"...McLaren has seen this movie. In Las Vegas, Norris tried to squeeze Verstappen off the launch and wound up overcooking Turn 1. Different track, same principle: you don’t leave Verstappen a door ajar and expect him not to walk through it..."
"If Verstappen doesn’t send it into Turn 1, it’ll be because he couldn’t, not because he wouldn’t. The straight is long, the slipstream powerful, and his race almost certainly depends on track position early. If he does get past one McLaren, the race turns cagey: tyre delta, undercuts, and the choreography of two orange cars versus one blue. If he doesn’t, he’ll be made to suffer in dirty air and asked to invent a win later, which he’s done before—but rarely against this version of McLaren.
"Either way, the opening seconds are everything. The champion needs a door. McLaren’s job is to slam it without tripping over its own feet. We won’t need to wait long to find out who blinks first."
"...Even when we were commenting on Oscar struggling a little bit, I've always emphasised that there are technical aspects in the way the drivers exploit the grip available and the potential in the car," Stella explained.
"And here in Qatar, we go back to the category of circuits with high grip. And in the category of circuits of high grip, I think Oscar is in his most natural way of driving the car, and he can really maximise the potential available...."
Good race, and on to Abu Dhabi we go!