McLaren ‘gave away’ Piastri’s Qatar win as Zak Brown speaks out

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown did not attempt to hide his frustration after Max Verstappen snatched Qatar Grand Prix victory from the team.

It looked as though one of Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris would win the Qatar GP, to make a McLaren title double near certain in Abu Dhabi. Norris could even have sealed the deal in Qatar. Instead, Verstappen heads to Abu Dhabi just 12 points behind Norris, and Brown was understandably frustrated.

Zak Brown: McLaren made ‘huge mistake’

When the Safety Car came out on Lap 7, Verstappen was at the head of a train of cars which dived into the pit lane. Both McLarens, plus Haas’ Esteban Ocon, were the only drivers to stay out.

It soon became clear that this was a glaring error from McLaren.

With a 25-lap limit in place for tyre safety, it meant that Norris and Piastri still needed to make two pit stops after the SC period. With track position, Verstappen delivered, winning the Grand Prix by eight seconds from Piastri.

A late error from Kimi Antonelli gifted Norris fourth and two further precious points, but Verstappen heads to Abu Dhabi with momentum, and a deficit of only 12 points to overturn. There is little margin for McLaren error.

Brown did not attempt to gloss over the magnitude of McLaren’s Qatar GP strategy blunder.

“We clearly made a huge mistake,” Brown told Sky Deutschland.

“I think Oscar was absolutely impeccable all weekend. We gave his win away. I think it’s the reality. There’s no other way to look at it. And we gave Lando’s podium away. Very frustrating.

“We clearly made the wrong call. Nothing we can do about it now other than learn from it. This is two weekends in a row with some big learnings. But we need to come back in Abu Dhabi and fight hard.

“We’re leading the championship. Gave away some points for Oscar. So we need to not make these mistakes. It’s obviously all a bit raw at the moment.”

Brown did give Verstappen his flowers for driving “a great race”, while his Red Bull team “made the right decision”.

However, “We kind of handed that one to him. Not that he didn’t do a great job,” Brown admitted.

More McLaren reaction from the Qatar Grand Prix

👉 ‘Speechless’ Oscar Piastri fumes at McLaren tactical mistake in Qatar GP

👉 Lando Norris reacts to McLaren Qatar GP strategy error as Verstappen closes in

Piastri stated that this Qatar experience outweighed the pain of his disqualification last weekend in Las Vegas. Both he and Norris were excluded from the results due to excessive plank wear.

“Pretty high – and that’s saying quite a lot given the last few races I’ve had,” he said of his frustration levels.

“Clearly, we didn’t get it right today, which is a shame because the whole weekend went very, very well. We had a lot of pace. I felt like I drove well. So, yeah, it’s pretty painful.

“I think on a personal level, I feel like I’ve lost a win today. In Vegas, I lost a P4. Obviously, for the team, it was a pretty painful weekend. But, yeah, I think for me personally, this probably hurts more.”

The top three of Norris, Verstappen and Piastri is covered by 16 points going into the title decider in Abu Dhabi.

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