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"Worst nightmare": F1 drivers and experts turn on McLaren
Emily Benammar • December 1st, 2025 11:56 am
With a world title on the line, team humiliation is becoming a little too regular at McLaren with yet another blunder destroying their weekend.
Just a week after suffering a double disqualification for a technical infringement in Las Vegas, a baffling decision from the engineers cost the team a possible double podium in Qatar.
A front row lock-out with Oscar Piastri on pole plus the Aussie’s sprint race victory had all the markings of the perfect weekend for McLaren in Qatar where Lando Norris could have wrapped up the world title with a win.
Instead, the most rookie of errors cost them dearly.
Every team except McLaren pitted after a seventh-lap safety car. It was a gift to all drivers given the mandatory two-stop strategy at the Lusail circuit. But nothing from the papaya.
Was it a strategic error? Or was it because a two-stack stop with Piastri in first would lose Norris time and places? The conspiracy theorists will certainly go with the latter, and who could blame them?
McLaren could have split their strategies and left Norris out and pitted Piastri. He was well ahead of Verstappen. But that would have possibly meant Norris falling behind Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
So have papaya rules threatened to totally destroy their season?
One thing is certain - It has broken their drivers with one race to go and Max Verstappen dangerously close to the top of the standings.
Eleven weeks ago, Verstappen was 104 points adrift of Piastri who led with Norris 34 off his teammate.
Now, with Verstappen winning in Qatar, Piastri second and Norris fourth, the title goes to the wire in Abu Dhabi with three drivers in contention for the first time in 15 years.
How the tables have turned and now the spotlight and fingers of blame are firmly back on McLaren.
So what has everyone said about it?
Martin Brundle – ex-driver and Sky F1
“I tried to get some words out of Oscar after the race but he was absolutely broken.
“Of course they (Norris and Piastri) should have both come in, or they should have split the strategy. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
“McLaren have two against one but actually that cost them tonight in a way because Red Bull had total freedom without a second car to think about.
“You’d have to say in a normal race, Piastri had enough speed. But they rolled the dice behind the safety car compared to everyone else did McLaren, and that’s just left the road open. You don’t need to give Max Verstappen a second chance.”
Andrea Stella – McLaren team principal
“Today’s race result is a huge disappointment,” Stella, the McLaren team principal, said. “We had the potential to win the race with Oscar. Certainly, he deserved that. He was fastest in qualifying, in the sprint, and then certainly the podium was available for Lando, but we lost the victory with Oscar, and we lost the podium with Lando.
“So definitely not the outcome that we wanted. Something to review in relation to the decision we made when there was a safety car at lap seven. We didn’t expect everyone else to pit.
“Obviously (when) everyone else behind you pits, then it makes it definitely the right thing to do. Obviously, when you are the lead car, you don’t know exactly what the others are going to do. It wasn’t the correct decision.”
Lando Norris – McLaren driver
"It's tough. We just had to have faith in the team making the right decision. It was a gamble … it's the wrong decision. We shouldn't have done it.
"Oscar lost the win and I lost the P2. I just want to go to bed.”
Zak Brown – McLaren boss
“We made the wrong decision, feel terrible for Oscar and Lando, Oscar was absolutely impeccable all weekend so we let them down,” Brown said.
“You win and lose as a team, but definitely not a great moment. Our evaluation… was clearly incorrect so we’ll go back and study that, nothing we can do about it now.
“We’re leading the championship, put Oscar at a deficit and left some points on the table, so we’ll just do what we can in Abu Dhabi, we were very strong there last year.”
__Simon Lazenby – Sky F1 __
“Extraordinary. Absolutely extraordinary. McLaren’s worst nightmare has materialised. Papaya rules appears to have caught them out.”
Ted Kravitz - Sky F1
“They are shell-shocked down here at McLaren. They don’t know what to say, they have gone down to the back of the garage.
“They said no interviews until after the podium. They need to go and understand, get their ducks in a row, and explain this all away.”
