McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown admitted the team’s mistake in the Qatar Grand Prix has set up an end to the season the sport’s bosses will appreciate.
Both McLaren drivers will go into this weekend’s season finale with a chance of winning the title. However the team’s tactical error in Losail handed victory to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, strengthening his position in the three-way contest.
Oscar Piastri was on course to win the race for McLaren before the team opted not to pit either of its drivers during an early Safety Car period. That ultimately cost Piastri the win, handed it to Verstappen, and dropped Norris from third place to fourth.
The result means three drivers are in contention for the world championship for the first time under F1’s current owners Liberty Media. Brown joked F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali will appreciate the interest that should create for the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi this weekend.
“We’re helping Stefano with TV ratings,” he told Viaplay.
“It wasn’t exactly our master plan,” he added. “But let’s see what Abu Dhabi brings. We won there last year, qualified on the front row, so no doubt we’ll be strong there.”
He said it was clear the team “got it wrong” with their strategy as almost every other driver pitted during the Safety Car period on lap seven.
“Our evaluation was wrong,” he said. “Obviously that was the key lap.
“I feel terrible for Oscar and Lando. Oscar was absolutely brilliant all weekend and he closed the gap, but we put him in obviously too big of a disadvantage. Lando drove great.
“Clearly [it’s] pretty frustrating handing away a win and two cars on the podium with what’s going on with the championship. But we’ll do a proper debrief and come back in Abu Dhabi and try and win this thing.”
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