“You can call me Chucky.”
Holy. Crap. We’re still talking about this season? We actually have a Championship decider?! I can’t believe we’re still having this conver-
Hi, Dre Harrison, welcome to the penultimate DRR of 2025, as we review Round 23 of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship at the Lusail International Circuit. And with it, the return to form of Oscar Piastri that was looking to shape the entire weekend, until it very suddenly didn’t over a strategy call that may define this Championship. Let’s talk about it.
He’s Back From A Land Down Under
After a torrid Autumn of discontent, this weekend in Qatar felt a lot like the first half of the season for McLaren. Norris and Piastri very evenly matched on raw speed, but both Qualifying sessions had strange moments that may have defined the outcome. In the Sprint Shootout’s SQ3, Alex Albon leap-frogged him at the final corner before Norris’ final run, disrupting him, losing a couple of tenths and forcing him into third place, with Piastri breaking the lap record for pole position. And with Qatar being a dirty air zone visible from space, Piastri dominated the Sprint to take an easy five second victory over George Russell, and Lando Norris in third. Max Verstappen could only manage fourth after another slow Friday lap and stuck in sixth.
Live Scoreboard: Lando Norris: 396, Oscar Piastri (-22), Max Verstappen (-25)
Saturday Qualifying had the re-opening of Parc Ferme, but an even weirder set of circumstances. Norris had a .03 advantage after first runs in Q3. Norris’ final run had him understeer and nearly go off at Turn 2, forcing him to abandon the run. I was adamant that there was time to go for a second lap. Two prep laps were something teams had adopted and teams were released on track with four minutes to go. Lando Norris admitted after the session that he was marginal on fuel, but given he dove into the pits four or five seconds after the session finished, I couldn’t help but think a second lap was doable, outside of maybe battery regen of going hard for 20 seconds before abandoning.
Again, Piastri breaks the lap record on his final attempt with a stunning 1:19.3, a second faster than yesterday to take pole ahead of Norris and Verstappen. Norris still wins the title with a Grand Prix victory, but it’s going to be a lot harder from second…
“Put The Fries In The Fucking Bag”
I normally try to keep these DRR’s PG-13, it’s a family blog section, but I need to remind the adults here that PG-13 does allow me one F-Bomb.
The start of the race was somewhat predictable. The dirty side of the track lived up to its reputation – Norris’ second phase on launch was poor and he coughed up second place to Verstappen, and with it, Piastri was already a second and a half in front. By the time the prime numbered laps were starting to dry up, Piastri was over two seconds up, until a key flashpoint. Nico Hulkenberg tried to pass Pierre Gasly around the outside of Turn 1, but Gasly slowed down too late after being beaten and hits Hulk, putting him into the barriers and both cars out of the running.
The key note here? The Safety Car falls on Lap 7. This was a 57-lap race, with a pre-mandated 25 lap stint limit on tires on safety grounds. 7 + 25 + 25 = 57. It was the perfect time to get a stint out of the way and run two 25-lap stints to the flag, saving 10 seconds for stopping under SC.
…McLaren kept both their cars out. MCLAREN LEFT BOTH THEIR CARS OUT, JESUS CHRIST WHAT ARE THEY DOING?!
McLaren explained after the race to Sky Sports that they didn’t want Lando Norris to lose time via a double stack given he was only a handful of seconds behind if they had stopped, and they thought that Max Verstappen would get swept up with other cars staying out. Flexibility was also a key reason suggested by the pitwall when Lando asked about it.
The problem was – everyone came in because the maths made perfect sense to do so in a race limited in terms of strategic options. You could have even just replicated Max if you were that worried about him and wanted to play it super safe. But they got spooked and kept Papaya Rules in their frontal lobe, and it cost them an easy victory. Scared money, don’t make none. I’ve said it time and again on this blog and yet I’ve gotta do it again!
I’ve tried with McLaren, I really have. I’ve said from Day 1 that trying to be “fair” in an inherently unfair sport was asking for trouble. They come across as a team that’s genuinely scared of Max Verstappen, even when he was over 100 points back as recently as Zandvoort. From as far back as 2024 I said McLaren had an incredible car but they lacked the nouse to “know how to win” fresh off their time in the midfield. They struggle with thinking on the front foot, and they lack decisiveness. It’s added up time and time again, it’s left them vulnerable, and it’s left a Drivers Title that could have been won a round early, still up for grabs.
I have no emotional skin in this game, I just want to be entertained, and yet McLaren continue to find new ways to kick me in the nuts because of their incompetence. This was the biggest gimme of a race they’ve had all season, and they turned a 1-2, into a 2-4. If this was Ferrari, we’d have barbecued their ass in molasses. Mind you, I do think this incident will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for many, many fans. And this is a team that had a double DQ last week!
Max Verstappen would go on to win by nine seconds as Piastri couldn’t make up the ground on a 12-lap tire delta, despite the fact that on average race pace, they had a car four tenths of a second a lap faster. A crying shame for Oscar Piastri, who finally woke up after three months of internal collapse, had a perfect weekend, only for him to drop to third in the standings and needing a miracle heading into Abu Dhabi.
The only blessing for Piastri, is that he still has a chance at all. Lando Norris made a complete horlicks of his race, potentially damaging his floor by going off into the gravel early, and when he had his final stop he came out in fifth behind Kimi Antonelli and Carlos Sainz, and by then, they didn’t have enough of a delta to get back in front. That was until a huge tank slapper from Antonelli had him run wide, giving Norris P4. It’s a huge result given the nature of the Top 3 in the sport right now – It means Norris can finish 3rd to take the title outright, even if Verstappen wins the final round in Abu Dhabi. The way F1’s scoring system lies, the difference between a 10-point gap and 12 is huge in this context.
I’ve been tee-total for 15 years, I think the first two weekends of this triple header has made me want to start downing Whiskey.
Scoreboard: Lando Norris – 408, Max Verstappen (-12), Oscar Piastri (-16)
Wait, what do you mean I can’t do The Lighting Round yet?!
“…I’m The Captain Now.”
Adrian Newey – Team Principal?! In a genuinely bizarre bit of news, Andy Cowell is moving into a new role at Aston Martin as Chief Strategic Officer, while for the first in his nearly 40 years in F1, Newey becomes team principal. Andrew Benson at the BBC dropped the first report during the McLaren sweat-watch over their Vegas floors, and it had some very juicy details in it.
Apparently Cowell and Newey were at loggerheads as to who was actually in charge. To which I say, if you’re paying a man £25m a year, an ownership stake, a seat on the board and full reign over technical infrastructure, you don’t hire someone else to tell him what to do.
This immediately set the alarm bells ringing that Christian Horner could be heading in after his Red Bull settlement and gardening leave. Stroll had to reassure his team that won’t be happening – Which I’m glad about given the Benson report said that Newey and Horner went from not being on speaking terms to being seen at an Oasis concert together. Which… grim moral code but here we are.
Honestly, I don’t know what to make of this one. On the one hand, Cowell being in a role that has him in alignment with the Honda power-unit department makes sense. After all, he’s the main guy who oversaw Mercedes turbo-hybrid in 2014, a unit that’s won 10 Constructors’ Championships since. Adrian Newey is also arguably the best prepared first-timer team principal in F1 history given the amount of freedom and influence he’s had at Red Bull as a technical director. The man basically got his own shed to do whatever he wanted as long as the car was good. Just don’t ask about the Americas Cup.
On the other hand, he’s 67 years old in December, it sounds like he won’t be at every round, he now has extra responsibilities like the media, and you could make a case that anytime Newey isn’t snuggling with a notepad and an easel is a waste of his immense talent. Newey’s got a lot of people in that camp he can delegate with like Andy Stevenson (Sporting Director), Cowell, Enrico Cardile (Chief Technical Officer). There’s an argument either way on this one. To me, I just think Aston Martin needs to keep their heads down and figure this all out. This will be the fourth team principal the team has had in four years when you include Szefnauer and Krack. It’s the third technical reshuffle in the last 18 months after Dan Fallows was removed, and seven technical engineers were released recently. This is the team that is turning a lot of heads as we set up for 2026. Have Aston Martin got this right?
The Lightning Round
Red Bull putting Hannah Schmitz, lead strategist up for the podium celebration was I’m almost certain, an intentional move. World Class shithousery.
We slaughtered Ferrari for Vegas on the Podcast last week. Turns out we were early, what in the hell was this Qatar weekend?! I watched Charles Leclerc’s first lap of the Sprint onboard and it reminded me of the F14T. The vacuum cleaner. The car that looked like it was understeering and oversteering at the same time. Horrific. Much has been made of Lewis Hamilton’s form, and it is bad (Back-to-back Q1 eliminations? Haven’t seen that since Giancarlo), but what’s the point when the car looks undriveable? Charles Leclerc was trying to score the title battle as he was driving. BRUH.
Congratulations to Leonardo Fornaroli, the 2025 F2 Champion. He’s been exceptional this season, consistent in a field littered with errors from other talented drivers like Browning, Lindblad, Dunne and Crawford, was able to snag some strong wins when needed, and was clutch this weekend to finish 2nd when every other contender had to work twice as hard. The fact that he didn’t have even an Academy or seat within an F1 team until after the title was nearly won, let alone a full seat is somehow even cringier than Max Klymenko’s Career Ladder.
So, now we have a racing incident for what I thought was a pretty slam dunk penalty for Gasly taking Hulkenberg out? Were words discussed after the driver’s meeting over guidelines and standards?
Alex Albon has scored three points since Monza. Carlos Sainz has scored 48 since then. What has happened to the Thai driver’s form, and fair play to Carlos for finding his footing and showing his Ferrari heritage at Grove. With it, they’ve sealed 5th in the Constructors Championship. Incredible season from James Vowles and the squad and a huge step forward for Williams as a whole.
Zak Brown went on The Sports Agents podcast and described Verstappen as a horror movie character. Max’s response after the race? See the top of this page.
Helmut Marko accusing Antonelli of throwing P4 away on purpose is brainrot. Please go away, old man.
The Verdict: 4/10 (Poor) – The only reason this even got a 4, is because of the drama of watching McLaren undercook their fries. This is the worst track on the F1 calendar not named Monaco. It sucks. Full of medium speed corners that promote dirty air. Year 5 since coming here and Pirelli still can’t make a set of tires they’re confident are safe for even half a race distance. They slapped gravel down last minute to stave track limits, but the gravel was far too loose and was the size of rocks, damaging the cars. Screams bodgejob. We had one legal overtake after Lap 1 of the Sprint and it was a cure for insomnia. Amazing how the “street circuit” planned never actually materialised and now we’re stuck here for a decade. This shit sucks. See you in Abu Dhabi, that colossal improvement.
