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The Qatar Grand Prix – Information and schedule

The Qatar Grand Prix, the seventeenth of the originally planned twenty-three races, is scheduled for the weekend of 6-8 October. What is the schedule and where can you follow the race weekend?

Published

9 months ago

2. 10. 2023

Tomáš Myšák

Zdroj: Clive Mason, Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

The Qatar Grand Prix, the seventeenth of the originally planned twenty-three races, is scheduled for the weekend of 6-8 October. What is the schedule of the race weekend?

Qatar, the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi – these are the final six destinations we’ll be looking at later this F1 season.

The Lusail International Circuit will host the first ever Formula 1 race in 2021. However, motorsport fans will be familiar with the circuit from Moto GP races. Lusail International Circuit was built in 2004.

The queen of motorsport has already signed a decade-long contract with Qatar in 2021. However, that arrangement only came into effect this year. Last year, F1 did not visit Qatar for the World Cup.

Lusail International Circuit

The track itself is 5.419km long and consists of sixteen corners. The Lusail International Circuit, as the official name of the circuit goes, offers only one DRS zone, located in the start and finish area.

There is therefore one detection point on the track, which is located at the exit of turn 15. The Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix is scheduled for 57 laps, during which the drivers will cover over 308 kilometres.

But as well as the detection points, you can also see the average speeds that the drivers reach at each corner, and what gear they usually shift into at that corner.

Qatar Grand Prix – programme

The Qatar round is another of this season’s sprint weekends. All the action at the Lusail circuit kicks off with the first free practice session (officially called Free Practice 1 – ed. note). This will last for the standard one hour and is scheduled, of course, for Friday, October 6 at 15:30.

On the same day, from 19:00 to 20:00, qualifying will also take place, which will determine the order of drivers on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Saturday’s action will kick off at 15:00 with the Sprint Shootout, a qualifying session for the sprint race, which F1 has scheduled to start at 19:30. The Qatar Grand Prix will be run as a classic on Sunday with a 7:00pm start.

Qatar Grand Prix – Predictions

The previous Japanese Grand Prix was clearly dominated by Max Verstappen, who will be the biggest favourite to win in Qatar. However, as at Suzuka, the second fastest team should be McLaren. The Woking-based team recorded a double podium in the Japanese Grand Prix and could well repeat that in Qatar.

As far as Ferrari are concerned, the weather in Qatar will be really hot and that will do no favours for either team’s tyres. But the Italian stable is particularly sensitive to it. Carlos Sainz or Charles Leclerc could still finish in fifth place.

The same goes for Oscar Piastri in the McLaren, his teammate Lando Norris has a very real chance of attacking the top spot. A third place finish shouldn’t be a problem for the young Brit.

The big question is how Mercedes will fare. In Japan, Lewis Hamilton finished fifth, George Russell seventh. It was the seven-time champion who recently complained that his team had made virtually no progress.