{"id":311678,"date":"2025-11-27T07:12:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T07:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/311678\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T07:12:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T07:12:18","slug":"5-storylines-were-excited-about-ahead-of-the-2025-qatar-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/311678\/","title":{"rendered":"5 storylines we’re excited about ahead of the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Middle East will play host to the climax of the 2025 season, with the penultimate round at the Lusail International Circuit offering the first opportunity to crown a Drivers\u2019 World Champion. But the entire battle has closed up after a dramatic visit to Las Vegas, and there are plenty of other storylines as we arrive in Qatar.<\/p>\n

The McLaren disqualifications<\/p>\n

Just when you thought this season couldn\u2019t get any more exciting, think again. Max Verstappen\u2019s victory in Las Vegas had already kept the Drivers\u2019 Championship alive as a three-way fight heading to Qatar, but then came the shock news of both McLaren drivers being disqualified<\/a> due to a technical infringement.<\/p>\n

The issue revolved around the plank under the floor, with both McLaren cars exceeding the maximum permitted amount of wear during the race. The FIA were keen to point out that they felt the breach was unintentional and not a deliberate attempt to get around the regulations, while McLaren said the unusual track conditions \u2013 cold and low grip in practice, and wet in Qualifying \u2013 had contributed to the problem.<\/p>\n

Two cars have already been disqualified for the same reason this season \u2013 Lewis Hamilton for Ferrari in China<\/a>, and the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg in Bahrain \u2013 while there were also occasions in 2023 for Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, with the ground effect cars generally operating best at lower ride heights.<\/p>\n

Due to the way it has closed up the title fight, and the fact McLaren did not speak about the issue beyond their post-race press release, it\u2019s set to be the main talking point heading into the Qatar weekend.<\/p>\n

Verstappen\u2019s gains in the title race<\/p>\n

Heading into this final triple header, the early predictions were for Verstappen\u2019s best chance for a win to come in Las Vegas, with the McLarens likely to be stronger in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. But that did seem to overlook last year\u2019s result, where Verstappen beat Norris to victory in a close battle.<\/p>\n

Verstappen is now just 24 points off the championship lead<\/a> \u2013 less than a race victory \u2013 having been 104 points adrift as recently as before the Italian Grand Prix in September, and Red Bull appear to have found a way of making their car more consistently competitive. Even challenging weekends in Mexico and Brazil returned podium finishes.<\/p>\n

But a podium finish in Qatar might not be enough, because despite losing his 18 points from Las Vegas, Lando Norris can still win the championship on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Norris arrives in Qatar with a 24-point advantage, and needs to extend that by two points over both Verstappen and Piastri over the weekend (or just one point if he wins Sunday\u2019s race) in order to become champion.<\/p>\n

A top-seven finish in the Sprint would mean victory on Sunday will guarantee Norris the title, regardless of what Verstappen or Oscar Piastri manage, because even though that could technically lead to a tie on points with either driver, Norris would beat both on count back as a result of having more wins than Verstappen and either more wins or more second-place finishes than Piastri.<\/p>\n

The final Sprint weekend<\/p>\n

As the championship fight has closed up, so too have the opportunities to score extra points over a weekend. Three of the final six rounds have been Sprint events, and Qatar marks the last of the three, offering up eight points to Saturday\u2019s winner.<\/p>\n

Those points could be crucial not only for the top three, but for Teams\u2019 Championship permutations, too.<\/p>\n

Mercedes look comfortable in second place after Las Vegas, holding a 40-point advantage over Red Bull, and will secure that spot if they leave Qatar 44 points clear of third. But Red Bull and Ferrari are separated by just 13 points, so there\u2019s plenty still to play for between the two of them.<\/p>\n

Further back, Williams might be 31 points clear of Racing Bulls, and Racing Bulls 17 ahead of Haas, but Haas, Aston Martin and Sauber are all covered by just five points as they vie for seventh in the standings.<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s search for a first Ferrari podium<\/p>\n

In a quite remarkable turn of events given how strong Ferrari were this time last year, they could go an entire season without a victory for the first time since 2021.<\/p>\n

On that occasion, Lewis Hamilton was fighting for his eighth World Championship, and the following season saw him fail to win a race for the first time in his career. While he also went winless in 2023 before taking two victories last year, Hamilton is now on the verge of going an entire season without a podium for the first time ever.<\/p>\n

There have been three fourth-placed finishes, plus a Sprint win in China and Sprint P3 in Miami, but a trophy in a Grand Prix has eluded him so far this year. Hamilton was particularly downbeat after finishing 10th \u2013 later promoted to eighth \u2013 having started 19th in Las Vegas, saying it was \u201cthe worst season ever\u201d as we head into the final two rounds.<\/p>\n

Hamilton has high expectations of himself and while there have been clear examples of very strong performance this season, he and Ferrari have rarely put it together for an entire weekend, particularly when the car has been at its most competitive.<\/p>\n

As different as this season has been for Ferrari, they might take some confidence from finishing second \u2013 and no more than six seconds behind the winner \u2013 in both Qatar and Abu Dhabi last year. And with the car\u2019s performance in wet weather described as a significant weakness by Charles Leclerc last weekend, they can look forward to warm and dry conditions at both venues.<\/p>\n

A mandatory two-stop due to maximum stint lengths<\/p>\n

Qatar is an amazing high-speed test of a Formula 1 car, with a number of corners that push the aerodynamic potential of the cars to their limits.<\/p>\n

With high temperatures and a relatively abrasive track surface, Pirelli brings its hardest tyre compounds to the race weekend, to be able to handle the demands of the track. But last year, it saw teams do such a good job managing tyre degradation they made a one-stop strategy work, in many cases using all of the tread on the tyre to do so.<\/p>\n

Once the tread has been completely worn down, then the construction of the tyre can be exposed, and that is not designed to be subject to kerbs or debris, so could become vulnerable to damage.<\/p>\n

As a result, after analysis of the wear levels of tyres from last year, Pirelli has applied a maximum stint length of 25 laps per set, which is cumulative over the race weekend. Every lap a set of tyres does will count, other than laps to the grid and laps after the chequered flag.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five laps means the Sprint can be completed on just one set, but with a 57-lap race it effectively mandates at least a two-stop race.<\/p>\n

How each team handles the additional aspect of strategy, and whether it opens up further variation in pit stop timings and tyre compound usage, could be a crucial aspect to the outcome of Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Middle East will play host to the climax of the 2025 season, with the penultimate round at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-311678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}