The first triple header of the 2025 season of Formula 1 comes to an end this weekend, with the Gran Prize of Saudi Arabia, and there is no shortage of stories to discuss.
We do not lose time and add directly.
A new dynamic in McLaren
Upon entering the 2025 F1 season, Lando Norris was considered the favorite for the pilot championship, and McLaren was used to repeat as builders champions.
While a dynamic remains the same, a new script has emerged when it comes to the title of drivers.
Oscar Piastri became the first repeated winner of the young season last weekend, with a command performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The third year driver was not wrong almost all weekend, taking the pole position and taking the checkered flag ahead of George Russell, and Norris, to ensure victory. The victory took Piasstri three points from his teammate Norris at the top of the classification of the pilot championship, and in the minds of many, he made him the new favorite for the title.
Where are the two teammates from here?
To listen to Norris and Piastri tell, this is a story that they expected before the season ate. Both drivers spoke extensively at the FIA press conference after Bahrain’s Grand Prix how they anticipated a fight for the title between them, with other drivers they will surely play a role. Russell has become silent as a potential spoiler in this fight, thanks to a podium in three of the four major awards this year, and certainly one can never tell Max Verstappen.
But at this time, McLaren teammates are the best dogs in this fight. How does Piestri handle his new state as the driver considered the favorite? How does Norris recover after a rather mixed result for him in Bahrain, and how does this new dynamic handle?
Both drivers are fast, the MCL39 is incredible fast, and this fight is emerging as a story for the ages.
Can Red Bull find an answer?
Following a great Bahrain Grand Prix for Verstappen and Red Bull, the team did not simply packed the space of hospitality and went to Jeddah.
According to SpokesmanRed Bull “held an improvised meeting with his key personnel on the track to discover his next steps, with the attendees, including the chief of the Christian Horner team, the advisor Helmut Marko, the technical director Pierre Wache and the chief engineer Paul Monaghan.”
Marko then spoke with journalists in Bahrain, qualifying the “not acceptable” game for the team.
“It’s a very difficult day for Red Bull, that’s obvious to all of us,” Marko told journalists after Bahrain’s Grand Prix.
“We have to obtain, as soon as possible, a performance in the car again and also the standards like a Pitspop that have to work. The car is not the fastest and then the Pits -tope do not work. That is not acceptable.”
With Verstappen finishing sixth, and Yuki Tsunoda picked up its first points for the senior team with a ninth place, Red Bull obtained a two -point end.
The first of the season, and the first for the team from the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
According to the reports, Red Bull is planning a large update package to get to the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix:
But that race is in May, after the Gran Abia Saudi prize this weekend and the Miami Grand Prix. If you have any hope of using that update package to chase McLaren in the Constructors Championship, and for Verstappen, close the gap to Norris and Piastri in front of him, they will have to assure Cany Manage around next weekend.
And will need that update package to work.
An exciting fight in the midfield is resumed throughout the Red Sea
The fight in the center of the field is from a fascinating poster doors a season of F1.
But the fight in the center of this year’s field is emerging as a Battle Royale.
Thanks to the double points that result in Bahrain and an unexpected at that time he jumped to fifth place in the classification of the Builders Championship, a point ahead of Williams. But the fifth to dozens gap is quite intelligent:
Haas: 20 points
Williams: 19 points
Aston Martin: 10 points
VCARB: 7 points
Alpine: 6 points
Sauber: 6 points
These total points also mean that after only four racing weekends, each team has scored multiple points this season. At this point, last year, three teams, Williams, Alpine and Sauber, had not yet secured a single point:
The fighting field fight is emerging to be fascinating to see, but if there is a team in this group that could have an advantage this week, it is hare. The reason? Oliver Bearman made his debut in the F1 in the complicated circuit of Jeddah Corniche a season ago, and although that came in a Ferrari, he gives him an advantage over his rookie companions when the network goes to Saudi Arabia.
Can Mercedes, and George Russell maintain their consistency?
Is Mercedes the most surprising team of the 2025 young season?
The strong start of McLaren was expected, and although Red Bull’s struggles are a bit surprise, Verstappen still has a victory of the Grand Prix in his credit, and there are expectations that the team could change things.
But silver arrows have a consistency story this season. Russell has ended at the points of each event this year, including a podium in three of the four great prize of great this year, and the rookie Kimi Antonelli has enjoyed a fantastic start in his F1 career. The Italian pilot already has 30 points this season and is sixth in the classification of the pilot championship, two points from Charles Leclerc … and five points ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
When the season was the fact that both Russell and Antonelli were in contracts that expired was certainly something to monitor, but Paddock’s last rumors indicate that Russell can be close to putting the pen on the paper in a new long -term agreement with the team. It remains true or not, but Russell’s consistency this season is certainly playing well in Brackley. “[George] He did a tremendous job. He definitely kept the podium for the team, “said Toto Wolff team director after his P2 in Bahrein.” Hey suffered a cable brake failure and had to handle the brake pedal pressure that changed from one corner to another. Doing that without wasting any time was amazing. Hey, also fostered soft tires in that final period, it was fast when it mattered, and defended itself in all the right places to maximize the result. “
The consistency of Russell has also made him a player in the fight of the pilots championship, since he is in fourth place, only 14 points from Norris, and the team is sitting secondly, 58 points per 22 points ahead of Red Bull.
This has a leg almost a dream begins for Mercedes. Can you keep that rolling in Saudi Arabia?
Has Ferrari folded a corner?
Then there is Ferrari.
Bahrain was the best result of the season for the team, since Charles Leclerc arrived home fourth with Lewis Hamilton behind him in fifth place. It was a “encouraging” result according to Ferrari Frederic Vasseur.
“[W]And he scored good points with Charles and Lewis who did well to come after a difficult rating, producing a strong race that is very encouraging, ”said Vasseur after Bahrain’s Grand Prix.
“We are where we are: McLaren is still a step ahead, but we were fighting them in the second period and we have the legs capable of fighting with Mercedes and Red Bulls. We will continue working to be more competitive in the next races, starting next week.”
The hope in the future begins with Hamilton, who seems to be coming to life in Ferrari. Hamilton was quite dejected after the difficult qualification performance on Saturday, since he was heard with the team on the radio after the Q3 for “not doing the job” to put the session.
Sunday was a different story, since Hamilton assured his best red prize and said after the race that he not only learned much, but that knows “what to look for” in the future.
“I learned a lot today, and as I saw, that average period was really in line with the car and I had the rhythm and I was advancing,” Hamilton said Sunday.
“I need that at the beginning and at the end and I need it in the qualification to know what to look for now.”
It is likely to be music for tifosi ears.
Dominate the complicated Jeddah Corniche circuit
One of the stories this week?
The circuit itself.
The Jeddah Corniche circuit is the fastest street circuit in the world, raising challenges for equipment and drivers not only in each lap, but in each shift, or that there is much. With 27 corners, the Jeddah Corniche circuit has the greatest amount of turns on a track this season, but some of them come at amazing speeds. The track has three DRS zones, including one that runs from turn 24 to the fork in curve 27, which means that drivers take some of those curves at speeds at more than 300 kilometers per hour.
“Jeddah is just a crazy track of Formula 1: it is basically Monza with walls,” said Frederik Dress of the Mercedes Reserve, whose first victory in the F2 features race arrived in Jeddah, in the previous view of the team’s media.
“It gives a driver exactly what they want, the opportunity to put a racing car on the edge. It is a circuit that really requires precision, special in the APEX sector.
The former Williams pilot, Logan Sargeant, had this to say about the circuit when we talked before the 2024 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix: “It is a great clue, but lying if we said that it was Funn’s Goeing and he, you are one of those choice, born, especially when you do good lapse.”
What driver will put in those good laps this year? We will discover it later this week.
