2024 Formula One Qatar Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen wrapped up his 2023 title in the Qatar Sprint Race last year. Image: Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images

WHO ARE YOU SUPPORTING THIS WEEKEND?

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As Formula One leaves the United States for the final time in 2024, Max Verstappen comes into Qatar as a four-time World Champion. However, Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari are all locking horns for the Constructors World Championship heading into the penultimate round in Lusail.

Podium Prediction Game​

A flurry of new entries shook the table last week in Las Vegas. With the 2024 Formula One season reaching its penultimate round this weekend in Qatar, our Podium Prediction competition is close at the top with just two race weekends remaining.

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If you are not aware of how the Guess The Podium game works here on OverTake, do not fear! Our fantastic community manager, @Christopher E, has created an easy-to-read graphic with a short explanation that you can find below.

Ten points will be awarded for guessing the correct position and name, and five points will be awarded for guessing the correct name but the wrong position. At the end of the season, we will award the overall winner one year of Premium membership here on OverTake.

With only two rounds left, it is anyone's game! If you are new to the Podium Prediction game, don't be afraid to get your predictions in using the link below.

VOTE IN THE FORUM THREAD HERE!

If you have any questions, please ask in the comments below!
Christopher E - Community Manager

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Max Verstappen's Fourth World Drivers Championship​

After a hard-fought season, Max Verstappen left the busy streets of Las Vegas as your 2024 Formula One World Drivers Champion. The Dutchman has not always had the best car this year; however, he walks away with the title with two race weekends remaining.

Throughout his campaign of dominance in 2023, Verstappen was untouchable in nearly every race. However, in 2024, at times, he had the fourth fastest car on the grid. To be able to win the championship with two rounds left to go in a season with 6+ different winners speaks volumes about his consistency. Whether you love or hate him, Verstappen is a modern legend in Formula One.

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Max Verstappen, Qatar 2024. Image: Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images

Looking to the future, Max Verstappen's dad Jos has changed his mind about who should partner with his son next year at Red Bull. Initially, Jos had endorsed the new VCARB recruit, Liam Lawson. However, the ex-Formula One driver has said that with a more neutral car on the horizon for Red Bull, Perez will undoubtedly find his form again.

Valtteri Bottas Re-igniting The Driver Transfer Market​

Kick Sauber's Valtteri Bottas said he would 'relish an opportunity to return to a top team in a second driver role'. The Finnish driver left Mercedes at the end of 2021, and a return to the sharp end of the grid driving alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull would be feasible.

Bottas is without a contract for 2025. He and his Chinese teammate, Guanyu Zhou, lost their seats at Sauber after the team announced that Formula 2 leader Gabriel Bortoleto would join forces with Nico Hulkenberg for the 2025 season.

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Valtteri Bottas at KICK Sauber, Las Vegas 2024. Image: Formula One

“Obviously, really honoured that [Toto Wolff] would be willing to take me back to the Mercedes family, which is great. Of course, there are still many details we’ve got to discuss, like how much I would actually get to drive because I want to drive, whether it’s about testing and stuff like that. We’re discussing it, but there’s no need to rush.” - Valtteri Bottas, talking to Formulaone.com
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The Race For The Constructors Championship Is Still Red-hot​

The 2024 drivers' championship might have been seen out up by Max Verstappen last weekend in Las Vegas, but the Constructors' Championship remains up for grabs. With Red Bull the furthest off the title, the papaya squad are in the driver's seat.

McLaren is currently at the top of the standings with 608 points, just 24 points over stern chasers Ferrari in second place with 584 points. Red Bull, however, are further back in third place. As it stands currently, Red Bull is on 555 points.

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Lando Norris, 2024. Image: Formula One

Sergio Perez's poor string of form throughout 2024 is partly to blame for the distance they need to claw back to McLaren. Can the Mexican match his four-time world champion teammate to try and claw back another victory for Red Bull in the constructor's championship?

Qatar Grand Prix Schedule​

Regardless of where in the world you are, the Qatar Grand Prix will inevitably be a race you will not want to miss. Whilst it is not one of the more iconic and beloved circuits on the calendar, the constructor's title fight between McLaren, Red Bull, and Ferrari is fierce. It will almost inevitably boil over on race day.

SessionDateTime (UTC / EST)
Free Practice 1Friday, November 29th16:00 / 11:00
Sprint QualifyingFriday, November 29th17:30 - 18:14 / 12:30 - 13:45
Sprint RaceSaturday 30th November14:00 - 15:00 / 9:00 - 10:00
QualifyingSaturday 30th November18:00 - 19:00 / 13:00 - 14:00
Qatar Grand PrixSunday 1st December16:00 / 11:00

Who are you supporting in this week's Qatar Grand Prix? Let us know in the poll above and why you want them to do well in the comments down below!
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About author
Connor Minniss
Connor Minniss
Website Content Editor & Motorsport Photographer aiming to bring you the best of the best within the world of sim racing.

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Comments

T
Kimirai said:
lol not sure what happened between the sprint and the qualifying, red bull had no pace and now max grabs the pole?wow anyway a lot of dudes can win or get on the podium, great.
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sprint weekend: only 1 hour to setup the car, if you can't get the car inside the setup window then you underperform a lot, after the sprint setup changes are allowed again but there is not another free practice to check if the next changes are OK. So if you now choose a setup inside the setup window and the other competitors setup changes get then out of the window then your relative performance against your competitors increases a lot.

RBR are known for having a car that is really difficult to setup, they almost always need 3 practice sessions to get the car into the window. Here, because they know that weakness, they tried to setup the car in one direction with Max and another with Checo.

After the sprint the team watched in the telemetry that the direction they tried with Checo was the the one to follow, they tried to go even more aggressive in that direction for the qualy and it worked wonders for Max.

This is another reason why I hate Sprints, if you have a car that is difficult to setup you are dead on the water, and if you by mere luck get the car inside the window you are competitive, if your other main competitors by mere luck get their cars outside of the window then you are overpowered against them.

Drivers should be allowed to setup their cars properly so that they can show their true pace. The same thing happens in MotoGP, it was so lame see so many Marquez weekends destroyed because he couldn't find the setup window before the sprint qualy.

Motorsport has lost so many integrity in this last 10 years that it is crazy: balance of performance, stewards freestyling in order to keep world championships battles open, ban on testing, ban of the spare car, the hybrid engines freezing, stupid track limits because FIA is alergic to gravel traps and grass, stupid driving standards, the DRS, the stupid tire rules and the stupid tires themselves, the stupid sliding scale for aero testing, the ridiculous budget cap that don't allow in season upgrades outside of it, nor crashes outside of it.
 
D
Question: Has the number of crashes suffered by Williams been significantly reduced since Mick was canned? It seems every week since the 'steady' Albon has binned another blue car.
2nd item. X is hinting that Riccardo & Vettel 'may' be connected to the Andretti/Cadillac project. (yeah...I said it...ANDRETTI)
 
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Pete Conway
davehenrie said:
Question: Has the number of crashes suffered by Williams been significantly reduced since Mick was canned? It seems every week since the 'steady' Albon has binned another blue car.
2nd item. X is hinting that Riccardo & Vettel 'may' be connected to the Andretti/Cadillac project. (yeah...I said it...ANDRETTI)
Click to expand...
Really, I thought Seb might be too busy with Clarkso...'Vettel's Farm!'
 
WALEAD1999
cg to max cg to us as ferrari next race will be our race and big cg to sauber finally points specially with the Legend Zhou and shame for perez (as always ) stroll and FIA
 
K
my goodness, unbelievable, 10 sec stop and go?really?what about the other 19 drivers, i'm sure they all slowed down right?lol.. it was gonna be epic for the win between max and lando.
 
Durge Driven
Kimirai said:
my goodness, unbelievable, 10 sec stop and go?really?what about the other 19 drivers, i'm sure they all slowed down right?lol.. it was gonna be epic for the win between max and lando.
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Rookie Mistake ( facepalm ) then to ask sheepishly what you did wrong ( double facepalm )
 
Durge Driven
My guess they would have checked everyone else to be fair.
That is why penalty took so long coming.

Sure goes without saying ;) still is undeniable Lando rookie mistakes at Qatar and Brazil cost us good races.

Very rare you see mistakes like that from Max, why he is 4 WC.
 
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S
Kimirai said:
Yes indeed, but i'm sure he wasn't the only one and the penalty seemed too big, i'm sad cuz he and max were close and the last laps would have been awesome.
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I’d be extremely surprised if another driver didn’t slow down and wasn’t penalized. F1 tracks split times by sub-sectors, so it’s pretty easy to tell if someone didn’t slow down.

I’m confused why you are so sure the other ~16 drivers that were still on track didn’t slow down. It’s something they learn from the second they start racing. Not slowing down isn’t even a rookie mistake, rookies know better.

You can argue that the penalty is too harsh, but he almost certainly was the only one to ignore the flags.
 
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Harmoniser78
So Max has lost all respect for Russel, for complaining over the radio. But is fine to do it to Lando.

The Man may want to look up the word hypocrisy
 
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Pete Conway
To be honest I think that Lando got caught in the red mist of racing and his brain simply didn't process the flags, he was too intent on gaining on Max,
As for the penalty, well the 'FIA Rulebook' puts Yellow flags high on the respect list, and not obeying them is almost a hanging offence.
Yes he must have been the only one not to lift because the stewards have access to the engine readouts not just the mini sectors, Slam Dunk!

As soon as that mirror landed and stayed intact I said "at the very least 'safety car' it's on the overtaking line... the only overtaking line"
Four f****ng laps it took to come to that decision! and damage to at least 3 cars.
The 'New to it' Race Director should have thrown yellow at the point to stop cars using that part of the track, and all engineers should warn their drivers to stay left at the zone, then VSC for one lap driving through the pitlane to the mirror to be retrieved safely... no cheat stops allowed.
And I don't believe in the safety car restart because these drivers are the best in the world and if they can't control the car from cold then they shouldn't be there...
 
Pete Conway
Harmoniser78 said:
So Max has lost all respect for Russel, for complaining over the radio. But is fine to do it to Lando.

The Man may want to look up the word hypocrisy
Click to expand...
They all whinge like little B*******, but George v Max was two cars on build up slow/prep laps where one was prepping far faster than another, and Max v Lando was actually in a race where one driver gains on another by ingnoring the yellow flags.

They should take the radios out of the cars and give them a pit board to read at two hundred MPH, it's only broadcast to add intregue and excitement for the new 'tribalist fans'
 
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RichardHessels
Harmoniser78 said:
So Max has lost all respect for Russel, for complaining over the radio. But is fine to do it to Lando.

The Man may want to look up the word hypocrisy
Click to expand...
Not for complaining on the radio.
For being in the stewards office after the race, arranging the penalty for Max.
While playing the nice guy when Max or the Media is around, He talks very differently behind closed doors.
 
cerebralvortex
Premium
F1 is just a drama show all the time, I'm really tired of it. It wasn't like that 10 years ago, even less. It's become ridiculous.
 
WALEAD1999
ocon droped from abudhabi race and got replaced by doohan same as what ferrari made for professor alan prost in adelaide back in 1992
 

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