Charles Leclerc (MON) Ferrari and Carlos Sainz Jr (ESP) Ferrari. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 18, Qatar Grand Prix, Thursday 5th October 2023. Doha, Qatar.
Formula 1’s Qatar Grand Prix could go “incredibly well, or incredibly wrong,” for teams, believes Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, owing to high temperatures and the Sprint format.
Formula 1 is returning to Qatar this weekend, which made its debut in 2021, but while the Lusail circuit’s layout has not been changed there have been alterations.
Tweaks have been made to the aggressive kerbs while the entirety of the circuit has been resurfaced.
With F1 Sprint returning it means drivers only have one hour of practice, likely to take place in the hot daytime conditions, before set-ups are locked in for the weekend.
Qualifying, the Sprint Race, and the grand prix itself, will take place in the cooler evening conditions.
The situation is also accentuated by the absence of any support events this weekend which will mean that the only rubber laid down will come from Formula 1 cars.
“It’s definitely going to be very difficult because we’ve got extremely hot temperatures, where we normally take a bit of time to understand what’s the limit for the cooling, etc,” said Leclerc.
“And now we only have one session, on a track that has been completely resurfaced, also, so there are many things that we need to learn in only one session. So, it can either go incredibly well or incredibly wrong.
“We have done a lot of work to prepare this race, in order for it to go very well, so I hope that will be the case.”
World Champion Max Verstappen, who is poised to clinch the title this weekend, said: “It’s tough, it’s very warm, then throughout the night it cools down a bit.
“So, what you do in FP1 is not clear for qualifying, it makes it a bit harder, a bit of a gamble and guessing as well to make the right call.
“For me it’s a bit of a shame as on this track it’d be amazing to have FP1/2 to set up the car nicely and be fully comfortable going into qualifying, for everyone, to really get the best out of it, but that’s how it is. They chose to do it here.”
Keyword: Qatar GP ‘could go incredibly well, or incredibly wrong’