2023 Qatar GP: Post Race Analysis

A race that perhaps should have been a bore was full of excitement. The mandatory pitstops caused by the 18 lap tire limit proved to be gold as it forced drivers to push and it and created some randomness with the additional stops. Most people have felt for years that tire management sucks, and we need more pitstop to make F1 races sprint races again. The downside was the dangerous conditions it put on the drivers. F1 can't have drivers throwing up and on the verge of passing out. We could talk for hours for how bad the clowns that run F1 failed during the race, but lets move on.

Red Bull Racing delivers Max Verstappen his 3rd championship. Much closer than usual, but it seemed like Max was completely in control the entire race. I can't help but think the RB19 isn't as great as people think. Best car yes, but Perez continues to show as an average driver the car far from a guaranteed winner. Of course he doesn't help himself. Three 5 second penalties for track limits. Get real! That is inexcusable.

McLaren look phenomenal lately. The improvements they have done to their car is beyond impressive. Oscar has been extremely impressive, continues to improve as a driver and is living up to the hype. Lando is still Lando and did appear to be the faster driver, but his own quali mistake put him in that position. Double podium is still great for them.

Mercedes perhaps had a car faster than McLaren today. Unfortunately it was wasted from Lewis crashing into George. What is with those drivers not being able to race without crashing into cars they are trying to pass? Straight away Lewis went to box Russell in and prevent his teammate from making a move on the McLaren's which is a bit of a jerk move. Borderline racing incident, but 100% Lewis' fault. George had a brilliant recovery. At times he looked like he was in a different formula against the cars around him.

Ferrari started the day with a failure. Sainz a DNS due a fuel leak. Things happen, but with 20 mechanics, all the system checks, etc... it shouldn't happen. Leclerc brought the fight today. A very solid drive by him, just the car had its limits. 5th place with the 4th best car. Not too shabby. Unfortunate to see Mercedes continue to score more points.

Aston Martin may have been the 6th best car, but Alonso eeked out a good result despite his own rare driver error that put him off the track. Stroll failing to score points due to his own penalty is worth a laugh.

Alpine looked pretty strong. Ocon had a decent race despite apparently throwing up in the car. Gutsy race, no pun intended. Gasly supposedly struggled with some ERS deployment and unfortunately made the same mistake twice in passing while off the track. A few inches that proved very costly.

Alfa Romeo had one of their best day. Did they bring upgrades or did the short stints really help their race? Bottas had perhaps his best qualifying performance of the season and translated that into an 8th place, even with a different strategy. Zhou arguably drove an even better race. 9th place after starting last on the grid!

Williams was there or there abouts for a point, but so was everyone else. Albon looked to be in a position for a point or two, but his track limits issues hurt his race. No shame for Logan for retiring due to feeling sick from the heat.

Haas looked reasonable compared to late. It makes sense since their car is fast in qualifying, but chews through tires. So the 18 lap tire limit suited their car. Unfortunately they didn't make the most of it. Hulkenberg's silly mistake didn't help, but 10 second penalty for a grid position error is awfully harsh compared to 5 seconds for crashing into people.

AlphaTauri looked pretty terrible. No pace for them.

Driver of the Day: George Russell. Gets punted by his teammate, put down to dead last. Forced to make an early pitstop, losing one of his sets of prime medium tires. Drives like he was possessed all the way back to 4th. Hell ya buddy.