🇶🇦 F1'25 R23: Perfect Plex

The Qatar Grand Prix is 57 laps long.

Pirelli, to protect the tyres, enforced 25-lap maximum stint lengths for the grid, meaning that teams would have to pit twice. Any safety car before lap 7 would have still meant you’d have to stop twice e.g. lap 6, lap 31, lap 56. But surely once the start was out of the way, everyone would settle into the dreaded management phase and it would be relatively calm until people headed down the pits.

Enter Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg. The two drivers collided into the tightening Turn 2 and suddenly everyone had a decision to make, starting with the lead cars.

Oscar Piastri stayed out, Max Verstappen went in, Lando Norris stayed out. Everyone else except Esteban Ocon changed their tyres. For McLaren, this wasn’t about preserving track position, this was about flexibility. Pitting on Lap 7 meant that cars HAD to pit on lap 32, as pitting earlier would mean a third stop at some point. The theory was that McLaren could blow past the field, build a gap in 18 laps, pit on lap 25 or slightly sooner and have the benefit of the race unfolding to control when that second stop should be.

Zak Brown said that the Team had clearly made a huge mistake. And it’s something that has been noted here before. After Japan, I wrote:

In this case, I am wrong. Box Opposite wasn’t the right idea here, and flexibility was overrated as McLaren hoped for a safety that never arrived. Both Piastri and Norris didn’t wait until the later laps for that second stop, pitting earlier and hoping they would have enough to chase down Verstappen with a fabled tyre offset. Just as a sidenote, when was the last time the offset worked?

There are echoes of the sport’s history here. We’ve talked previously about 2007, and while two McLaren’s squabble about who wins the title, a slightly surly European man sneaks in and steals it. But Qatar gave us a bit more, with a look to 2008.

I think we got something of an IS THAT GLOCK moment in the desert. The lead was about 10 points going into the last race, before Carlos Sainz - Norris’ previous team-mate - reported understeer. This looked like he would fall through the field, but held on for a second podium of the season and confirmed Williams finishing the year in fifth.

Fifth is obviously a huge turnaround for the team that finished ninth in 2024, replacing Logan Sargeant/Franco Colapinto with Carlos Sainz after the Spaniard was dumped by Ferrari for Lewis Hamilton. To complete the ghosts of Ferrari drivers past, present and future, it was Antonelli who ran wide, opening the door for Norris to finish fourth and claim 12 points. That’s the lead Norris holds from Verstappen into just the second time the sport has entered Round 24.

Unfortunately, the toxicity that has consumed some of F1’s fandom, combined with it being perennially extremely online, meant that comments from the team about Antonelli led to the teenager getting all sorts of abuse. The team released a statement recanting and regretting, but in this news cycle, you know how that goes. Online abuse is not a new problem to F1, and 2021 is no different with abuse being sent from all sides.

It’s not the only echo with 2021 either. Max Verstappen faces a British driver for the title in Abu Dhabi. I don’t need to tell you what happened there, and yes the circumstances are slightly different as Red Bull aim to complete the greatest comeback in the history of sport, not just Formula 1.

This time, though, there is a third man, and Oscar Piastri has seemingly rediscovered the form that made him the favourite for a first McLaren drivers’ title since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Piastri may have left it a little too late, needing to finish in the top two, and then hope that Norris and Verstappen fall down the order, but there is yet another slightly twisted echo to look at.

Nico Rosberg won his solitary championship in 2016, but towards the end of it, it was the other half of The Silver War that controlled the track. Hamilton slowed down more and more, hoping that Vettel or Verstappen would pass Rosberg and give the Brit the points he needed to win what would have ended up as seven consecutive world championships from 2014-2020.

So, if Piastri ends up setting the pace at the finale, with Norris behind him, there’s nothing that stops him doing the same. It’d be unlikely that he’d be able to cause enough congestion to get the result he needs, but he does also work as an unlikely kingmaker. If Norris finishes on the podium, the other results are irrelevant. Norris wins the title, but let’s say it’s a lap remaining and Norris is fourth with Verstappen leading. Then add George Russell second and Piastri third. 

The Australian would suddenly hold all the power in this equation, and could move aside for his teammate. I’m trying to imagine the panicked team radio conversations as Fruity Rules reaches a point of no return. If Piastri moves and Norris wins the championship, then some will always put an asterisk next to it. If he doesn’t, then how does he repair his relationship with Norris, but not just Norris. The thousand-ish people he represents who work day in, day out so he has the privilege of driving the car. At this point, Piastri could name his price, but either way would be writing his way into F1 history. That’s your last potential echo of 2021, with an Australian being pivotal to the title picture. NO MIKEY, THIS IS SO NOT RIGHT! MIKEY! 

(Somewhere, an Austrian billionaire just shuddered)

Just for funsies, I put this out as a poll on Threads, and 1200+ votes later, the verdict was that most people would hold position and let Verstappen win a fifth world title.

And I suppose, if you want to be conventional about it, you could also look at 2010, the last time you had more than two drivers fighting it out in the final round for the Championship. Sebastian Vettel won in Abu Dhabi. It was the first time all season Vettel had led the standings outright, the Red Bull driver leading the two McLarens home.

(Somewhere, a papaya-shirted Californian billionaire just shuddered)

I cannot wait for the final race of the season, and in some ways, whatever the result ends up being, it will be a shame because the toxicity of some elements of this sport’s fanbase is its worst feature. McLaren didn’t favour one driver ahead of another up to now (although maybe it should have favoured the driver behind at all times if they wanted to control the title fight). Antonelli didn’t go off deliberately. Ferrari are not sabotaging Hamilton. The FIA does not favour any particular driver. Yes, it’s another 5-second penalty for Ocon.

It will be a fantastic finale, and whoever wins, they and their teams absolutely deserve it.

📖 Those good Threads

Leonardo Fornaroli did the Bortoleto/Piastri by winning F2 the year after winning F3. The Italian is rumoured to be joining the McLaren Extended Universe.

Formula E starts up again, you’ll need a Brazil race preview from JodieWritesRacing

Some fun storylines for Abu Dhabi

🪦 The headline reference 

All the headlines in 2025 are wrestling references.

Curt Hennig was Mr Perfect. He never won the WWF world title as it was then, but was regarded as one of the greatest pro wrestlers of his era. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007.

His finisher was the Perfect Plex, which sounded like flex, so it’s a reach, but if you’ve read this far, you’ll allow it.

He also had a line in fun videos, like this one, showing the perfect gimmick to full effect.

Thanks for reading