Winners and losers from F1’s 2025 Saudi Arabian GP

Easy as you like? Well, no. Not only was the Jeddah race a brutal 50-lap sprint, but the lower-than-expected tyre wear also seemed to prevent McLaren from flexing its muscle. It meant Piastri had to work harder for his third win of the campaign than in China and Bahrain, especially after having to leave pole to Max Verstappen – who probably also deserves a winner’s entry.

But the Australian can also get it done when things are trickier for McLaren, being typically cool as a cucumber in a wheel-to-wheel battle with Verstappen at the start, hanging on in the Red Bull’s dirty air and then controlling the race from the front. Simply faultless stuff, and he has now also grabbed an early championship lead. The man to beat?

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

This one needs a bit of nuance. Norris paid a big price for another disappointing Saturday, with his crash in Q3 leaving him 10th on the grid. It was especially unfortunate because on balance Norris looked every bit as quick as Piastri – if not slightly quicker. But because he felt more comfortable in the McLaren he didn’t come across as pessimistic when he spoke to us as he did in Bahrain, and that also showed on Sunday.

Norris’ race was good, really good, using the alternate strategy starting on the hard tyre to battle his way past Hamilton and recovering to finish within nine seconds of Piastri in fourth. It is just a case of what could have been, especially because the Briton has now shipped valuable points to his team-mate, who leads the championship by 10 points.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Lars Baron

Leclerc has cut a really frustrated figure of late, because he has been producing the goods only to be let down by his Ferrari, which so far has not lived up to the early promise. Saturday was another case in point, qualifying a solid fourth yet almost shipping four tenths to the front-row runners.

Somehow things clicked on Sunday night in Jeddah. Leclerc was initially stuck in the dirty air of George Russell but then built up a tyre advantage on the Briton with a mightily long stint on his medium tyres. That made it much easier to pass the Mercedes and drop it like a stone on the second stint, motoring on to finish just eight seconds behind Piastri to score a podium. The question is now how the Scuderia will replicate that across different circuits, temperatures and tyre compounds, while also making its car quicker over one lap. There’s also another problem to solve, which we will get to shortly…

Loser: Mercedes

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Peter Fox – Getty Images

If Ferrari may have to figure out why its stars aligned in Saudi Arabia – at least for Leclerc – then Mercedes too will be wondering what on earth happened to its race pace. Russell qualified extremely well in third and looked the closest challenger to Piastri and Verstappen, but instead neither he nor team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli found any pace on either tyre compound, with Russell soon reporting high wear that left him over half a minute adrift.

A silver lining was the team’s actual results; fifth for Russell and sixth for Antonelli, who withstood a very difficult race well. Given how far off Mercedes was on Sunday, it could have been worse. Mercedes was keen to point out it has already more than doubled its points tally compared to this time 12 months ago, and that is fair.

Jack Doohan, Alpine, Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Lars Baron

Sainz received some early – and probably largely unfair – criticism for having to take his time to adjust to the Williams car’s DNA, but on his fifth race weekend for the team the Spaniard took yet another small step forward. Will he ever gel 100 percent with this year’s car? Maybe not, but that might also be down to its inherent limitations, which won’t be fully fixed and which team-mate Alex Albon also has to drive around (but is more accustomed to).

Nevertheless, Sainz was good value for his eighth place, and he also helped out the team by providing a DRS tow to Albon behind him. That allowed the Thai driver to hold off Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar, who was on quicker medium tyres by the end. Team boss James Vowles landed on the Albon-Sainz pairing for their ability to work together, and he is being proven right so far.

Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber

Photo by: Lars Baron

A valiant Sauber squad did everything it could on Sunday, pitting both Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto during the lap 2 safety car period to put them on the hard tyres, ready to pounce on a later safety car or just go to the end. It turned out to be the latter, a tough ask which both drivers deserve huge credit for.

But few strategies in the world can compensate for having the slowest car, and that is the reality that has sunk in for a while now, with CEO Mattia Binotto and incoming team principal Jonathan Wheatley having a huge challenge on their hands to whip the squad into shape before Audi officially enters in 2026. Upgrades are a work in progress, but they won’t arrive in Miami just yet. Until then Hulkenberg and rookie Bortoleto are in survival mode.

Winner: Isack Hadjar

Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls

Photo by: Peter Fox – Getty Images

It’s not Hadjar’s first entry into this section, and on the evidence of Sunday it won’t be the Frenchman’s last. The ‘ninja’ – such is his nickname – made the hard-to-medium alternate strategy work brilliantly, keeping up with the medium runners and then going on a charge in the second half of the race.

What is admirable about Hadjar is his self-criticism and drive for perfection, not taking too much pleasure out of finishing 10th if eighth or ninth was on the table. But even the 20-year-old had to admit his performance in Jeddah warranted a chef’s kiss, and there wasn’t that much he could do about Sainz and Albon’s perfect team game to defend against his DRS attacks. Hadjar is developing rather nicely, and – contrary to what seems to be popular belief – his team-mate Liam Lawson is also settling in well following his Red Bull disaster as the pair is starting to push each other harder.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

We have spoken to quite a few iterations of somber Lewis Hamilton over the past few years since the ground-effect era started. Saudi Arabia felt like a new low, with the seven-time world champion despondently running out of answers on the question why he is not getting a tune out of the Ferrari.

The SF-25 has reasonable potential, which Leclerc managed to access in Jeddah, but things are not clicking for Hamilton in either qualifying or race trim. When asked after qualifying what he needed, Hamilton replied: “a brain transplant”.

The honeymoon period at Ferrari has been over for some time, but Hamilton’s pole-to-flag sprint win in China feels eons ago. It’s not a pretty sight to see him struggle so much.

Photos from Saudi Arabian GP – Race