Red Bull strategist highlights 'advantage' over McLaren after crucial Qatar GP decision

Red Bull's principal strategy engineer Hannah Schmitz has explained her squad's advantage over McLaren that resulted in another Max Verstappen victory in Qatar.

Verstappen moved himself into second place at the start of the race from Lusail with an opening lap overtake on Lando Norris.

An early-race safety car was called after contact was made between Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg, with the whole field bar the two McLarens making the first of two mandatory pit stops.

It put McLaren out of sync with the rest of the pack and with overtaking proving to be extremely difficult, Verstappen cruised to a 70th career win after the Woking-based squad completed its chosen strategy.

Schmitz, the figure behind Red Bull's strategic decisions, stated McLaren was hurt by wanting to treat both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri as equals.

“I think they're in a very difficult situation where they obviously want to treat the drivers fairly,” Schmitz told Viaplay.

“I guess we're in a position to take advantage of that. That will be difficult for them, but also they have a fair amount of pace compared to the rest of the field.

“Maybe they were hoping they could fill out the pit stop gaps, and maybe they were also concerned with doing those maximum 25-lap stints. 

“But I'm not McLaren, so I don't know.”

Schmitz's decision-making was rewarded as she was chosen as the team representative to stand on the podium alongside Verstappen on Sunday.

She explained that due to the 25-lap maximum stints imposed on every tyre set, lap seven was the earliest possible point for a car to pit and make it to the end on two pit stops.

“Pre-race, that was exactly when our safety car and virtual safety car windows opened, that was the plan,” she said.

“There's such an advantage to putting under a safety car when you've got to do the two stops.

“Obviously on that in lap, we're hearing 'McLaren are staying out'. Everyone was like, 'Are you sure? Are you sure you want to pit?' I said, 'Yes, I really think so'.”