Qatar GP preview: McLaren’s double disqualification in Las Vegas, Max Verstappen’s title hopes, shock leadership changes at Aston Martin, and more burning questions

F1 returns to the fast and flowing Lusail Circuit for the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday, November 30, with all eyes firmly on the three-way championship battle between Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen. 

After a dramatic weekend both on and off track at Las Vegas, with McLaren’s double disqualification, Verstappen’s crucial victory, and a bombshell leadership change at Aston Martin, there is much to discuss as we continue the triple-header season finale. 

Sports News Blitz’s F1 writer, Henry Eccles, dives into five burning questions in the build-up to the Qatar Grand Prix. 

Why were McLaren disqualified at Las Vegas, and how has it impacted the Drivers’ championship? 

As the chequered flag waved on the Las Vegas strip, Lando Norris had one hand on the Drivers’ title. 

Despite Max Verstappen’s victory, and the Brit limping home in P2 due to what everyone thought were fuel issues, Norris now had a 30-point lead over his team-mate Oscar Piastri, whose struggles continued with a P4 finish. 

But a few hours later, both McLaren drivers had been disqualified - the rearmost skid wear on Norris and Piastri’s cars were found to be below the minimum 9mm thickness after inspection by technical delegates. 

Rather unusually, the McLaren double DSQ was not the worst news in the world for Piastri, as his deficit to Norris is now back to less than a Grand Prix win’s worth of points (24). 

For Norris, however, it is a huge blow - he’s not only got Piastri to deal with, but also four-time world champion Max Verstappen honing in after his Las Vegas GP equalled Piastri on 366 points. 

As for how McLaren managed to make such a massive blunder, the excuse coming out of the Woking team is that an FP2 disrupted by two stoppages, as well as a wet FP3 and a bumpier than expected Grand Prix, all added up to go against them. 

But still, every other team faced these challenges in Vegas, and all of the top 10 were checked, but it was only the Papaya team that were disqualified. 

Both Qatar and Abu Dhabi are much smoother tracks than Las Vegas, but with just one practice session at the former, as we arrive at a Sprint weekend, McLaren will have to be extra careful not to make similar mistakes, which could have an impact on performance.

READ MORE: F1 news: American grit and the beginning of Cadillac in Formula 1

After McLaren’s double disqualification, can Max Verstappen still win the Drivers’ Championship? 

Make no mistake, the Drivers’ title is still Norris’ to lose, but yes, Max Verstappen is absolutely still in this.

The problem for the Dutchman, however, is that Qatar is a match made in heaven for McLaren’s MCL39 - the track’s fast and flowing medium to high speed corners are perfect for a team that secured a 1-2 victory at last year’s Sprint race. 

The main race was a different story, though, and could remind Verstappen that his luck can turn at any moment. 

After a difficult qualifying for both McLaren drivers (P3 and P4), Verstappen took the Grand Prix win, while Norris fell all the way down to P10 after receiving a penalty for failing to slow down for yellow flags. 

Already a difficult track for overtaking, the Lusail Circuit will also see a mandatory two-stop rule this weekend, which only makes gaining track position all the more important, and arguably favours the mercurial Verstappen, who has already clinched surprise pole positions at tracks such as Suzuka and Silverstone this year. 

It won’t be easy - Norris now only needs to gain two points on Verstappen and Piastri to win the title on Sunday - but it would not be a surprise to see the Dutchman take this championship battle to Abu Dhabi, where he knows, more than most, anything can happen.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: F2 news: Who will perform well at the Qatar Grand Prix in the city of Lusail?

Do Ferrari have any hope for a good end to the season, or even a strong start to 2026? 

This was the question Lewis Hamilton was asked after another dreadful weekend in Las Vegas, and his answer was a resounding no on both fronts. 

On Saturday, the seven-time world champion never got his tyres going during a treacherous qualifying, and finished in P20 - the first Ferrari driver to do so since Giancarlo Fisichella in 2009.

Despite recovering well to an eventual P8 in the race, Hamilton cut a glum figure on media duty, not necessarily a rarity at this difficult stage of his career, but Las Vegas was a new low. 

After the race, Hamilton told Sky Sports that he felt “terrible” and that “it’s been the worst season ever and no matter how I try, how much I try, it just keeps getting worse.” 

Despite the impressive Grand Prix performance, the Brit almost refused to see any positives in his recovery drive, telling BBC Radio 5Live: "It's a terrible result. There is nothing positive to take from today.” 

"I'm eager for it to end. I'm looking forward to it ending. I'm not looking forward to the next one."

And when asked whether that meant he was not looking forward to Qatar, Hamilton clarified: “Next season.” 

His team-mate Charles Leclerc suffered a poor qualifying in P9, but made a strong recovery of his own to P4 after the double McLaren DSQ. 

But it is just not enough to save Ferrari from what has been a disastrous end to the season - after positive results for their rivals, they now find themselves even further behind in their battle for P2 - sitting in fourth, the Scuderia are 13 points behind Red Bull in P3, and 53 behind Mercedes.

MORE FOR YOU: IndyCar news: Mick Schumacher to drive in IndyCar in 2026 with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Will Kimi Antonelli continue his good form? 

Even if he didn’t, Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli has surely done enough to silence some mid-season critics with another impressive drive in Las Vegas. 

Starting from P17 after a tricky qualifying in the wet, Antonelli took advantage of an early VSC to swap his Soft tyres for Hards, and so embarked on a risky one-stop strategy to fly through the grid. 

By the latter stages of the race, the Italian had picked up a five-second penalty for a fractional starting infringement, and had Piastri and Leclerc right behind him with DRS assistance. 

But as the laps went on, Antonelli drove through his tyres graining and kept both the McLaren and Ferrari behind him on pace.

Remarkably, the 19-year-old crossed the line P4, got demoted to P5 thanks to his penalty, but then was promoted to the final podium spot after the McLaren DSQs.

Adding to his P2 finish in São Paulo last time out, it was another impressive showing from Antonelli, who has turned his season around after a tough European season prior to the season break. 

Team Principal Toto Wolff said Antonelli’s P3 was “super well-deserved” and claimed that there is plenty more to come from the young Italian. 

"We've always said that we expected it to be full of ups and downs, a great moment of brilliance, and a moment where you want to tear your hair out,” Wolff said. 

“So, this is not the end of the development, this is still very early, very early stages, and I hope we're going to see more from Kimi next year, more solid performances, and in the many years to come."

MORE F1 NEWS: F1: Winners and losers from the 2025 Las Vegas GP

What is going on at Aston Martin? 

Sunday was another day to forget for Aston Martin. 

Despite qualifying P7, Fernando Alonso finished agonisingly out of the points in P11, while Lance Stroll was out of the race on Lap 1 after Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto’s ambitious attempts to gain places at Turn 1 went awfully awry.  

The result means the team in green have gone three consecutive races without a point, and have only picked up 17 since the return from the summer break at Zandvoort. 

Earlier in the season, after a 16-point haul in Budapest, Aston were sat in P6 just 18 points off Williams in P5, but have since slipped to P8 and are now only four points ahead of ninth-placed Sauber.

With so much money behind them, and the ambition to be fighting at the front in 2026, team owner Lawrence Stroll clearly believes big changes are needed, judging by multiple reports to come out since the Vegas GP. 

On Monday, it was reported that Aston Martin were set to dismiss Team Principal and CEO Andy Cowell after disagreements with their new Managing Technical Partner, and legendary aerodynamicist, Adrian Newey. 

But that’s not all, they were also apparently seeking to reunite Newey with former Red Bull boss Christian Horner, a move that would most certainly have sent shockwaves up and down the F1 paddock. 

But instead, in a shock leadership reshuffle, Aston Martin announced on Wednesday that Cowell will be taking on a new role as Chief Strategy Officer, while Newey himself will become the new Team Principal from the start of 2026. 

Newey left Red Bull in early 2025 after his relationship with Horner strained following allegations of sexual harassment and controlling behaviour against the latter - Horner was cleared of the charges by two internal investigations, but never fully healed divisions that led to his sacking in July. 

Newey and Horner, who won a total of 13 titles together at Red Bull, have reportedly since repaired their relationship, and a different role for Horner at Aston Martin should not be fully ruled out just yet, with a CEO-type role technically now vacant at the team. 

A key condition for Horner’s F1 return is that he wants a leadership position that includes a shareholding in a team, similar to Wolff at Mercedes - whether or not that has been a sticking point in any talks with Aston Martin is unknown.

Still, it is interesting to note that Newey himself holds a 5% stake in the team. 

For now, at least, it seems Newey will be the face of the Silverstone team, despite reports also linking Andreas Seidl and Mattia Binotto with Aston Martin in recent days. 

While Newey has been in F1 for over 40 years, playing a key role in the successes of Williams, McLaren, and Red Bull, he has never been a team principal, so this story will be a very intriguing one to follow in these last few weeks of the season and the build-up to 2026. 

Next up for F1, the triple-header season finale continues at the Qatar Grand Prix on the weekend of November 28-30. 

The main race gets underway on Sunday, November 30, at 4pm UK time, with fans able to catch all the action on Sky Sports F1.

READ NEXT: Ashes news: What to expect in the second Test and where England must improve at The Gabba