The 2025 Formula One season is shaping up to be an epic, with four drivers from three different teams in the hunt for the world championship. The top three are covered by just twelve points after five race weekends with the world champion refusing to give up his title easily despite the McLaren MCL39 being there class of the field.
Verstappen won his only race of the year today in Japan, when as in Jeddah a remarkable final effort in qualifying saw him pinch pole position by mere hundredths of a second. The resurfaced track in Suzuka meant that tyre degradation was minimal and this meant Verstappen was able to hold off the McLaren pair behind him as their superior tyre advantage was nullified.
A mistake from Verstappen in Jeddah, saw Oscar Piastri make the better start of the two on the front row and the stewards decided the resulting mess in turn one was the Red Bull driver ‘gaining an unfair advantage’ and a decisive five second penalty was issued to Max who came home just 2.5 seconds behind the Australian come the chequered flag.
Two RB21’s in top 8
Simple maths suggests having been penalised five seconds, Verstappen was indeed quicker the Piastri given the gap at the end of the Grand Prix. Yet there are a number of factors to consider amongst them whether the McLaren driver was taking it easy, knowing he had the win in the bag.
Despite making his feelings clear about the stewards penalty which cost him his 65th win of his F1 career, Verstappen was remarkably chatty about everything else. He seemed genuinely surprised the day before when claiming pole position, after the McLaren’s were over a second faster than the rest of the field in Friday practice.
So have Red Bull made a step forward from their self proclaimed calamitous start to the year? The answer is clearly yes. With Yuki Tsunoda being taken out on lap one by Pierre Gasly, helpful data from the second Red Bull car over the race distance is unfortunately not available to analysts. The Japanese driver had proven the RB21 was improving when on Saturday he qualified the second Red Bull car in P8, ahead of all the drivers not from the top four teams for the first time this year.
Dr. Helmut Marko decided his doomsaying days were over – even if only for now – although he did criticise the stewards decision for handing out a penalty to Verstappen for the first corner incident. “Initially, Piastri was ahead, but in the very last braking section, Max was ahead again. But it is what it is,” the Austrian added in an unusual philosophical manner.
Horner claims “we were quicker than them”
The Red Bull advisor believes the team have unlocked an upgrade in the RB21’s performance stating: “The positive is that the speed was there, but you could see again: overtaking is incredibly difficult. And after we received that penalty, we just tried to secure second place and bring it home safely.” When asked if Max would’ve won the race without the penalty, Marko was certain replying: “Yes”.
Team boss Christian Horner too appeared to join the Marko ‘happy club’ with his driver finishing the Grand Prix straggly and less than a three second deficit to the winning McLaren. The result kept Max well in touch in the drivers’ championship which after a disastrous weekend in Bahrain was improbable.
“Let’s focus on the positives,” said Horner. “We finished second, and we had the pace – which on Friday, it looked like McLaren had got 1.2s on the whole field. We’ll take encouragement from this race that on both the medium and hard tyres, I’m sure the analysis will show that we were quicker than them.”
As is so often the case in modern F1, running at the front in clean air is a significant advantage, which is why Red Bull and Verstappen refused to hand the place to Piastri even knowing they were potentially looking at a time penalty. The calculation was made that for the first stint, Verstappen was better remaining ahead of the McLaren driver as the Red Bull strategists were concerned over a pace advantage McLaren may have on the medium tyre.
The unreported mistake max won’t admit to
Piastri struggles behind Verstappen
As it transpired Piastri was only able to maintain a serious challenge for a handful of laps, before falling up to 3.5 seconds behind the Red Bull. When McLaren brought in Piastri for his tyre change, Red Bull left Verstappen out for a further two laps. This was also a mistake as the McLaren driver cleared the traffic in an efficient fashion, meaning he was a second closer to Verstappen than he had been when leaving there pit lane.
Verstappen appeared to have faith in his car on the hard tyres as he relentlessly attacked Piastri gaining DRS for lap after lap. Having fallen back to cool his overheating tyres, the world champion made a final push for victory over the last few laps, repeatedly putting in times quicker than the McLaren ahead, who was clearly pushing hard.
A stressed Oscar Piastri bemoaned the decision to run his team mate long on the first stint, suggesting he himself was now in Norris’ dirty air which was affecting his pace. Then as Verstappen closed in Piastri came up against a back marker in the Aston Martin.
In a quivering voice over team radio the Aussie questioned: “Whats up man? He needs to get out of the way.” The reply from his engineer Tom Stallard was “you need to get to 1.5, gap 1.7”. Piastri argues back: “I’ve been within 1.5. Why isn’t there a blue flag.”
Piastri feeling the pressure
Stroll finally gets a blue flag from the stewards requiring him to move aside and let the race leader through. “Fucking finally….. Je-Sus,” lamented Piastri. A seemingly innocuous exchange which revealed the McLaren driver was clearly concerned he would be caught and overtaken by the flying Verstappen.
Team boss Christian Horner was visibly animated when asked about Red Bull’s weekend after the race. “I think the engineering team have done a good job in giving [Verstappen] a car that, by the time we got to Qualifying and the race, that was probably our most competitive in a race this year to date,” stated Horner.
“In terms of pace, we were able to pull away from the McLaren. We’re closing them down here, so I think we will take some encouragement out of that. We’re only 12 points behind the new leader in Oscar, we’re two points behind Lando. Of course, everybody is super-disappointed in the outcome of the race today. It felt like a race that we had McLaren beat but it is what it is. Congrats to Oscar and we’ll take the positives out of the weekend and focus on Miami.”
The feeling in the Red Bull camp was that it was more important for them to finally unlock more of the potential of the RB21 than it was in fact to win the Saudi Grand Prix. They were not on the pace in China nor in Bahrain, but the Red Bull car was very quick in Japan and then in Jeddah but the key is whether the team understands why this is with the heat of Miami just over a week away.
McLaren have proven themselves excellent in the hottest conditions as `Horner concludes, “Certainly their pace in the heat on Friday was insane… [But] whatever they did on Friday, they couldn’t replicate in the race.” Will the quick in the heat MCL39 dominate again in Florida, or have Red Bull made a genuine step to matching their main rivals.
Report: ‘Lawrence Stroll is furious with Newey’
MORE F1 NEWS – Talks between Red Bull and Russell
With five whirlwind Formula One race weekends now complete, the circus will end its way to Miami before the start of the European racing season. So much has happened in just six weeks of competition, with Hamilton taking his first win for Ferrari in the Shanghai Sprint and Oscar Piastri is now the first Australian to lead the F1 drivers’ title race since his manager Mark Webber back in 2010.
Red Bull have switched drivers already and Max Verstappen is surprisingly close in the drivers’ championship despite his single win in Japan. Dr. Helmut Marko has been up to his usual tricks stirring up rumours of how and when Verstappen may leave the Red Bull team, he confirmed prior to the Saudi Grand Prix, that the summer break would be the time the world champion wold exercise his exit clause, but with the caveat that ‘if at all.’
Clandestine meetings have been held over the problems facing certain manufacturers/teams with the new 2026 regulations, with the latest proposal being the 50/50 split between electrical power and that of the internal combustion engine be reduced. The 350kw rated electric motors are to be de-tuned to just 200kw during racing, although the full 200bhp extra will be allowed in qualifying and for making overtakes…. READ MORE ON THIS STORY
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
