Qatar was anything but boring: chaotic, controversial, and filled with enough stewarding drama to rival a soap opera. But once the dust settled on the chaos, there were winners and losers to be found. Want to know where your favourites landed? Be sure to read on:
Top of the class:
Zhou Guanyu – Shootout: 19th (started 18th) | Sprint: 19th | Qualifying: 12th | Race:8th
Zhou’s season hasn’t exactly set the world alight, but Qatar provided a rare high note for the Chinese driver. Finally, the Sauber looked like it had some fight in it, and Zhou seized the opportunity with both hands.
In a year where he’s arguably suffered the most from the team’s woes, Zhou delivered an exquisite drive to clinch eighth place, scoring his first points of the season and matching his career-best result from Canada 2022. Not bad for a driver whose F1 future is looking decidedly shaky.
And those points? They’ve saved Sauber from the ignominy of a second-ever pointless season in their history.
Max Verstappen – Shootout: 6th | Sprint: 8th | Qualifying: 1st (started 2nd) | Race: 1st
Alright, it wasn’t a dominant weekend where he championed from the beginning to end, but our freshly minted four-time world champion certainly was willing to put the work in to get himself another trophy on the shelf.
Red Bull and Verstappen were floundering in sprint qualifying and the sprint race, struggling to keep pace with midfielders like Haas (yes, really). But a quick set-up adjustment turned their weekend around, taking them (read: Max) from fighting for scraps on Saturday to sipping victory champagne on Sunday.
Although Max initially put his car on pole, the stewards handed him an eyebrow-raising one-place grid penalty, more on that later. But there’s one thing Verstappen excels at, though, it’s channelling his irritation into results. Like a man on a mission, he reclaimed that first step on the podium and didn’t let go of it again.
Honourable mention of the weekend goes to Fernando Alonso…
Let’s be honest, Fernando Alonso’s race looked like it belonged on the struggle bus in the early stages of the race. But by the end? He managed to scrape together a solid seventh place. Not flashy, but effective. It was enough to end Aston Martin’s four-race pointless streak and bring a flicker of life to their otherwise mostly drab campaign, for which he certainly deserves some kudos.
Struggle bus:
The FIA Stewards
It seems that in their attempt to appease the ever-critical public, they’ve managed to miss every turn and hit every pothole, leaving fans and teams questioning their direction more than ever.
To set the scene, the stewarding department has been in disarray lately. Niels Wittich stepped down just before Vegas, steward Tim Mayer was fired by text, and Formula 2’s race director Janette Tan was also shown the door. Enter Rui Marques, the new sole race director, juggling F1 and its support races this weekend. Spoiler alert: things did not run very smoothly,
First, we had the nonsensical one-place grid penalty handed to Verstappen for “blocking” Russell during qualifying when neither was on a fast lap. Fernando Alonso came to Verstappen’s defence, pointing out the inconsistent stewarding. And honestly, he has a point—when has Lance Stroll ever been penalised for obstructing traffic? (Answer: not nearly as often as he should.) It’s not hard to understand why fans and teams are crying foul over alleged FIA bias.
But the drama didn’t end there. During the race, Alex Albon’s wing mirror flew off on the main straight, and the stewards… did nothing. Sure, the mirror wasn’t directly on the racing line, but it was smack in the middle of a DRS zone and one of the prime overtaking spots on this circuit. Unsurprisingly, Bottas hit the debris a few laps later while moving aside to be lapped, scattering shards of carbon fibre everywhere.
The fallout was inevitable. Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz picked up punctures after running over the shards, ruining their races in the process. Cue a safety car, so cars could be guided through the pit lane as Marshals were sent out to clean up.
Then came the pièce de résistance: a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for Norris for failing to slow under double-waved yellow flags. While the punishment arguably fit the crime (as a similar penalty has been handed out to Mazepin before) the timing certainly didn’t. By waiting to make a final decision on said penalty until after the safety car, the stewards drastically altered the race’s outcome.
All in all, it was a huge mess which did nothing to abate critics. We can only hope that they’ve somewhat sorted themselves out for the last race of the year.
Sergio Perez – Shootout: 16th (pitlane start) | Sprint: 20th | Qualifying: 9th | Race: DNF
Sergio Perez is really putting his all in giving us absolutely nothing, because this was yet another week where he dramatically underperformed. With everyone breathing down his neck about his Red Bull future, you’d think Checo would be fighting tooth and nail to prove his worth. Instead, he’s definitely snapping rather than bending under the pressure.
His weekend started on the wrong foot with a disastrous shootout, qualifying 16th and resigning himself to a pitlane start for the sprint. Then, when the lights went green, he seemed to be daydreaming, letting Franco Colapinto breeze past him.
Qualifying offered a glimmer of hope, with Pérez finally crawling back into Q3. But let’s not sugarcoat it. A nine-tenths gap to Verstappen? Ouch. That’s the kind of margin that would make even midfielders blush.
And then when you think it couldn’t get worse, he managed to spin under the safety car on Sunday. Not under pressure, not while fighting for position—just a random spin. Truly embarrassing, and a fitting end to yet another forgettable weekend for Checo.
Esteban Ocon – Shootout: 18th (Started 17th) | Sprint: 14th | Qualifying: 20th | Race:DNF
Esteban Ocon’s Qatar weekend was underwhelming from start to finish.. Sure, you could argue that being sandwiched between Colapinto and Hulkenberg on lap one was not entirely his fault. But it was his qualifying performance that left him languishing at the back of the grid ready to be collected in the first place, for which he can most definitely be blamed.
But the real twist came in the hours before the race. In a dramatic ultimatum, Alpine forced Ocon to give up his seat in Abu Dhabi if he wanted to participate in Haas’s post-season tyre test for 2025. Forced to choose between loyalty and his future, Ocon opted to prioritise his new team, opening the door for Jack Doohan to make his Grand Prix debut. Even Haas boss Ayao Komatsu seemed baffled by the strong-arm tactics, claiming he had no idea Ocon’s tyre test was being used as leverage.
While Ocon publicly expressed regret at not being able to properly say goodbye to Alpine, the whole ordeal leaves a sour taste—an anticlimactic end to a rocky tenure.
The dishonourable mention of the weekend goes to Lando Norris…
While the penalty for failing to slow under double-waved yellows may have felt harsh, there’s no getting around the fact that it was entirely self-inflicted. If he’d done what he was supposed to, McLaren could’ve sealed the Constructors’ Championship in Qatar. Instead, the door is still wide open for Ferrari to snatch it in Abu Dhabi.
Next up: the grand finale in Abu Dhabi. While the drivers’ championship is wrapped up, the constructors’ title is still up for grabs. Catch the lights go out one last time this season at 1pm UK time on Sunday 8th December.
