What does McLaren’s title bet mean?

McLaren, who used the qualifying laps to gamble and finish seventh with Lando Norris, did not take the opportunity to take to the track with wet tyres.

McLaren may have an advantage, as Norris had used his soft tires in early practice and qualifying.

According to the new sprint format, drivers should take to the track with new medium tires in the first and second part of the sprint standings, and with soft tires in the last part.

Aware of this rule, McLaren gave priority to the main race, choosing Norris to get full performance from soft tires on Friday – as a result, the British driver will start the main race from seventh!

However, the violation of those regulations allows the use of water tires in qualifying as opposed to practice sessions, since this deficiency is not set for the sprint format, names that do not have a new compound of the line you are free to go to the track and rain. tires.

Obviously, the teams have nothing to gain with wet tires in the dry qualifying session, so nobody took advantage of the gap; however, the final chapter rule in the new sprint format has brought this effect back into the spotlight.

Norris would have finished 10th by staying in the garage, but if another driver failed to make it to the track due to technical problems or crashed on his first lap and failed to pass the time, Norris would have been able to slow down and move forward. the ninth.

If Yuki Tsunoda, who also took this gamble, had stayed in the final session, then we could have seen the two drivers trying to pass each other on their wet tires.

The code gap appears to have been discussed in the sports advisory committee that finalized the code, but due to lack of time before the race, closing the gap is delayed until the end of the second race weekend in Austria.

Norris admits the situation was frustrating. “I probably like qualifying more than any other part of the weekend. I like racing, but qualifying is the only time you can drive straight.”

“Yeah, I think that’s kind of bad. You just want to go out and do some good laps and get a chance to see what you can do.”

“Maybe it won’t happen, but there could also be a situation where there is no one on the track in the last part of the sprint qualifying, if everyone used tires in Q3, it is possible. This situation is not available on television. .”

“A disaster could change the rules, but since only one or two cars are in this position, it probably won’t change.” say.