How Red Bull nearly fell into the same trap as McLaren in Qatar GP

Red Bull principal strategy engineer Hannah Schmitz has explained she overcame scepticism from her colleagues to pit Max Verstappen despite both McLarens staying out in Formula 1’s Qatar Grand Prix.

The race was neutralised by the safety car on lap seven after Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly clashed; this happened to be the first lap when drivers could pit on to a two-stop strategy while respecting the mandated 25-lap cap on stints, which was implemented due to concerns over tyre wear on the demanding Losail track.

At that moment, Oscar Piastri was leading Verstappen and Lando Norris; McLaren didn’t pit the race leader and, despite the Red Bull diving into the pits, kept Norris out on track too. Every other team made the most of the safety car to get cheap pitstops, which team boss Andrea Stella admitted McLaren didn’t expect.

Schmitz’ plan in the event of a lap-seven safety car was for the Red Bull cars to pit, but doubt creeped in when it transpired that the McLarens were going to stay on track.

However, she doubled down on her decision, which paved the way for Verstappen’s comfortable victory – and his title challenge’s enhancement.

“Pre-race, that was exactly when our safety car and virtual safety car windows opened, and that was the plan,” Schmitz explained to Viaplay. “So, pit both cars if the safety car came out on lap seven. There's such an advantage to pitting under a safety car when you've got to do the two stops that, to us, that was a clear thing we should do. And I guess a lot of the pitlane felt the same.

Hannah Schmitz collects the winning trophy on behalf of Red Bull

Photo by: Lars Baron / LAT Images via Getty Images

“But obviously on that in-lap we're hearing ‘Oh, McLaren are staying out’. Everyone's like, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure you want to pit?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I really think so!’

“I thought, definitely that's the right thing to do. And then as soon as I saw everybody else coming in as well, I thought, OK, that's fine. Although it meant you have no flexibility at all when you make the second stop, just the advantage of gaining that much time.”

McLaren’s decision not to pit either driver was curious when it was made and is baffling in retrospect; from Schmitz’ point of view, this may be an extreme consequence of the team’s ‘papaya rules’ designed to ensure fairness between both its drivers.

Asked if McLaren failed to make a decision out of fear of favouring a driver over the other, the Englishwoman said: “Maybe. I think they're in a very difficult situation where they obviously want to treat the drivers fairly. And I guess we're in a position to take advantage of that. So, yeah, I think that will be difficult for them.

“But also they have a fair amount of pace compared to the rest of the field. And maybe they were hoping they could pull out the pitstop gaps and maybe they were also concerned with kind of doing those maximum 25-lap stints. I'm not McLaren, so I don't know, but that's a possibility.”