The F1 Qatar GP was intense between the title contenders, however further down the grid the tension was not as high. George Russell described his race as “boring” in the written media pen after the race concluded.
After losing out to Antonelli off the line, he was passed by Sainz, Alonso and Hadjar as he had a very messy opening lap. His race from there was full of dirty air.
“We said it this morning in the strategy meeting, if there’s a safety car Lap 7, it would determine the race for everyone, and it was Lap 7. You couldn’t have written it to be honest. If it was Lap 6, the safety car, I’m unsure what people would have done. By Lap 7 it was just clear you had to pit. Then I spent the whole race behind Fernando [Alonso] and Hadjar. Most of it not in the DRS, I couldn’t stay in the DRS. And then when Hadjar got the puncture, I went one second a lap faster and was the quickest car on track in the last two laps. So it was unbelievable, the impact of the dirty air.”
Fernando Alonso was holding up a large part of the field as he found himself in P6 with ten cars in a DRS train behind him. Russell spent much of the race in P8 behind Alonso and Hadjar before the final three laps.
Constructors battle for second
The Qatar track makes it difficult for drivers to overtake as it only offers one DRS zone. The British Mercedes driver appeared critical of the layout, despite enjoying the track. When told that the broadcast was focused on the fight between the top three drivers and to give an insight into his race, Russell responded:
“You didn’t miss much from my side. I lost one position at the start and then lost some more, the safety car, and then it was just impossible to overtake. It’s an amazing track to drive, but just so impossible to get within the DRS. The DRS is too short, and the first corner is too fast. You need a slow corner to have a braking zone of at least 100 meters to be able to dive in but the braking zone is 40 meters. I won’t be remembering this race to be honest. Our goal is to finish P2 in the Championship and we’re almost there.”
The Mercedes team have found themselves in the fight for P2 in the Constructors Championship again this year. While McLaren were already crowned champions and currently sit with 800 points, Mercedes are second. What looked to be a three way battle for P2 between Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull has closed up as Ferrari have been slowly falling behind. The Brackley based team have 459 points thus far.
Start determining the race
Russell began the race fourth but lost three positions on the opening lap. He was set to finish the race P7, however as Isack Hadjar suffered a puncture in the final three laps, he was eventually promoted to P6. The opening lap and the early safety car determined much of the final positions, as Russell explained the impact:
“I only lost one place at Turn 1 and then…Yeah, it was just pretty bad to be honest. I think there’s no grip on that inside. If Lando [Norris] lost position, I lost position, and then got it wrong in Turn 2 as well. I think realistically, I was lucky to get past Fernando [Alonso], lucky to get past Isack. Obviously, Carlos [Sainz] had a pretty flawless race.
“Wherever you finish Lap 1 is…well wherever you finish Turn 4 will probably be where you finish the race. The safety car, we said at the beginning, if there’s a safety car in Lap 7, everybody will box.” Russell added.
At a track like Qatar, track position remains immensely important. As the Brit fell behind during the opening lap, it left him with little choice for the rest of the race.
Mandatory 25-Lap stints as “unfortunate”
A unique aspect of the F1 Qatar GP this year was the introduction of enforced 25-lap maximum stints. The drivers were only allowed to be on any given tyre allocation for the length of 25 laps. As the race runs for 57 laps, it leaves each driver with two mandatory stops and little flexibility.
When asked about the implementation of this rule, the Mercedes driver candidly expressed his opinion:
“F1 and Pirelli were very unfortunate because if you have 25-lap stints, if you do the most extreme it’s 25, 25, and 7 cause it is 57 laps. So when you have the safety car Lap 7, you have to pit Lap 7. Except McLaren, which was a surprise.
“But it would have been interesting. Hülkenberg started on softs, he would have pitted Lap 7. The drivers starts on the medium, you can pit anywhere from Lap 7 to Lap 25. It would have given, if there was no safety car, the variety of the strategy would have been more. I still believe it should have been soft, medium, hard.”
