Data reveals how McLaren team orders hampered George Russell in Qatar GP Sprint

Qatar GP Sprint data shows power of DRS effect as McLaren hold George Russell charge

Piastri struggled to keep Russell behind him, having to defend with manoeuvres on the limit into the braking of turn 1. Therefore, Norris with better pace in clean air decided to lend a hand to his teammate to hold off the W15 to secure the 1-2 for the Papaya duo and score as many points as possible for the team.

With only the slipstream effect and no DRS active, Russell had a +6 km/h top speed advantage over Piastri. This was already enough to put him in a favourable position to achieve DRS at the end of the lap being less than one second from the DRS detection line after Turn 15.

Therefore, Norris and McLaren decided to play it safe. The British driver from lap 5 onwards allowed Piastri to enter his DRS zone and thus create a DRS train and slipstream effect that did not allow Russell to easily attack Piastri under braking at Turn 1.

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But the real question: How much did Piastri gain from McLaren’s grand strategy, and was it really effective enough to prevent Russell from overtaking the Australian? By analysing the telemetry of both cars, we can confirm that it was a very powerful extra speed weapon to stop the W15.

After nine consecutive laps doing the same, Norris pushed again on lap 14 and pulled away from Piastri as Russell looked like he was going to fall back just like Hamilton did. However, the Mercedes driver pushed again and set the fastest lap of the race to regain DRS and attempt another attack on the Australian driver for P2.

Faced with this vulnerable situation that would have surely made Russell reach P2 sooner or later, McLaren again asked Norris to hand over his DRS to Piastri on lap 15. To do this as efficiently as possible, Norris lifted his foot off the throttle between Turns 14 and 15 just before the DRS detection line to get Piastri closer to his car once again.

On Norris’ speed telemetry we can see on the red line – lap 13 – how he does not lift his foot and therefore Piastri has no DRS at the start of lap 14 as we have seen on the previous graph. And how again at the request of the McLaren pit wall, he lifts his foot off the throttle again to allow Piastri to have DRS again at the start of lap 15.

Finally, Norris culminated his lesson in leadership and partnership by disregarding McLaren’s order to maintain the same positions between his drivers at the chequered flag. The British driver wanted to repay Piastri for the favour he did him in the Sprint race in Brazil when Norris still had a mathematical chance to be World Champion.

Now with nothing at stake individually and still maintaining the best possible result for McLaren in Qatar, Norris has given a lesson of leadership and partnership despite the fact that he can still mathematically lose out to Charles Leclerc for P2 in the Drivers’ Championship.

However, the Briton doesn’t seem to care as much about this achievement as the Monégasque, and it also goes to show that a win in this Sprint format doesn’t seem like a remarkable achievement for a driver’s record either.