Martin Brundle calls out McLaren ‘grave error’ as three-part ‘gamble’ fails

Martin Brundle says that McLaren “gambled” on three things happening during the Qatar Grand Prix that were all “out of their control”. None of those gambles paid off.

McLaren suffered for their decision to be the only team which did not pit their drivers behind an early Safety Car in Qatar. That opened the door for Max Verstappen, who took full advantage to claim victory, and establish himself as a major threat as the title race heads for an Abu Dhabi decider.

Martin Brundle claims three-part McLaren gamble failed

When Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly collided, triggering a Lap 7 Safety Car, Verstappen headed the queue of drivers who dived into the pit lane. The timing could not have been better. Due to the 25-lap stint limit in place for tyre safety reasons, it meant those drivers were now locked into a two-stopper of two 25-lap stints.

McLaren, though, did not box either Oscar Piastri from the lead, or Lando Norris, meaning they both still needed to make two pit stops after the race resumed, with Verstappen and the pack right back on their tails by the time the Safety Car returned to the pits.

Piastri was unable to catch Verstappen in the final stint, while Norris was restricted to fourth.

Norris could have secured his first world championship in Qatar, while McLaren could have at least made Abu Dhabi a papaya-exclusive title shootout. Instead, Verstappen heads to the last race just 12 points behind Norris.

Sky F1 commentator and pundit Brundle claimed that McLaren “paid a heavy price” for gambling on three scenarios, none of which they had control over, or paid off.

“The McLaren strategists elected not to pit Oscar Piastri from the lead and Lando Norris from third place and to keep flexibility on tyre decision, rather than being locked into two 25-lap stints,” Brundle stated in his Sky Sports column.

“This was a grave error, because hardly anyone else did that, and Piastri had such a lead already that he would have comfortably pitted and exited in the lead without holding Norris up too much while he waited for service.

“The Safety Car soon picked up the leaders and, by the end of the next lap, Max Verstappen and the rest of the pack were back on the tails of the McLaren with effectively a free pit-stop under their belts which is worth a significant 26 seconds on this layout.

“McLaren had gambled on three things out of their control, and they paid a heavy price.

“Firstly, that others would do the same thing in staying out and Verstappen would have to negotiate traffic for a while on the restart.

“Secondly, that flexibility on their tyres would pay dividends later in the race, not least if there was another Safety Car, and in any event pitting with a much less congested pit lane.

“Thirdly, that they would have much fresher and faster tyres in the closing stages to usurp a struggling Verstappen on his long-stinted tyres. None of them played out.”

Brundle expressed particularly sympathy for Piastri, who, once the overwhelming favourite for the title, heads for Abu Dhabi third in the championship and 16 points behind Norris.

While not out of the running, Piastri needs things to dramatically fall his way, with a maximum of 25 points available.

“I feel most for Piastri,” said Brundle, “he was sublime all weekend and clearly the fastest combination on track with two pole positions, an easy Sprint victory, and comfortably the fastest in the main race.

“He managed to close 18 seconds on Verstappen of the 26 initially given away, but he was therefore still eight seconds shy at the flag.”

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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has promised a “very thorough” review of the team’s Qatar GP strategy mistake.

Asked by PlanetF1.com whether McLaren had effectively given 25 seconds away to Verstappen by not pitting its drivers, Stella replied: “I think, in terms of the outcome of the decision, that’s a fair interpretation.

“Effectively, we have conceded one pit stop to a rival that was fast today.

“Obviously, we did it for a reason. The reason was that we didn’t want to end up in traffic after the pit stop, but obviously all the other cars and teams had a different opinion in relation to a safety car on Lap 7.

“Everyone pitted and this made our staying out ultimately incorrect from a race outcome point of view.

“And like I say, because Verstappen was fast, and also because the tyre degradation was low, ultimately this decision was significantly penalising because clearly Oscar was in control of the race and deserved to win it and we lost the podium as well with Lando.

“I think in terms of the misjudgement, it’s something that we will have to review, discussing internally…We will have to go through the review in a very thorough way, but what’s important is that we do it as usual, in a way that is constructive, is analytical.”

Additional reporting by Mat Coch and Thomas Maher

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