In Qatar the curbs are lowered, but you always win from pole

Formula 1 immediately returns to the track in Qatar for the penultimate race of the season and the last sprint race of the year. With the Drivers’ World Championship already celebrated by SuperMax, the Constructors’ title remains to be awarded with McLaren leading by 24 points over Ferrari. There are still 103 points up for grabs for the teams. Everything is possible.

There are more than thirteen thousand kilometers away as the crow flies and eleven time zones between Las Vegas and Doha. The two Grands Prix have in common the fact that they both take place at night and are located on the edge of large desert areas, but the similarities end there. In Nevada the race took place on a city track with medium and low speed corners and with air and asphalt temperatures just above 10°. In Qatar the Grand Prix is ​​held on a permanent track, characterized by medium-fast corners, and temperatures around 25°.

The two editions of the Qatar GP held so far they did not register any overtaking in the lead of the race: the driver who started on pole remained in the lead until the checkered flagwithout ever giving up the position.

In the Sprint last year, however, Oscar Piastri was overtaken on lap 3 by George Russell who enjoyed the soft tyres. But on lap 11 Piastri returned to the lead, taking advantage of the mediums and remained there until the finish line.

From the point of view of tire type, only one Pirelli compound, the C3, will be used on both weekends. In fact, the Lusail circuit, which subjects the tires to energies comparable to those of tracks such as Suzuka and Silverstone, will feature the hardest trio of compounds in the 2024 range, with C3 as Soft, C2 as Medium and C1 as Hard.

According to Brembo technicians, the 5,419 meter long Lusail International Circuit it falls into the category of circuits that are moderately demanding on the brakes. On a scale of 1 to 5 it earned a difficulty rating of 3 because although there are 7 braking sections every lap, for over 9 seconds in total, only one falls into the Hard category but not even it requires at least 2 seconds and 100 meters of braking distance.

The hardest corner on the Lusail International Circuit for the braking system it is the first: the single-seaters arrive at 319 km/h and go down to 181 km/h in 1.46 seconds during which they travel 93 meters. The effort required from the drivers is 4.2 g and the load they exert on the brake pedal is 119 kg. The braking power is 2,101 kW.

This is the third edition of the Qatar Grand Prix, after those held in 2021 and 2023. Last year the weekend was characterized by a decision by the FIA which imposed a maximum number of laps (18) for each set of tires to be used in the racewhich in fact determined the implementation of three pit stops for each driver. The decision of the Race Direction became necessary after the Pirelli technicians, at the end of the usual analyzes of the sets returned by the teams carried out both after the first and second day of activity on the track, had highlighted the possibility of the occurrence of microtears in the side between the rubber compound and the carcass cords due to the impact generated by the repeated passage on the curbs of some curves.

In recent months, the FIA ​​and Pirelli have shared a work program in view of this Grand Prix in order to avoid a repeat of what happened in 2023. The pyramid curbs have been modified – blunting the tip – in seven of the sixteen corners that make up the track: the first two after the start, 4, 10 and the three between 12 and 14, the stretch that had produced the greatest stress on the sidewalls of the tyres.

Another aspect that characterized the last edition was the very high level of humidity recorded on Sunday which, combined with the rather high temperatures of October in Qatar, put the physical resistance of the competing pilots to the test. Some of them suffered from ailments so much so that some of them were forced to retire due to the heat they felt inside the cockpit.

This year the situation should be better from this point of view because the race is held more than a month later but that episode still produced the recent decision by the FIA ​​World Council to introduce a standard cooling system for the cockpit to be used in the hottest Grands Prix starting from 2025.

However, it will be difficult to avoid the high temperatures on the Lusail asphalt, remade for last year’s Grand Prix, so much so that graining could be the protagonist as happened in Las Vegas, even if for opposite reasons: in Nevada, in fact, it was the cold and the lack of grip causes the rubber to slip on the asphalt and the consequent abrasion of the tire surface.

This could have a significant impact in terms of strategies, with the tires that may suffer from significant thermal degradation. Furthermore, the precedents are so limited that it is difficult to make predictions today.

In 2021 there were drivers who made only one pit stop and others, such as the first two finishers – Hamilton and Verstappen – who fought for victory with a double-stop strategy. Even in terms of the use of compounds, which were completely different from the current ones (the single-seaters were still from the previous generation), there were very different choices, as happened in last year’s Sprint, when 12 drivers started with the Medium and eight with the Soft.

Hamilton and Verstappen have been the dominators of the two editions of the Grand Prix held so far, equally dividing successes and pole positions: if a difference really has to be found, then the Dutchman has the advantage of having achieved the fastest lap of the race twice and having classified second in 2021. Also on the podium were Alonso (third with Alpine in 2021), Piastri and Norris, second and third respectively last year.

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