TLDR: Verstappen Penalised, McLaren Win, Piastri WDC Leader, Ferrari Podium.

Race

The lights were not held for long looking like it almost caught Verstappen off guard with Piastri instantly putting him under pressure. Piastri beat Verstappen to the first corner however Verstappen cut the corner and came out in front of Piastri. In any instance he should’ve given the place back however he did not. We will take a look closer look at this below.

The close wheel to wheel racing of Saudi Arabia lead to an incident on the exit turn 3. Tsunoda and Gasly came together crashing into the wall. This instantly ended Gasly’s race with a broken rear wing and wheel. Tsunoda managed to crawl the car back to the pits however had to retire.

This led to a first lap safety car. While under safety car conditions the FIA dealt a five second penalty to Verstappen. In the FIA statement they stated that it was initially going to be a ten second penalty, however due to it being the first lap they reduced it to 5 seconds. Lawson was in a similar incident later on and was given the 10 second penalty.

Piastri and Verstappen Lap 1 Incident - Should Verstappen have received a penalty?

Here it is… Yes.

You could say the Piastri out Verstappened Verstappen. Lets look back at Austin 2024. Max beat Lando to the Apex every time and didn’t leave any space because he won the corner. This resulted in Norris getting a five second penalty from overtaking outside of track limits and Max got a warning for track limits. The same applies to what happened Sunday.

In Saudi Arabia, Piastri beat Verstappen to the Apex took the racing line Verstappen then cut the corner regained first position and then didn’t give back the place. Through the corner Piastri was ahead.

Looking at the drone footage, it is clear that Verstappen would’ve never made that corner. Max should’ve just tucked in behind Piastri given him a good opportunity for the overtake. Red Bull were faster on the first stint. You could argue this is Red Bull team’s error not telling him to give the place back. Verstappen may argue the line he took made the Apex much later in the corner however he was still behind at that point. See below Piastri ahead of Verstappen at the apex.

Max carried far too much speed around that corner and was never making it. In fact he carried more speed on the mediums with full fuel than he did on his qualifying pole position lap. Where he received a tow into turn 1.

It is clear penalty. You can’t give a valid argument why it shouldn’t be a penalty. Letting them race is not a valid argument by the way Christian Horner.

This is what makes the decision unfair. Verstappen was not asked to give the place back meaning he managed to gain even more of an advantage restarting the race after the safety car came in. Yes, he received the penalty however he had clear air and the lead of the race.

Back to the Race

On the restart Verstappen managed to catch Piastri sleeping a bit pulling away down straight. I’'ll give it to Verstappen he is a master of race restarts. This put Piastri under pressure from Russell however he managed to secure that first corner again.

On the restart we saw Norris starting to make his way through the field. Starting in 10th he had a long charge ahead of him starting on the hard compound given his crash in qualifying, Saudi Arabia was damaged limitations.

Hamilton and Norris had some good back-and-forth racing for a few laps. They were both exchanging sixth and seventh place for about 3 laps. Once Norris got past the Ferrari he then quickly made his way up into fifth overtaking Antonelli. It was becoming evident that the hard tire was starting to come into its own around lap 20.

We started to see the medium drop off around about lap 18-20. Piastri then pitted on lap 20 in order to cover off Russell but also undercut for a bigger gain on Verstappen. Although it was a pretty slow pit, they managed to come out in the net lead of the race.

In an effort to come out in the lead, Piastri made an absolutely amazing overtake on Hamilton in turn 22 in one of the tightest corners on the track. There’s no other way to describe it than squeaky bum time.

Verstappen stayed out two laps longer than Piastri however that appears to have done more damage as the lap times produced were not enough to increase the gap. When Piastri pitted Verstappen was net net 2.5 second behind Piastri. When Verstappen came out of the pits he was over 5 seconds behind.

Norris managed to get the hard tyre to last till at 34 with good pace which was definitely good data for McLaren as they knew how to manage the hard tyre for Piastri in order to defend against a potential late push from the Verstappen.

Norris had a few issues crossing the line on entry of the pit also he nearly went over the line on the exit which put him under investigation. He was just on the line meaning he did not get a penalty. He came out in fifth and now it was time for him to push on the fresh mediums hunting for that podium.

The Mercedes didn’t seem to like the hard tyre as much as the medium that was pretty evident with Antonelli dropping back and also Russell losing two places in the second stint.

I was definitely proud of my Williams brothers and their teamwork keeping each other in DRS preventing the attack from Hadjar. This is our first race where we got double points on merit and I’m absolutely buzzing about it.

Piastri managed to coast towards the end of the race. Verstappen closed the gap down however I think Piastri was just taking the car home safely and didn’t need to push. Norris was definitely pushing till the very end trying to take third position off Leclerc however it was Ferrari that have come away with their first race podium of the year.

Analysis

This is definitely one stop race however the safety car coming later on in the race would’ve definitely shaken things up a bit.

The medium tyre seemed to start dropping off around lap 18. And we started to see the pits around that. The Ferrari’s decided to hold the medium for the longest with Hamilton on lap 23 and Leclerc on lap 29. They seem to keep good pace and not as much degradation which is a good sign and an upward trend in performance.

The hards seemed to suit some team more than others. McLaren were a clear example of where the hard tyre was actually better with Norris making some great gain in his first stint. Mercedes seem to struggle on the hard tyre actually losing places and extending gaps.

Overall there wasn’t a great amount of racing on track. It’s one of those tracks where the dirty air really impacts the car behinds ability to go for the overtake. There needs to be a convincing difference in performance. Sector 3 gives us a long DRS zone but there isn’t great width to the track.

The only real bit of true racing we saw was Norris. I’ve given him a lot of stick lately but he had a great race and a great recovery drive from 10th to 4th. However if he wants to regain his world championship leadership then he definitely step his game. The mistake are coming far too often from him and McLaren need him ahead of Verstappen and Russell almost every race.

When we look at the pitstops, I am disappointed that Williams were near last however yet again we’ve seen Ferrari get the fastest pitstops. Red Bull are only last due to Max’s penalty without that they would’ve been 6th but likely even higher.

Summary

Overall, I think this is a very dominant show from McLaren apart from the first lap fiasco they won the corner so the penalty is truly deserving.

Given that Redbull however are increasing their pace and we cannot write them off and Verstappen had good place throughout the race, they also fixed their pitstop issues. All jokes aside Redbull did look more competitive this week so there crisis talks seem to have put the team in a better direction.

Hopefully this is also a positive move for Ferrari and isn’t just an outlier. The team seem to be making some good strategic calls for a change, lets hope there car can contend by the mid season.

Looking forward to the Miami race as this is a very different track.

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