McLaren’s Oscar Piastri managed to secure his third win of the 2025 F1 season at the Saudi Arabian GP, but admitted it wasn’t the “easiest” of his career, after fending off the threat from pole-sitter Max Verstappen.
The Australian had a good start from second place, and pulled alongside Verstappen as the pair reached the first corner. With the reigning world champion going off-track to retain his lead, the stewards deemed he gained an unfair advantage. Stewards handed him a 5-second time penalty.
Relief over not the “easiest” of wins
Verstappen’s penalty allowed Piastri to take the net race lead after the pit stops. The Australian never looked back after that. But speaking to print media after the race, Piastri admitted he was somewhat surprised at Verstappen’s pace. He explained how that led to a “tighter” race than he would’ve ideally wanted:
“I mean, the fact that I crossed the line first, to be honest,” he said, when asked what satisfied him most on Sunday in Saudi Arabia. “It wasn’t the easiest of wins. I think the start was tough, the first in was tough, behind Max [Verstappen]. And then, once I had some clean air, then it was a bit easier to manage.”
“But I still couldn’t afford to take my foot off the gas.”
“It was a difficult race, and Max was quick behind me, so I had to keep pushing. I think I could control it reasonably well, but it was a little bit tighter than I would have liked.”
First lap incident was dealt “how it should’ve been” dealt with
Expanding on the controversial first lap incident with Verstappen, the now 5-time race winner explained he braked on the limit to just keep his car between the white lines and have the “right” to the corner, and believes the Red Bull driver’s penalty was rightfully dealt with:
“I got a great launch and got myself alongside,” Piastri said. “From that point, I knew that I obviously had to brake quite late, but I knew that I had enough of my car alongside to take the corner.”
“We obviously both braked extremely late,” he admitted. “But I think for me, I braked as late as I could while staying on the track, and yeah, I think it was how it unfolded, [and] is how it should have been dealt with.”
McLaren “still quicker” than Red Bull – but not by much
Whilst he admitted to being surprised at Red Bull’s turn of speed on Sunday in Jeddah, Piastri fully disagreed with an alleged claim from his team-mate Lando Norris that the RB21 was the quickest car in race trim. He sustained that even though McLaren’s advantage wasn’t as big as perhaps expected, it still had an edge over its F1 rivals once in clear air, despite the less-favourable, high-speed Jeddah layout:
“No,” he said when asked if he agreed with Norris. “I think our car was still quicker. It was difficult to be in dirty air. I think Max was quicker than I expected, for sure, in the race.”
“I thought over one lap, it wasn’t a huge surprise to see Max quick.”
“But I think in the race, I wasn’t expecting to struggle so much at the end of the medium stint, that’s for sure. So I think clearly we’ve got some work to do.”
“I think our car is still very good, but I think when you look at the layout here compared to Suzuka, it’s the most similar so far, and it’s been the two where Max and Red Bull have been closer.“
And whilst he believes there’s still an advantage on McLaren’s side, fast circuits will favour more competition from Verstappen and Red Bull:
“[I think] we still have an advantage. I don’t think it’s as big on surfaces like this and layouts like this, but I think we still have a very strong car at the moment.”
Not a lot more pace in hand, despite late fastest lap attempt
Having shown a great turn of speed, the McLaren driver managed to set his personal best on the final tour. However, Piastri was adamant that there wasn’t much more pace in reserve in previous laps, suggesting a “struggle”, especially towards the end of the first stint, when he started to dramatically drop back from two-time F1 Saudi Arabian GP winner Verstappen:
“Maybe,” he said of having more pace if needed. “I don’t know [for] how long I could have done that, but I felt like I was taking decent risks for the race.”
“The last lap, obviously, I wanted to see exactly what I had, but there’s not too much point taking a crazy risk as well.”
“So I think once we had some clean air, then our pace was okay,” he added. “But at the end of the medium stint, I had nothing for Max. It was a struggle.”
“The pace wasn’t as much of an advantage as I wanted it to be, but it was still enough.”
Piastri now leads the drivers’ championship by 10 points over his McLaren teammate Lando Norris. F1 now heads to Miami for the sixth round of the 2025 F1 season.
