McLaren breaks a pit stop record; the Qatar GP storylines keep coming

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Welcome to Prime Tire, where we’re wondering whether Lando Norris will be allowed to open champagne nearby when Max Verstappen receives his championship trophy.

We’re still dealing with the aftermath of a very busy Qatar GP, where we crowned a champion and dealt with some of the worst conditions of the Formula One season. I’m Patrick, and Madeline Coleman will be along shortly. Let’s get to it.

I spot the culprit. (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Reflecting on a weird weekend in Qatar

Well, that was certainly a weekend. A long weekend.

The FIA has some decisions to make about the next nine years of the Qatar GP after brutal conditions threatened to overshadow Verstappen’s championship weekend.

Yuki Tsunoda said there was “an insane amount of heat” in his helmet. Some drivers flipped their visors open down the straight to cool off. Valtteri Bottas called the race “torture.” Esteban Ocon threw up in his helmet – twice. Logan Sargeant had to retire early. Lance Stroll struggled to get out of his car. Oscar Piastri straight up just laid down in the cooldown room. Most drivers called it the toughest race of their lives.

“I think it’s getting to the limit that somebody is going to have a heat stroke,” Bottas said…

There are no more F1 titles to fight for – only standings positions like the fight between Ferrari and Mercedes for second place. And that fight is starting to look like four Sisyphuses rolling boulders up a mountain. Carlos Sainz couldn’t even start, and Lewis Hamilton crashed out at Turn 1. George Russell has looked fast enough for the podium the last three races but hasn’t reached it since Spain. Charles Leclerc has four straight top-five finishes without a podium…

The last-minute tire stint mandates certainly made for an interesting race. The jumbled pit stops led to a race-long chess match with more overtakes than usual. F1 and Pirelli have opted for softer compounds the last few years for just that reason. That said, as I wrote today, that doesn’t exactly mean it was a good race. It’s F1. It’s complicated…

Verstappen finishes the threepeat

With a second place finish in the Sprint on Saturday, Verstappen’s remarkable season reached its logical (inevitable) conclusion: a third consecutive drivers’ world championship. What more is there to say about Verstappen? We’ve spilled so much ink, and even he seemed to be out of ways to describe the last six months.

We’re in a strange place with Verstappen at this point – repeating such success next season feels like a monumental challenge (just gaze in awe at some of the numbers he threw down, like 14 wins) but imagining a Red Bull challenger in 2024? More difficult still.

We went through the 10 defining moments of Verstappen’s 2023 title run. On Saturday, Verstappen singled out Miami, Zandvoort and Japan as some of his favorite weekends. We nailed two of those three. Not bad!

Inside the paddock with Madeline Coleman

McLaren’s Qatar Grand Prix weekend was significant, to say the least, between Piastri’s first F1 win (even if it was a sprint race) and another double podium (twice). It’s understandable how the team’s performance and the race conditions dominated the headlines after the Qatar GP, but Norris tried valiantly to ensure one critical detail didn’t go unmentioned: Formula One’s new pit stop record.

On lap 27, Norris dove into the pits for his second tire change, and the crew completed the pit stop in a skinny 1.80 seconds. A true ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment. The previous record was held by none other than Verstappen and Red Bull when they executed a 1.82-second pit stop during the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix. It is worth noting that tires and cars have increased in size and weight since that season under F1’s latest regulations.

There’s fast and then there’s THIS! 😳⏱️

The moment a new F1 pit-stop world record was set! 👏#QatarGP 🇶🇦 pic.twitter.com/M7fJrGBiRc

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) October 9, 2023

Quite a lot goes into a pit stop. Each crew member is responsible for one job, such as rear right tire on or rear right tire off. Yes, there is a different person for both roles. Drivers must hit the marks so the crew doesn’t have to adjust their positions – just as millimeters make a difference on the track, millimeters can impact a race in the pits.

After all, F1 is a sport of precision. Here’s a look at some critical positions in a pit stop.

Why don’t F1 teams want Andretti to join?

“It is about the money.”

That was FIA Mohammed Ben Sulayem finally saying the quiet part aloud about F1 teams’ opposition to the Andretti bid to become the 11th team. Luke spoke at length with Ben Sulayem in Qatar about the issue and wrote an exhaustive, fascinating breakdown of the complicated Andretti courtship.

It’s not often that you see the head of a sporting institution so publicly and clearly disagree with team leaders. At one point, Luke writes that Ben Sulayem “did not buy” an argument made by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff about the logistical strains of an 11th team. That’s some candor. In no way does this come off as an ugly disagreement, either – rather, we’re watching a concerted debate about the future of F1 evolve in real time. We’ll see how it shakes out.

Outside the points

Just when you thought we were done with Qatar GP news: Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll “may have contravened FIA rules, policies and procedures” during the race weekend and is in talks with the FIA compliance officer. I can’t recall a driver’s season unraveling like this in some time. Nobody on the grid is having less fun in the car right now than Stroll.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll speaks after appearing to ‘shove’ his personal trainer after qualifying in P17 in Qatar 🏎🇶🇦 pic.twitter.com/8FxVINo74a

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) October 7, 2023

Piastri leads our driver rankings this week. What a statement weekend from the McLaren rookie, who won the sprint race and earned his second GP podium finish in a row. It’s starting to feel like McLaren have something very special in the Australian.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner called McLaren “certainly our closest competitor at the moment.” High praise. That got us wondering whether we’re in for an actual title fight in 2024. One can dream.

And, finally, there’s my Qatar winners and losers piece – featuring academic research papers! You can take the grad school kid out of grad school …

(Lead image: Kym Illman/Getty Images)