The votes at the penultimate round of the season: Sainz gets a podium of 9, the McLarens don’t choose and get 5
Losail and Qatar, with the GP bound by strict rules (maximum 25 laps with one tire compound, therefore two mandatory pit stops), have explained that the F1 World Championship remains open and that Max Verstappen can be champion again. The Flying Dutchman didn’t win and rose to second place, ousting Oscar Piastri, but he has now crept in like a worm in the certainties of McLaren, a team that seems to have dangerously under-filled sails.
Hannah Schmitz: 10 e lode
It is a duty to open report cards with those who put Max Verstappen in a position to sign certain feats. Of course, its handle counts, but it also decides the interface with the wall, where Hannah the “engineer” often thinks it’s right. In Qatar he called the Dutchman to the pit stop during the safety car regime (due to the Hulkenberg-Gasly accident): thus he separated him from the McLarens (who remained on the track) and gave him the assist to convert into the victory.
Max Verstappen: 70
The Shark has now entered the Papaya Sea to prey on those who believed they had already secured, after the Constructors’ World Championship, also that of the drivers. Nothing is impossible for the Alien, at victory number 70; no mission is beyond the limit for a quadricampeon who wants to become pentacampione. It won’t be easy for Max, in Abu Dhabi, to get 12 points behind Norris without cradling the +4 compared to Piastri: but the jaws are wide open.
Laurent Mekies: 10
Another figure from “behind the scenes at Red Bull” – not even that much, being the team principal – who deserves proscenium and applause: since his arrival (Belgian GP), after the dismissal of Chris Horner, the team has regained the pace of its best days, presenting itself as a credible rival to those who were at their best (McLaren). The ex of Toro Rosso, of Ferrari – by the way: will anyone’s ears ring in Maranello? – and from Racing Bulls he calmed down a team in full turmoil and dictated the simplest and most logical line: let’s follow what Verstappen says. Occam’s razor applied to Formula 1.
Carlos Sainz: 9
«Garona» again on the podium, a man who was always present in 57 laps which at the last minute meant that he would have to resist the attempts of Antonelli (before the mistake) and Norris to oust him from the top three. But in the end, in the desert, the Tartars did not appear (as in Buzzati’s novel, which is set not in Qatar but in an imaginary country). Carletto is now in tune with Williams.
McLaren: 5
We would like to give it at least a passing grade because the gesture of not staggering the strategies between the two drivers so as not to favor one or the other in the championship fight was noble. But sometimes you need to be cynical and “non-choices” become a boomerang. In the case of the Papaya Boys it doesn’t end up completely on the skull, but it causes some damage: the revisable evaluations mainly affect Piastri. And now, as Andrea Stella rightly says, it will be man (Verstappen) against team (McLaren): provided that the team knows how to be such when a sharp player is needed. Note: the double zero in Las Vegas, due to the well-known disqualification, risks having an impact.
Lando Norris: 6.5
First don’t make mistakes, second let’s see what happens. Lando cannot be crucified for being a diligent accountant, but a little more charisma was expected from a World Championship leader, with half a title in his pocket. He was once again uncertain at the start (overtaken by Verstappen, but this time without the temptation to slap him: the concept expressed at the beginning applies), he became a little heated at the end when he received the grace of fourth place and two additional points following Antonelli’s mistake (which without that mistake would hardly have been overcome).
Oscar Piastri: 7.5
After a period of profound darkness, which cost him the leadership in a World Championship that he seemed to have in his pocket, he suddenly returned to shine. Mysteries of F1 and the psyche. From pole (sequel to the success in the sprint race on Saturday) he took off for a breakaway that would have been successful and announced if the McLaren garage hadn’t screwed up the accounts.
Kimi Antonelli: 7+
It’s a shame for that “large” killer who certainly made him lose fourth place and maybe even the podium, because Sainz’s third place was not at all forbidden to his Mercedes. Once the GP had been purged of this blunder, Kimi reaffirmed his period of grace with a solid test at the end of which he once again put his nose in front of his teammate.
George Russell: 6
Here’s the rollercoaster rider again, a little up (for example in the sprint: second) and a little down, as in this insipid GP. They say that in the end a Losail taxi company offered him a part-time contract, just to top up the Black-Silver Arrows’ salary.
Isack Hadjar: 7
Once again it had been as reliable as a Treasury Bond, a permanent presence not only in the top ten but also close to the best positions. When he seemed to be able to grab at least seventh place, he was hit by a curb which shattered his tire. But it is clear that he is ready to leave Racing Bulls and land at Red Bull alongside Verstappen.
Fernando Alonso: 6.5
After 3 GPs of tight and fast conditions he sees the points again with seventh place. Today, with an evanescent Aston Martin, awaiting the turning point that will make Adrian Newey the plenipotentiary of the team from 2026, it is the frontier in which a driver who deserves much more must crouch. But Fernando still explained that despite being 44 years old, he still wants to play this little game.
Ferrari: 0
The fig leaf has fallen, fourth place in the Constructors’ World Championship is now arithmetic and is there to certify the disaster of a season that started with proclamations – the idea was to keep a blow to McLaren and co – and now instead at the epilogue with the disconcerting realization that the most successful team in history has not managed to change pace adequately.
Charles Leclerc: 5
He is discovering that nightmares can be very long and that they do not necessarily end with the awakening that chases everything away.
Lewis Hamilton: 0
On the top of the helmet it has the Perplexity writing. Well, we’re perplexed too, seeing how he’s dressed…
Liam Lawson: 6,5
Less performing than Hadjar, but decent and always with his head above water with a rather ordinary Racing Bulls this time.
The anonymous: 5
Many end up in the landfill bag. Separate waste collection: Stroll gets his nose poked by Alonso again (you know what’s new…); Tsunoda is just waiting for the fateful letter from Helmut Marko; Ocon collects penalties as if they were stickers; Albon in the Williams kidnapped from him by Sainz now sees the world backwards (and Vannacci has nothing to do with it); Gasly has the bad luck of running into the clumsy Hulkenberg (but he still had the car that shot sparks under the front wing like an electric chair); Colapinto arrives ahead of Gasly but doesn’t know how to excite; Bortoleto just does an uninspiring task.
Nico Hulkenberg: 4
No, come on, Nico: don’t come and sell us that that clash with Gasly was the Frenchman’s fault. Next time take a measuring tape to measure the space carefully.
The FIA: 2
It is easier to overtake on the Valtellina state road than on the Losail track. But it was cleverly decided to reduce by 150 meters the area in which it is detected whether a pilot is authorized to use the mobile wing: fantastic job, Nigel Mansell would have said.
Leonardo Fornaroli: 10
The boy from Piacenza is the F2 world champion, after having won the F3 title last year. He is the third Italian to achieve it after Giorgio Pantano and Davide Valsecchi and he is the fourth to achieve the F3-F2 “back to back” after Leclerc, Russell and Piastri. Leo, good winds for you.
