McLaren weakness hurts Piastri podium charge; Ricciardo woe explained: F1 talking points

Piastri powers to fourth in Saudi Arabia | 01:44Red Bull Racing promised the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix would generate a closer contest, and technically it was right.

“We maximised everything today,” he said afterwards. “I think we’ll probably have to wait and see whenever we have new parts to the car what kind of step we do forward. Hopefully that will bring us closer to Red Bull.” Whatever the case, it can be only good news for the 18-year-old, who seems almost certain to figure in the 2025 driver market.Haas achieved what looks like an increasingly difficult mission for a handful of teams in the bottom half of the grid: it scored.

It’s created a significant gap between the two groups, and that’s put points out of reach of five teams in ordinary circumstances.To bridge the gap to the points, the American team played clever tactics with its two drivers. He executed magnificently. The regulations define a car’s maximum width, but the Dane’s VF-24 looked twice as wide as he fended off challenges from Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant.It’s just reward for Haas, which looks revitalised under new team boss Ayao Komatsu contrary to pre-season expectations.

His race got off to a ferocious start with a gutsy move around the outside of Fernando Alonso at the first chicane to move up to fourth, which put him directly behind Leclerc at the safety car restart. It was a podium-getting performance but in a car not yet quite up to podium potential — though it’s clearly close.

This was far from a sterling weekend from the Aussie, but with Tsunoda faring scarcely better, Ricciardo said it was clear there were broader issues at play.

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