Piastri Crowned New Championship Leader in Jeddah
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix has come and gone. Finally, the 20 drivers on the Formula One grid and fans worldwide can breathe a sigh of relief after the season’s first triple header. The races in Japan, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia weren’t much to behold, but they provided a preview of what the rest of this Formula One season may look like. Yesterday at Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Max Verstappen remained unsatisfied, Ferrari scored their first podium, and McLaren continued their dominance, but not with the driver they were expecting.
Red Bull has not looked as strong during the first segment of the 2025 season as they have in years past. With a third-place standing in the Constructors’ Championship, a very early driver swap, and only one win to show for the man who had already won four times this time last year, it seems the Milton Keynes-based team can no longer rest on their laurels. Max Verstappen qualified on pole ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Saturday, with only a heart-stopping .010 second gap between himself and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri. During the race, the front row drivers had a small incident where Piastri allegedly forced Verstappen off the track, but he was not penalized for it. Verstappen later told media this incident “potentially” cost him the win, but he remains happy with the race pace his RB21 showed.
Thanks to the quick tyre wear of the Mercedes of George Russell, Charles Leclerc was able to finally extract some pace out of the underwhelming SF-25 and snatch Ferrari their first podium of the season. Despite Leclerc’s strong performance, teammate Lewis Hamilton was unable to match him, finishing the race in seventh. In a post-race interview, a despondent Hamilton said that he needed “a brain transplant”, essentially admitting he may still be stuck in Mercedes mode. Jeddah is a historically bad track for Hamilton, and one can hope the seven-time World Champion can find the faulty parts and rewire his mindset for the rest of the season.
The phrase “Oscar Piastri wins” may be one that fans cannot stand hearing in the near future. The 24-year-old was strong on Sunday, holding off Verstappen after their near-miss on Lap One. This is now Piastri’s fifth win in Formula One, matching the win record of his teammate, Lando Norris, whose tenth-to-fourth performance on Sunday has certainly been underrated. With this win, Piastri is now the World Drivers’ Championship leader, the first Australian driver to lead since his mentor and manager Mark Webber in 2010. With Miami, the site of Norris’s first win, next on the calendar, Piastri will need to hold on tight to this lead and show McLaren their “papaya rules” do not apply to all.
