F1 Saudi Arabian GP: five quick takeaways

Piastri will be hard to beat this year

There's a certain logic in the fact that Oscar Piastri took the championship lead so unspectacularly, after a measured and controlled drive, delivering everything he needed.

Yes, Verstappen took pole, but Piastri did enough to force him to defend in Turn 1 - and ultimately earn his rival a penalty. After that, all he needed to do was stay close enough to take the lead during the pitstop sequence, and then drive to the finish.

McLaren probably wasn't that much faster than Red Bull in Jeddah, and Max looked strong throughout the race. But Piastri did everything right and now sits at the top of the standings. And given his performance over the past few weekends, he's likely to stay there for a long time...

- Oleg Karpov

Norris' recovery too little, too late

It was a weekend where Lando Norris needed to make a statement. And he did, but not the right one. His race in Saudi Arabia was pretty much defined by Saturday's shunt in Q3, which left him tenth on the grid for Sunday, far from his two main rivals, team-mate Piastri and Max Verstappen.

Lando Norris, McLaren (Photo by: Peter Fox - Getty Images)

Norris was fortunate to avoid Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda's crash in Turn 4, which also gave him two free positions. He then passed Carlos Sainz, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton - after outfoxing the seven-time world champion on DRS - and used his hard-tyre choice to go long in his pitstop strategy, which put him in a good position for the final 15 laps.

He had no problem overtaking George Russell, but came up short against Charles Leclerc and had to settle for fourth place.

The reality is that Norris should have been fighting for victory instead of praying for a podium and he leaves Jeddah in a much worse position than he arrived. The few weeks before Miami will certainly be useful for a reset.

- Federico Faturos

Red Bull shows improvement, but how much is track-specific?

Just a week on from a poor Bahrain Grand Prix, Red Bull has shown a marked improvement in form. Verstappen took pole position with (yet another) magical Q3 lap, and on Sunday showed a much better race pace than he feared in the post-qualifying press conference.

It's a much-needed response after Bahrain, although the key question is: how much of this performance is track-specific and how much is actual progress?

Red Bull put some new parts on the car in Jeddah, and there's more to come for Miami and especially Imola. That, combined with a better understanding of the RB21 and its narrow set-up window, could give the team hope, although Verstappen himself remains cautious.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing (Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images)

He insists that the track layout – with plenty of high-speed corners – the grippier asphalt in Jeddah and slightly cooler track temperatures may have helped Red Bull. He underlines that not everything is solved yet, although this is undoubtedly the reaction Red Bull needed after last week's suffering.

- Ronald Vording

No, Hamilton still hasn't found what the SF-25 likes

Just a week after declaring that he had figured out how to handle his new car, Hamilton took another step backwards in Jeddah, where he qualified and finished seventh – well behind Leclerc, who was fourth on the grid in the same car and put the Ferrari on the podium.

On Saturday, Hamilton admitted he had no answers, describing his qualifying sessions as "always bad", and in fact celebrated a seventh-place finish "given the level". In the race, he showed he hadn't lost his talent, fooling Norris for two laps, allowing him to overtake and then taking advantage of DRS, but ultimately lacked the pace to even break into the top six.

If he has figured out how to drive the car, perhaps the car has changed its preferences. Or maybe, as Andrea Stella said after Norris' qualifying crash, "these F1 cars are too fast to think" and it just has to come naturally. Something Lewis still can't achieve.

- Jose Carlos de Celis

Boring races should be a concern for F1

Remember the outcry about Pirelli tyres being so soft that drivers had to nurse them all the way to the finish - and even that didn't help them cover the whole distance with one stop? Two or three was the norm.

George Russell, Mercedes (Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images)

Well, maybe that wasn't such a good reason to complain - one-stoppers are certainly much more straightforward and less fun to watch.

F1 has now created a special rule for Monaco to force drivers to stop at least twice during the race. Perhaps something to think about for other circuits as well?

- Oleg Karpov