For the second time in a week, McLaren snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.
However, while there was a certain amount of sympathy for the harshness of the double disqualification in Las Vegas, the strategic disaster of Qatar was purely a case of the Woking team shooting itself in the foot... Ferrari style.
Oscar Piastri had dominated the weekend and looked set to claim victory and thereby take the title fight to Abu Dhabi, however the strategic blunder that instead allowed Max Verstappen back into the game left the Australian speechless.
The mandatory 25-lap limit on each tyre set dictated that every single driver would have to stop at least twice, and when Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg clashed on Lap 6 of the 57-lap race, and the Safety Car was deployed, almost the entire field took the opportunity to pit, everyone that is except the McLaren pair and Esteban Ocon.
The Woking team sought to justify its decision not to pit its drivers by telling them that the move offered more flexibility than its rivals, though this appeared to centre on hopes of a second Safety Car deployment later in the race.
Though now leading, Piastri and teammate Lando Norris, who had already lost out at the start, faced the prospect of having to up their pace, aware that they were a (mandatory) pit stop behind, and that should they fail to create the requisite gap they would emerge in traffic, possibly even in a DRS train.
Piastri was able to finish second, having reeled in Verstappen, while Norris passed Kimi Antonelli for fourth on the penultimate lap.
At race end the Australian was speechless, for what had looked to be a certain victory ended up with him slipping to third in the title fight, leapfrogged by Verstappen who is now just 12 points down on Norris.
Usually keen to face the media, Zak Brown instead took to social media.
"No excuses," he wrote, "we got it wrong today and take full responsibility as we could have won that race with both drivers on the podium.
"Both drivers deserved more," he admitted. "Oscar was dominant all weekend. Time to debrief, reset, and come back stronger in Abu Dhabi."
Instead, it was team boss, Andrea Stella who faced a disbelieving world.
"Effectively, we conceded one pit stop to a rival that was fast today," he admitted. "Obviously we did it for a reason and the reason was that we didn't want to end up in traffic after the pit stop, but obviously all the other cars and teams had a different opinion in relation to a safety car at Lap 7.
"Everyone pitted, and this made our staying out ultimately be incorrect from a race outcome point of view," he continued. "Like I say, because Verstappen was fast, and also because the tyre degradation was low, ultimately this decision was significantly penalising because clearly Oscar was in control of the race and deserved to win it, and we lost the podium as well."
Indeed 16 of the remaining 19 drivers pitted, and even Ocon opted to stop a lap later, so how did McLaren get it so monumentally wrong?
"In terms of the misjudgement it is something that we will have to review, discussing internally," said the Italian. "We will have to assess some factors like, for instance, whether there was a certain bias in the way we were thinking that led us as a group to think that not all cars necessarily would have pitted.
"There are sometimes some objective reasons and sometimes there may be some biases in the way you think," he continued. "We will have to go through the review in a very thorough way, but what's important is that we do it as usual in a way that is constructive, that is analytical.
"Racing is tough, racing may give you tough lessons, but this is the history of champions," he insisted. "This is just the history of Formula 1, this is the true nature of racing. We are disappointed, but if anything as soon as we start the review we will get even more determined to learn from our lessons, adapt and be stronger as a team."
While some accuse the Woking outfit of 'we know best' arrogance, it has been suggested that stopping at the same time as the rest of the field - double stacking its drivers like the majority of the teams - would compromise Norris who had already lost out at the start due to excessive wheelspin.
"Well, certainly for Lando there was the extra consideration, as you say, of losing additional time because of the double-stacked pit stop," admitted Stella. "So it was in the consideration, but it wasn't the main reason not to stop both cars.
"We thought that traffic could have been a problem for both cars, and like I said before, in reality that was not the right interpretation of the situation at the time that we should have had."
As for the drivers... asked to describe his level of frustration, a clearly disappointed, almost broken, Piastri replied: "Pretty high... and I think that's saying quite a lot, given the last few races I've had.
"Clearly we didn't get it right today," he continued, "which is a shame, because the whole weekend went very, very well. We had a lot of pace, I felt like I drove well. So yeah, it's pretty painful.
"On a personal level, I feel like I've lost a win today," he admitted. "In Vegas, I lost a P4. Obviously for the team, it's a pretty painful weekend. But yeah, I think yeah, for me personally, this probably hurts more."
Not for the first time, the Australian admitted that he questioned his team's strategy at the time.
"I asked what are we doing, because we were getting close to pit entry and I hadn't had a call yet," he said. "I think when you don't get a call instantly when the safety car comes out, there's probably some discussions going on about what to do.
"In that situation, you have to trust the team, because they have a lot more information than the driver in the car and where gaps are, and stuff like that. So yeah, in that scenario, I have to trust what the team decides."
"Obviously it's not our greatest day, not our greatest weekend," added teammate. "But I don't know if anyone saw the run of results I had before that, were great. So I put myself in this position," he continued, explaining his position in the championship.
"I'm still happy," he insisted. "It wasn't our finest day, it wasn't my finest weekend in terms of driving and putting things together. But that's life. Everyone has bad weekends. I take it on the chin, we'll take it on the chin, and we'll see what we can do next weekend."
Asked how he will approach next weekend's race, he replied:" The same as every weekend. I try and beat them, they try and beat me. Nothing different... right now I just want to go to bed."
Ironically, Red Bull strategist, Hanna Schmitz, subsequently admitted that she wasn't entirely sure pitting at the time of the Safety Car was the right move.
"Pre-race, that was exactly when our Safety Car and VSC windows opened, and that was the plan," she told Viaplay. "So, pit both cars if the Safety Car came out on lap seven. There's such an advantage to pitting under a Safety Car when you've got to do the two stops that, to us, that was a clear thing we should do. And I guess a lot of the pitlane felt the same.
"But obviously on that in-lap we're hearing 'Oh, McLaren are staying out', and everyone's like, 'Are you sure? Are you sure you want to pit?' And I was like, 'Yeah, I really think so!'
"I thought, definitely that's the right thing to do. And then as soon as I saw everybody else coming in as well, I thought, 'OK, that's fine'. Although it meant you have no flexibility at all when you make the second stop, just the advantage of gaining that much time."
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