Welcome to the Qatar Grand Prix – 27/11/2025
Norris ‘relaxed’ before maiden title bid
Lando Norris says he is “relaxed” going into a weekend which could be life-changing as he seeks his maiden world championship. The Englishman will become champion in Lusail if he ends the weekend twenty-four points ahead of his teammate Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen.
Norris will become the eleventh British champion and secure the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy for the second season in a row, should he outscore his rivals by two points. Norris said, “I feel as relaxed as I was before when I was thirty-five points behind the lead, and I feel the same when I’m twenty-four points ahead. That’s my strength for now.”
Norris has turned the tables on Piastri with a strong run of form since the Australian won the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August, switching what had been a thirty-four-point deficit on the Australian into his current lead.
At the same time, Verstappen has mounted an impressive fightback from being hundred and forty-four points off the lead after the Dutch Grand Prix. Norris said, “How I am now feels the same as before Mexico when I wasn’t leading. It feels the same as Austin when I still felt good in the car, but Max still won the race. I really don’t feel any different in the car from before I was leading to now when I’m leading.”
Three months on since the race at Zandvoort, Piastri hasn’t won again and has had his campaign which for so long was defined by consistency, derailed by mistakes and retirements, though Verstappen has won more races. Norris’s two wins and consistency, including three other podium finishes, have put him on course for the championship.
Though the events in Vegas have made it harder mathematically to seal the title this weekend. He says it had not been hard to get over the disappointment of losing second place in Vegas.
Adding, “Of course it hurts. There’s a lot of effort that goes into every weekend from everyone, including myself. All that effort just felt like it disappeared very quickly. But it’s the same feeling for all of us.”
“The mechanics, the engineers, myself, everyone in McLaren, feels let down by what we had as a result. And we’re all disappointed. But actually, I found it quite easy just to move on and have a few days off and come to this weekend. Yeah, disappointed, of course. But I was fine otherwise.”
As any potential championship winner would say, Norris added, McLaren would try to treat this race the same as any other. He also says the team know what they need to do better and improve on, as well as no reason to treat it differently.
Meanwhile, Piastri acknowledged that the gap was big enough that he would need fortune to go his way. He said, “There’s still a chance, and it’s played out that way a couple of times before. So, I know it’s not impossible. Obviously, I also know that it’s a bit of an outside shot. Even if I have a perfect final two weekends, I can’t just rely on that. I need other things to go my way and I’m very aware of that.”
Piastri says he was confident going into the weekend, where he took his maiden pole and win in any format back in 2023. The Australian adds, “Vegas was looking reasonable from a pace point of view, just qualifying the end of Q3 didn’t go how I wanted and then the race – obviously the race was what it was and a few mistakes in there, but the pace when I had clean air to be able to use my pace was pretty good.”
McLaren’s Las Vegas surprise, but Norris in pole for title
McLaren’s double disqualification in Las Vegas has opened the door ajar for Max Verstappen in the 2025 title fight. In Qatar, Lando Norris can slam it shut again. Last weekend, both McLarens were disqualified for excessive plank wear.
The tenth of a millimetre miscalculation could have slightly opened the door to Max Verstappen having an opportunity to seal the championship, though Norris can still secure the championship if he outscores Verstappen and teammate Oscar Piastri by two points in both the sprint and Grand Prix.
Following last weekend’s race, team principal Andrea Stella said, “We apologise to Lando and Oscar for the loss of points today, at a critical time in their championship campaigns after two strong performances from them all weekend.”
“As a team, we also apologise to our partners and fans, whose support means so much. While this outcome is extremely disappointing, we remain fully focused on the last two races of the season.”
Getting the ride high wrong was a huge error by the world champions, despite Vegas being bumpier than expected, and though there were mitigating circumstances, two things remain clear: this is a huge error at a critical point in the championship, and there’s equally no reason to panic for the papaya brigade.
Had the incident happened before the Sao Paulo, when it was soundly beaten in Singapore, Austin and Mexico, then perhaps there would have been some anxiety over McLaren’s ability to keep Verstappen behind over Qatar’s sprint weekend and Abu Dhabi’s season finale.
Though in Sao Paulo Norris delivered a brilliant statement win, before his disqualification in Vegas, he was second it was never expected to be the best for McLaren. They cannot afford any mistakes over the next ten days, as they could throw away the championship
Lusail is the exact opposite as fast and flowing medium- to high-speed corners; the motorcycle circuit almost feels designed for its 2025 car. That’s not to say Norris and Piastri are set to score a one-two, especially given the mandated twenty-lap stint lengths that look set to keep the field on similar strategies.
The recent form of Norris has given the expectation with the first opportunity to take the title, he will do so, if not he will still be in pole position to do so in Abu Dhabi.
Speaking before the Vegas weekend about how he approached his position as the championship favourite, he said he wouldn’t treat the title run-in any different as the rest of the season, which has yielded seven grand prix wins thus far: “What’s done me so well the last few weekends is by going flat, staying out of trouble, staying out of the chaos behind. It’s almost a safer bet in terms of pushing. So I think [playing it safe] is not the right mindset to have.
No change in approach for McLaren
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says the team will not change its approach of supporting both drivers equally in the title fight. The stance comes after a major setback following the double disqualification on Saturday in Las Vegas, which allowed Max Verstappen to tie Oscar Piastri on twenty-four points.
Norris had emerged as the favourite during the last two months, first closing down Piastri, who had a comfortable thirty-four point buffer after his teammate’s retirement at Zandvoort, and then building his own advantage thanks to strong autumn form. He has finished on the podium at the last four races but his disqualification in Vegas cost him eighteen points.
That means he needs to outscore both Verstappen and Piastri by two points, in both the Grand Prix and Sprint.
Several observers have questioned whether McLaren should prioritise one driver with Verstappen closing in, even before the Vegas weekend. Earlier in the season, many argued Piastri should be backed, but now Norris appears the team’s most realistic route to its first drivers’ title since 2008.
However the team will be well aware of 2007 when it lost the championship by a point, but earlier this month, CEO Zak Brown went as far as saying he would prefer a repeat of 2007 than favour one driver prematurely.
McLaren’s press department included a question about potential changes in driver management in its pre-Qatar interview with Stella, “No, there is no reason to do so,” the Italian responded when asked whether anything would change “in the management of the drivers.”
Adding “We have always said that as long as the maths does not say otherwise, we would leave it up to the two drivers to fight for their chance at the final victory, and that is how it will be in Qatar.
“Let’s not forget that if someone had told us at the start of the season that we would find ourselves in this situation with two races to go, we would have signed up for it! Now we are going to fight for the double world championship with confidence and awareness of our strength.”
Stella says following the events of last weekend, the team’s focus has been on learning, dismissing negativity so they can focus on coming back stronger, but added, “I was very glad to see how the team has become a mature group of united and forward-thinking racers.”
How Lando Norris becomes champion
Lando Norris will be champion if he is ahead of Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen by twenty-five points by the end of Sunday. He must have a thirty-three-point lead by the end of the weekend. The simplest way for Norris to do this is to simply out-score Piastri and Verstappen by two points across the weekend.
That means if Norris wins the grand prix, he will be the 2025 world champion. He cannot do this in the sprint on Saturday, even if Piastri or Verstappen were to retire or not score, as he would be eighteen points short.
In short, if Piastri or Verstappen were to finish second in both races, they would be tied on points; however, Piastri are currently tied on wins so if they were to both win in the next two races and tie on points, Norris would be the champion, having scored more second places
Dramas have skewed perceptions of the season – Ferrari
In Las Vegas last weekend, Ferrari lost more ground to Mercedes and Red Bull in the constructors’ championship. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished sixth and tenth on the road, Hamilton having had to fight his way through from last on the grid after being slowest in qualifying.
But that result is not as bad as it could have been because of the disqualification of both McLaren’s, and came despite Mercedes benefiting more in terms of points because its drivers were both ahead of Leclerc.
Following Ferrari’s double retirement in Sao Paulo, chairman John Elkann publicly criticised both drivers, Hamilton’s qualifying howler, and Leclerc pointing out a longstanding weakness in his cars’ wet-weather performance, this has led to a sense of an organisation in turmoil.
But team principal Fred Vasseur argued that these dramas have skewed perceptions of the season as a whole, despite Leclerc’s comment after Las Vegas qualifying that the SF-25 was a car he “will not miss” when he egresses from the cockpit for the last time in Abu Dhabi.
Vasseur said, “For sure we are not in the situation that we didn’t score points the last weekend. But we were P2 in the championship two weeks ago. It’s not that it was a complete disaster, for me, disaster is not the right word, but the tough side is that the last two weekends that we scored six or seven points on two weekends.”
Those comments were made before McLaren’s disqualification; Ferrari scored six points in Brazil, all in the sprint, and would have scored nine in Las Vegas had the original result stood. This means that Ferrari has dropped to third in the constructors and under pressure from Red Bull.
The Frenchman added, “Before this in the championship we were in front of Mercedes and Red Bull – it means that it’s not so dramatic. Now I can perfectly understand the drivers; they want to get more. And trust me that in the debriefing on the Monday morning at the factory I’m also a bit harsh.”
“But it’s our DNA that we want to get more in any case. And I think Max [Verstappen], he will try also to get more from his team, from everybody to do a better job. This is the DNA of everybody into the paddock; it’s not a drama.”
Ferrari’s season can be summed up as not good enough, the car has been difficult to set up and even more so in wet conditions and their operations have not been as slick as they might have been.
Hamilton’s exit from Q1 was partly a factor of him misjudging Turn Fourteen on his final lap and collecting the apex bollard, but also a result of a communications misfire between him and engineer Riccardo Adami. In hindsight – always a prism of crystal clarity – Adami ought to have been more emphatic that the timing was tight to get another lap in. Had he done so, Hamilton might not have backed off the throttle after crossing the line.
Leclerc, meanwhile, suffered through being undercut by Oscar Piastri after stopping three laps later, an outcome the Ferrari pit wall should have seen coming. That consigned him to a DRS train in the run to the flag.
Verstappen is under less pressure
Four-time champion Sebastian Vettel believes that Max Verstappen being under less pressure in F1’s title fight than Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who also say the Dutchman’s continued rate of improvement is “scary”.
Verstappen heads into the season’s final two races with an unexpected late chance of claiming a record-equalling fifth successive championship after a run of four wins in the last seven races. The Dutchman’s bid for an outside chance of the title was strengthened when both McLarens were disqualified for excessive plank wear last weekend in Las Vegas.
When asked on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast if Verstappen’s experience meant he was under less pressure than his rivals, said: “Right now, yes, also because he’s won the championships. Not a lot of people have won that many championships. He doesn’t need to prove to himself that he can win a championship.”
Plus, in the position he is in the right now, being in the hunt it’s like ‘ok, just got to do everything perfect and if it works it works, if it doesn’t it doesn’t’.”
Vettel, who raced against Verstappen for eight seasons before retiring in 2022, also spoke about the traits in the Dutchman that impressed him most. Saying “I think the scary thing is he’s getting better. We know he’s good, but he’s still improving. He’s still hungry, he’s still willing to learn.”
But following last weekend’s win, speaking before the McLarens were disqualification, Verstappen believed it would be difficult to close the what was a forty-two point lead.
Vettel added, “The key ingredient is his head. In the key situations where it matters, he keeps his head, hardly ever makes a mistake, delivers when he needs to. He feels the pressure; we all do. I don’t think it’s possible you don’t feel the pressure, but he’s able to find space in his head where he’s able to put that to a side and focus on what matters.”
Talking Points Lusail
Round twenty-three brings the season to the penultimate race in Lusail, where, after the drama of Vegas and the two championship rivals disqualified, with the outsider Max Verstappen winning, Lando Norris has the first opportunity to take the championship.
Lusail joined the calendar properly in 2023 and became the third full-night race, along with one of its long straights and twisty in-field section in sector two, which provides opportunities for overtaking. It is still, however, a new circuit for F1, and it has been slightly lengthened for this year with a new pit paddock complex, as well as increased capacity.
This makes it fast and flowing with it mixed with hard braking zones mixed in, creating opportunities for overtaking, and has given plenty of action in both the sprint and the two Grands Prix here. Made up of a mixture of high and medium-speed corners, which last time provided for some overtaking, but this was under the previous regulations, which will likely increase in the midfield given how tight it has been this season.
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. The same reason Lewis Hamilton in Shanghai and Nico Hulkenberg were disqualified.
McLaren want this weekend and Abu Dhabi to be focused on track as we know they are in a championship fight. This could be a major talking point if we see a change in their performance. But this should in theory, suit them because of the combination of a smooth, high-grip track surface with medium to high speed, long-duration corners play to the strengths of MCL39.
But if the last eighteen months have taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. Many thoughts before Baku that this was Piastri’s to lose. But Verstappen has kept himself in the title race since the summer break after finding a way to make his Red Bull more consistent. Though if Norris scores two point in the sprint and a win on Sunday, its mathematically over.
Though there could still mathematically be a tie, Norris would win on countback by having more wins than Verstappen and either more wins or more second-place finishes than Piastri.
It’s not only the race for the drivers’ championship, though McLaren sealed the constructors in Baku. Mercedes leads Red Bull by forty points with a maximum of a hundred points left in the constructors.
Lewis Hamilton only has two more opportunities to avoid a winless season in the grand prix format for the third time in his eighteen-year career. There have been three fourth-placed finishes, plus a Sprint win in China and third in Miami, but a trophy in a Grand Prix has eluded him so far this year. Hamilton was particularly downbeat after finishing tenth, promoted to eighth, having started nineteenth in Las Vegas, saying it was “the worst season ever” as we head into the final two rounds.
As different as this season has been for Ferrari, they might take some confidence from finishing second – and no more than six seconds behind the winner – in both Qatar and Abu Dhabi last year
F1 Explained | Why maximum stint lengths in Lusail
This weekend, drivers will need to make at least two pit-stops at the Qatar Grand Prix. The mandatory two-stop has been imposed after tyre suppliers Pirelli held talks with the teams and governing body FIA regarding driver safety.
Tyres have been restricted to a maximum length of twenty-five laps of the Lusail International Circuit. As the race is fifty-seven laps, it means that one pit-stop must be made, either on or before the twenty-fifth lap. The nineteen-lap sprint race will be unaffected, but laps behind the safety car or virtual safety car will.
For the 2023 edition, Pirelli enforced an eighteen lap stint length because of concerns about tyre wear and damage which could be picked up during the race. While there were no restrictions in place for tyres in 2024, Pirelli said the tyres used showed high levels of wear. Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz suffered punctures in that race.
Pirelli say the measure “has been deemed necessary” following analysis of the tyres used in 2024.
A statement read,, “Last year, several tyres, particularly the left front, had reached the maximum wear level. These conditions, combined with the high lateral energy, had increased the structural fatigue of the construction.”
This is different to the regulation we saw in Monaco when a similar rule was introduced, trying to improve on-track action.
How Lando Norris becomes champion
Lando Norris will be champion if he is ahead of Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen by twenty-five points by the end of Sunday. He must have a thirty-three-point lead by the end of the weekend. The simplest way for Norris to do this is to simply out-score Piastri and Verstappen by two points across the weekend.
That means if Norris wins the grand prix, he will be the 2025 world champion. He cannot do this in the sprint on Saturday, even if Piastri or Verstappen were to retire or not score, as he would be eighteen points short.
In short, if Piastri or Verstappen were to finish second in both races, they would be tied on points; however, Piastri are currently tied on wins so if they were to both win in the next two races and tie on points, Norris would be the champion, having scored more second places.
Newey appointed Aston Martin team principal
Aston Martin has announced that managing technical partner Adrian Newey will become CEO and team principal next year. The move comes nine months after Newey joined the team in March having resigned from Red Bull in May 2024.
The move is part of a major restructure of Aston Martin that sees Andy Cowell removed from his current position as team principal and chief executive officer after thirteen months.
His current role is as managing technical partner and he joined on a five-year deal in which he could earn up to £30m a year, including bonuses and add-ons. Cowell, meanwhile, is to become chief strategy officer, with particular focus on the team’s engine partnership with Honda and their fuel suppliers.
Cowell had previously been the managing director of Mercedes’ power unit division until last year. In a statement, the move would allow Newey and Cowell to “focus on their individual strengths and expertise, ensuring organisational efficiency”.
In Vegas, BBC News broke the story that Cowell has been moved from his current leadership role, following disagreements between the two over the running of the team and design of the 2026 car, according to insiders. The statement added that Newey would be guiding the technical team, including the trackside operations of the car.
Making Newey team principal makes sense as he has nearly forty years worth of experience having won twelve drivers’ and thirteen constructors’ championships with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull. But it will be Aston Martin’s fourth team principal in four years, following Otmar Szafnauer, Mike Krack and Cowell.
Team owner Lawrence Stroll said in a statement: “Andy Cowe666ll has been a great leader this year. He’s focused on building a world-class team and getting them to work well together.”
“As well as fostering a culture that puts the race car back at the heart of what we do. This leadership change is a mutual decision we have reached in the interest of the team. We all look forward to continuing working with him in his new capacity.”
Stroll added that Newey’s new position would “enable him to make full use of his creative and technical expertise”. It’s understood that this change had been under consideration for months as they had been talking to several other people.
including former McLaren and Sauber boss Andreas Seidl, current head of the Audi F1 project Mattia Binotto and his former CEO Martin Whitmarsh. Former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has also been pushing for a role at Aston Martin and wants a shareholding.
Newey said: “Over the last nine months, I have seen great individual talent within our team. I’m looking forward to taking on this additional role as we put ourselves in the best possible position to compete in 2026, where we will face an entirely new position with Aston Martin now a works team
Albon calls for checks on all cars
Alex Albon says the problem with the plank wear drama that saw champions McLaren disqualified in Las Vegas isn’t the rule itself, but instead the way it’s enforced. In a perfect world, he’d prefer every car on the grid to be checked after races rather than a random sample.
Not for the first time this season, McLaren’s double disqualification saw both championship leader Lando Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri lose their points haul after their race under the lights of the Strip due to excessive plank wear.
This follows Ferrari’s disqualification earlier in the year at the Chinese Grand Prix – something that resulted in Lewis Hamilton being disqualified. The Williams driver backs the regulations, but would prefer it if all the cars were checked – something the FIA simply wouldn’t have time for following a race.
Albon said, “Yeah, I mean we could run these things to the deck if we wanted to and have no legality issues, but then we’re all finding illegal performance kind of thing. I think the main thing for me is, I don’t like that it’s random.”
“I’d almost rather have twenty cars get checked every weekend, and then you’d have a kind of… in terms of fair game. But it’s that kind of randomly selected version of it, which is a bit tricky. But yeah, I mean rules are rules.” The reason why not every car was given in 2023 after Ferrari was disqualified for plank wear in Austin.
The FIA said then, “In conducting these tests, a huge amount of work goes on in the limited time available after a grand prix finishes and before the cars need to be returned to their teams for disassembly and transportation to the next race.”
“However, even though a wide array of checks are made, it is impossible to cover every parameter of every car in the short time available – and this is especially true of back-to-back race weekends when freight deadlines must also be considered.”
Albon, who is leading his teammate Carlos Sainz by twenty-five points, added how sensitive the current regulation cars are to track conditions. For this reason, it’s easy to lose performance on a car that isn’t optimised. Add into that the three hours between the sprint and GP Qualifying, it would be impossible to check every car.
Speaking about that Albon added, “We are setting ride heights down to what wind you get for the next day in the race. If you get a headwind into a main straight, it completely transforms your ride heights for the weekend. Especially on sprint weekends or weekends where we have not much running like Vegas, you have to take the safe approach and sometimes you finish on Sunday as a team.