements. There are still a couple of corners where track limits are still a risk, because they haven’t added the gravel, so that’s something for the drivers to learn, as they try to maximise the track width.  

3. Deciding on our setup

Because the track is quite smooth, and most of the corners are quite similar, we’re pretty much fixed on the setup we want to run. The only thing we might look at is how to protect against graining on continuous laps. Obviously coming out of Las Vegas, this is a bit of a talking point, but Qatar is a different sort of track, with the duty cycle of the tyres very different. It’s still going to be a problem though, and we’ll look at ways to help with that.

We’ll be running a high-downforce rear wing, and the car will be set up with high-roll stiffness, and will also be quite stiff in heave. The main point of interest for setup will be how we trade rear ride height with bottoming or grounding, and plank contact in Turns 12 and 13. That’s going to be a bit twitchy for the drivers if we’re too low.

4. Planning for the circuit’s Qualifying bias

There is a pronounced Qualifying bias at this circuit, and more so this year with the sole DRS zone reduced by 100m compared to 2023. And, being a Sprint weekend, we need to develop run plans for Qualifying sessions on both the Soft and Medium compound tyres. What we saw last year was that a second-push lap on a Medium tyre was often quicker – but on a Soft tyre it wasn’t so obvious.

Second push laps on the Soft were tricky, because the tyres started to grain. They still had potential to be quicker – if the graining was kept under control. We’ll want to understand as much as we can about whether the situation is the same this year, or if we’re facing a different challenge.

5. One stop, two stop or three stops?

We’re also interested in how the tyres will perform in the race. The limitations on tyre-use imposed before last year’s Grand Prix required everyone to do a three-stop race. In normal running, we’d expect this to be a two-stop race – but if the track is very good, and there isn’t any graining, it might be a one-stop. In this regarding, the Sprint will be an important opportunity to learn about the tyres for the race – because the amount of time available in practice makes it very difficult to do a proper, high-fuel run – though we’ll still be keen to learn what we can.

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