Ralf Schumacher scolds McLaren's baffling Qatar GP call: "Don’t need a PhD to figure that out"

Former Formula 1 driver and Sky Sports Germany analyst Ralf Schumacher was baffled by McLaren's strategy call during the Qatar Grand Prix.

After starting from pole position, Oscar Piastri crossed the line to finish in second and Lando Norris finished fourth after starting in second. A crucial moment for the Woking outfit came on lap 7 when the rest of the grid opted to pit under safety car conditions.

Drivers were limited to a maximum of 25 laps on each tyre, so everyone who pitted during the safety car were forced to stop again on lap 32. McLaren team chief Andrea Stella explained after the race that the team didn't think every other car would pit, and that they felt pitting would have limited their flexibility with strategy for the remainder of the race.

Ultimately, the decision did not pay off, and the drivers' championship fight will now go down to the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Schumacher reflected on the race, calling the team out for its decision.

"In my view, Stella basically said, 'No, that was my call - I made a mistake.' Full stop. And I honestly don’t understand it at all, because the lead driver gets priority - he’s the faster one. In this case, that was Piastri," he told Sky Sports Germany.

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"You absolutely bring him in. That way you’ve covered both options. It’s the ABC of motor racing. You don’t need a PhD to figure that out. That’s why I really don’t get it."

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Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images via Getty Images

He added: "The engineer needs to take responsibility and decide for his driver based on the gaps. You can’t have debates up front, people talking over each other on the radio - by the time that’s done, they’ve already driven past the pitlane."

Norris still leads the drivers' championship ahead of the season finale, but four-time champion Max Verstappen has overtaken Piastri for second position and now sits just 12 points behind the Briton. Piastri sits four points behind Verstappen in third.

"I think something went wrong in the chain of command," Schumacher continued. "There has to be one person who takes responsibility. And I suspect - I don’t want to say it too loudly - but there’s someone there who’s extremely ambitious. And in a situation like that, you have to trust the person making the call. If you try to make the call yourself, it’s already over.

"And once the first moment passed, the second one slipped by as well. It all happened too fast. I think that’s exactly why they missed it. They really need to address this. Piastri absolutely should’ve come in - it would’ve been an easy win. And maybe Norris would’ve ended up third, fine. But now he’s even worse off, because Max Verstappen probably would’ve passed him anyway just through the undercut. But it is what it is. They’ve got to sort that out.

"But I think the much bigger task now is convincing Piastri — because they cost him that win — that he’s still too far out of reach, and Max is coming. That now plays into Norris’s hands. That, I think, will be the harder challenge."

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