{"id":320716,"date":"2025-12-01T14:48:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320716\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T14:48:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:48:14","slug":"mclaren-to-hold-internal-review-into-qatar-gp-strategy-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320716\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren to hold internal review into Qatar GP strategy mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren<\/a> boss Andrea Stella admitted the team \u2018misjudged\u2019 its strategy in the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix and said an internal review will be carried out to dissect its decision not to pit either driver under the safety car.<\/p>\n

McLaren was the team to beat around Losail, with Oscar Piastri<\/a>\u00a0take sprint pole and victory, and starting Sunday\u2019s grand prix on pole ahead of team-mate and title rival Lando Norris<\/a>\u00a0on the front row.<\/p>\n

However, its domination started coming undone early in the race when Max Verstappen<\/a> passed Norris into the first corner. The team\u2019s chance of picking up a 204th grand prix win then slipped through its fingers during an early safety car period following contact between Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> and Pierre Gasly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

By the end of lap 7, almost every other car on the grid had stopped for new tyres, while Piastri and Norris stayed out for McLaren. Due to Pirelli\u2019s 25-lap tyre mandate<\/a>, this forced most drivers to stop again on lap 32, while the McLaren pair would have \u201cflexibly\u201d for their strategy \u2013 as Will Joseph, Norris\u2019 race engineer, put it over team radio.<\/p>\n

Track position proved to be more advantageous than flexibility, and Verstappen ultimately won the race by almost eight seconds \u2013 which was about the same as the difference in time lost during a pitstop under the safety car versus one in normal racing conditions.<\/p>\n

In order to unpick its mistakes, team principal Stella said McLaren will now carry out an internal review into its race weekend \u2013 one that he hopes will make the side \u201cstronger\u201d ahead of the Abu Dhabi finale next weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in terms of the misjudgement, [it] is something that we will have to review, discussing internally,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar <\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri had to settle for second place in Qatar<\/p>\n

Photo by: Dom Gibbons \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll have to assess some factors, like for instance whether there was a certain bias in the way we were thinking that led us as a group to think that not all cars necessarily would have pitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have to go through the review in a very thorough way, but what’s important is that we do it as usual in a way that is constructive, is analytical.\u201d<\/p>\n

The review, he explained, would be similar to the one carried out by the team following the Las Vegas GP \u2013 where both drivers were disqualified from the result due to excess plank wear.<\/p>\n

This process, Stella says, highlighted the \u201cno-blame culture\u201d at McLaren and set the team up for its strong start to the weekend in Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are disappointed,\u201d Stella said. \u201cBut, if anything, as soon as we start the review, we will get even more determined to learn our lessons, adapt and be stronger as a team and make sure that this phenomenal, beautiful opportunity that we have to compete for the drivers’ championship and be the ones that actually stop Verstappen’s dominance in this period of Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to face it at the best of ourselves. I’m looking forward to the next race and I’m looking forward to seeing a strong reaction from our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, McLaren\u2019s task of ending Verstappen\u2019s reign would be much simpler if it didn\u2019t keep making the kind of mistakes that warranted internal reviews. After a dominant start to the season, McLaren\u2019s form has been tarnished by errors from both the team and its drivers.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar <\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri, McLaren<\/p>\n

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

From Norris\u2019 mistake in Canada where he crashed with his team-mate and the pair’s collision in the US Grand Prix sprint, to its double-disqualification in Las Vegas, McLaren\u2019s season has been far from faultless. When asked about these errors in Qatar, Stella shrugged them off as simply the \u201cvarious phases\u201d teams go through over the course of a season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a season, you can have various phases,\u201d he explained. \u201cI think we have seen this with the drivers. We have seen this in terms of momentum of the various teams. In a way, even in terms of execution, you may have an accumulation of issues just in a given period, which makes it look like, oh, what’s happening now?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality, I think there are no specific reasons. The issue we had in Vegas is very, very different to the issue we have here. I don’t think there’s any specific reason. It’s just a reminder that in racing, you have to be in control of all the possible details.<\/p>\n

“Rather than a reason why issues are happening in a moment in time, I think it’s the fact that the competition is very tight, the stake is very big, and we are exposed as a team. It doesn’t change what we have to do. We just have to make sure that we execute perfect weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren boss Andrea Stella admitted the team \u2018misjudged\u2019 its strategy in the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[813,43,176737,913,180715,44,167718,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-320716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-formula-1","tag-headlines","tag-losail-international-circuit","tag-mclaren","tag-mclaren-to-hold-internal-review-into-qatar-gp-strategy-mistakes","tag-news","tag-qatar-gp","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320716","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=320716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}