Oscar Piastri enjoyed a brilliant Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, winning from pole and bagging the fastest lap. More importantly, the Australian has announced his arrival to the Formula 1 title battle with a bang.
Piastri was on it the moment his MCL39 turned a wheel around the Sakhir International Circuit, as McLaren were clearly the dominant team, their rivals at a loss trying to catch up.
The F1 circus arrived in Bahrain on the back of a weekend in Japan where Max Verstappen mugged the McLarens for pole and the win, and everyone was waiting to see whether the Dutchman can repeat such a feat.
Apparently he could not as McLaren returned to the top spot, with Piastri, that is, while Mercedes once again overachieved as Ferrari, well, they were being Ferrari.
It was a great race to watch with many battles up and down the grid as the track delivered a curveball for the teams as it turned out that the Soft compound was the best on the abrasive surface, something Red Bull had to painfully learn during the grand prix.
So let's delve into the Bahrain Grand Prix and extract some takeaways.
McLaren's perfect weekend at home?
Well, almost, as perfection would've required a one-two finish, but that was not the case as Lando Norris was not able to get his head around the handling of the MCL39.
Is the McLaren car heading into the Red Bull zone? A fast car that only one driver—Piastri in this case—can deal with?
Probably not, as it seems Norris' problem is in the head. For some reason he is feeling the pressure of high expectations, which is a bit surprising as we are only on race four this season.
In Bahrain he made several mistakes in qualifying and was sixth fastest, and while he drove up to third in the race, his performance was error-ridden, starting with his false start, not to mention mistakes in the heat of the battle with the Ferraris, not to mention his inability to pass George Russell's ailing Mercedes towards the end.
He was lucky he had the MCL39 under him in Bahrain to compensate for all the mistakes and the time penalty he received.
Norris may be a fast driver, but he is yet to prove that his race craft is up for the task of fighting for championships.
Piastri, on the other hand, has continued to grow and develop silently. He has shown from day one that he is the better race driver; while he may still lag behind Norris on pure pace, that is when the latter is not messing up his qualifying laps when it mattered.
Norris needs to learn how to handle the pressure or else Papaya rules from now on will mean: Lando… Oscar is faster than you... Can you confirm you understand this message?
If Piastri keeps winning, that is how the rules of engagement within McLaren will be developing, and while that may make life easier for their pitwall it would spell disaster for Norris.
The good thing is that Norris owns up to his mistakes, but he needs to stop making them. As for Piastri, he did not put a foot wrong in Bahrain... Well, maybe he did.
He got too excited by his MCL39's performance and delivered that scary lap in FP3—almost seven tenths faster than his teammate—and blew McLaren's cover as Zak Brown and Andrea Stella have been at pains trying to downplay their car advantage.
Nevertheless, a great weekend for McLaren in Bahrain, the home of their shareholder Mumtalakat.
Russell a worthy leader of Mercedes
It has been only four races for Mercedes without Lewis Hamilton, but Russell has already assumed the team leader role with success, showing how much he was affected while racing in the shadow of the seven-time F1 champion during their time together as teammates.
Now Mercedes's W16 has clearly improved, but Russell has been extracting the last ounce of performance out of it and has missed out on a podium only once this season.
While we have seen chinks in his racing armor in previous years, Russell has put these behind him, showing some seriously good race craft in 2025, his defense from Norris in Bahrain with a W16 suffering from all sorts of issues proof of his improved race craft and mental resilience.
It was great to see that the stewards did not penalize Russell for that DRS infringement because he really deserved this podium. The way he was dealing with the steering and transponder issues with his race engineer was impressive, a true mark of a team leader.
Mercedes were also on the money in Bahrain with the strategy, putting Russell on the Soft compound for that final stint, proving to be a masterstroke.
While the issues that marred Russell's car were on the team, the manner in which they mitigated the whole situation showed why they were eight-time F1 champions.
A rude awakening for Verstappen
What a difference one week makes! After the highs of Suzuka, Verstappen came tumbling down in Bahrain through no fault of his own, mind you, but he was served a rude awakening—his RB21 is a sh!tbox.
Qualifying seventh and finishing sixth with botched pit stops and wrong tyre choices was not the sequel the Verstappen would've have wanted. He couldn't even pass a Haas at one point.
McLaren showing some formidable form in Bahrain made the situation worse for Max, who appeared like he was throwing in the towel when he said he was just competing in the championship and not fighting for it.
The situation at Red Bull is not okay with Helmut Marko, seriously concerned Verstappen might activate the exit clause in his contract, and if Marko is concerned, imagine Christian Horner's state of mind.
Marko is an advisor, but Horner is the person with whom the buck stops when it comes to delivering a decent car. Do not forget that, on the face of it, he is the one seen as responsible for the situation Red Bull is in now because of his sexting scandal, as he would be seen as the reason why Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley, and several others left the team... It may or may not be fair, but that is how it will be perceived.
Verstappen said he knew the extent of McLaren's advantage since pre-season testing, but experiencing it in Bahrain must have stung as he now looks ahead to the remaining 20 races not knowing whether his car will improve.
Development was always going to be tricky this year with the new F1 cars coming in 2026, which brings me to this point: What will Max do in 2026?
There have been talks that Mercedes and Aston Martin are courting him, but logic means he would see how Red Bull fare in 2026 before deciding... If he doesn't win the title in 2025, will he stick around?
And there is that incident of Verstappen's manager's heated discussion with Marko in Bahrain post-race...
Bahrain GP Quick hits
- Were Ferrari strategists following the race? Didn't they see how bad the Hard tyres were before putting Hamilton and Leclerc on them for the final stint?
Both drivers were doing well before that, but then Ferrari decided to be Ferrari...
Their upgrade seemed to work for Leclerc but not for Hamilton. Let's hope that was due to the fact that Hamilton is yet to be fully comfortable within the team. - A great race by both Haas drivers, Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman, to score double points for the American outfit.
Bearman from 20th on the grid to tenth was special. - Alpine did a brilliant job in qualifying. Pierre Gasly made Q3 while Jack Doohan sadly lost out by 0.017s. Gasly scored points, but Doohan did not. Nevertheless, a decent weekend.
- Carlos Sainz finally outqualified Alex Albon but then followed that up with one of his worst race performances. The Smooth Operator was clumsy this time...
- While Yuki Tsunoda made it into Q3, the gap between him and Verstappen was still too big.
- In my last takeaways from Japan, one commentator questioned why I didn't mention how bad Lance Stroll was. Well, he wasn't any better in Bahrain. There I mentioned him...
- And since we are talking about Aston Martin. Isn't it enough that the car is pathetic? We didn't need to see Fernando Alonso's steering coming off to be convinced.
Latest News
Loading
