Everything we learned at F1's Bahrain Grand Prix

The Bahrain Grand Prix exposed some brutal weaknesses in some Formula 1 drivers and teams, including several championship protagonists, while rewarding impressive improvements from others.Here is everything we learned from F1's return to its pre-season testing venue and how things have moved on.Undisputed step makes Piastri favourite…Lando Norris still leads the world championship but the best McL...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/everything-we-learned-2025-f1-bahrain-grand-prix/

Doohan's Alpine F1 seat should be secure until summer

Jack Doohan’s seat at Alpine should be secure until at least the summer, The Race understands, despite an incident-filled start to his rookie Formula 1 season.Doohan’s place has been under scrutiny since before his F1 career really started as Alpine’s rookie driver seemed at risk of being replaced eventually by Franco Colapinto.

That began when Alpine’s Flavio Briatore showed interest in then-W...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/jack-doohan-alpine-f1-seat-should-be-secure-until-summer/

Podcast: Is Piastri now F1 2025's title favourite?

Does his dominant Bahrain Grand Prix victory make Oscar Piastri the new favourite for the 2025 Formula 1 drivers' championship? That's one of numerous questions answered in The Race F1 Podcast's review of the fourth round of the season. Edd Straw is joined by Mark Hughes and Jon Noble to discuss a big Piastri victory, Norris's scrappy recovery, George Russell's impressive run to second, Red Bull's...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/podcast-is-piastri-now-f1-2025-title-favourite/

What Hamilton learned from most useful Ferrari F1 weekend yet

Lewis Hamilton’s rollercoaster start to life at Ferrari continued with a strong recovery drive, somewhat salvaging a Bahrain Grand Prix weekend that proved to be his most informative yet.Hamilton was despondent after qualifying ninth for the grand prix on Saturday, seven places behind his front row starting team-mate Charles Leclerc.

But things got a lot better for Hamilton on Sunday, as he mo...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-lewis-hamilton-learned-from-most-useful-ferrari-f1-weekend-yet/

Video: Why Red Bull was so bad in F1's Bahrain GP

Slow pitstops, fighting midfield cars and damage done in both title races, Red Bull and Max Verstappen had a miserable time at Formula 1's Bahrain Grand Prix.So just what went so wrong and what does it mean for the rest of its 2025 season? From the Bahrain GP paddock, Edd Straw and Jon Noble discuss exactly that in our latest YouTube video.

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/video-why-red-bull-was-so-bad-in-f1s-bahrain-gp/

Mark Hughes: Piastri brilliance a harsh contrast with scrappy Norris

Oscar Piastri brought McLaren’s drought at the venue of its Bahraini owners to an end in resounding fashion, very nearly putting himself into the lead of the Formula 1 world championship in the process. The hard yards were done in qualifying, just as they had been at Suzuka a week earlier. If the move to Sakhir and its more tyre-demanding surface brought the promise of a less predictable race, Pia...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/piastri-brilliance-a-harsh-contrast-with-scrappy-norris-mark-hughes/

Norris: McLaren car advantage is bailing me out right now

Lando Norris says McLaren’s performance advantage is masking the full extent of his missing confidence in the team's 2025 Formula 1 car.Norris was highly self-critical of the qualifying lap left him sixth on the grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday, and he wasn’t that impressed with his scrappy recovery to third on Sunday via a penalty for being out of position on the grid.“I qualified sixt...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/lando-norris-mclaren-car-advantage-bailing-me-out-f1-2025/

What explains nightmare Red Bull pitstops in Bahrain GP

Red Bull has explained the problem with its equipment that was the likely cause of the lengthy pitstops that heaped further misery on Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda in Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix.On a day that Verstappen summarised as “everything went wrong that could go wrong” thanks to a combination of brake problems, overheating tyres and balance issues, the Dutchman’s plight was further hu...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-explains-nightmare-red-bull-pitstops-bahrain-gp/

Why Sainz had a phantom grid penalty for the Saudi GP

An FIA system error led to Carlos Sainz having a three-place grid penalty for his next Formula 1 race for just over 10 minutes before it was realised he had already served the penalty during the Bahrain Grand Prix.Sainz and Williams were notified soon after the Sakhir race finish that he would have a grid drop for Jeddah because Williams had retired his car before he could serve a time penalty for...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/carlos-sainz-saudi-arabian-gp-phantom-grid-penalty-explained/

Winners and losers from F1's 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix

A late(ish)-race safety car added some spice to the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix - and was make or break for a number of Formula 1's drivers and teams in the field.But even before that, some looked destined to shine - just as the writing was already on the wall for others.Here's our pick of winners and losers from Sakhir:Winner - Oscar PiastriPeerless. And probably now the championship favourite....

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/winners-losers-f1-2025-bahrain-grand-prix/

Why F1 stewards didn't strip Russell of podium for improper DRS use

Mercedes Formula 1 driver George Russell has kept his second-place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix as he was cleared of any wrongdoing for improper DRS usage.His Mercedes' DRS opened in the closing stages of the Bahrain GP despite the car not being within one second of the car ahead, runaway race leader Oscar Piastri.Russell explained after the race that the DRS suddenly opened when he pressed th...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/george-russell-keeps-bahrain-gp-podium-despite-improper-drs-use/

How does Bahrain GP change F1's 2025 title fight? Our verdict

The fourth round of the 2025 Formula 1 season offered more clues for how this year's title fight will play out.From Oscar Piastri's dominant win to Lando Norris's scrappy recovery, our writers reflect on what that means for the championship battle this year: Norris's salvage job was deeply unconvincing Scott Mitchell-MalmBy a mix of luck and judgement, Norris got close to the result he needed in B...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/how-does-bahrain-gp-change-f1-2025-title-fight-our-verdict/

Piastri leads Russell: F1 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix results

Oscar Piastri took his second victory of the 2025 Formula 1 season with a dominant victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix.He was followed by George Russell's Mercedes, although his podium needs to survive a post-race investigation into a DRS infringement. Lando Norris completed the podium with a somewhat shaky recovery from sixth on the grid via a penalty and a long battle with Charles Leclerc's Ferrar...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-2025-bahrain-grand-prix-results-piastri-dominates/

Dominant Bahrain win takes Piastri in range of scrappy Norris

Oscar Piastri took a commanding Bahrain Grand Prix victory to close right in on McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in the Formula 1 world championship, as Norris only salvaged a podium right at the end of a scrappy race.Piastri was only briefly headed during the first pitstop sequence as he controlled proceedings masterfully throughout for his second win of 2025.Norris quickly turned his disappointing...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/oscar-piastri-bahrain-gp-win-dominant-lando-norris-f1/

Russell's Bahrain GP podium in doubt over DRS infringement

George Russell's second-place finish in Formula 1's Bahrain Grand Prix is in doubt with a stewards investigation into a potential DRS infringement.Russell undid the damage of the one-place grid penalty Mercedes earned for a pitlane error during a red flag in Q2 by moving ahead of Charles Leclerc at the start and proceeding to claim second in the Bahrain GP.He crossed the line just ahead of a charg...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/george-russell-bahrain-gp-podium-doubt-drs-infringement/

Where Norris is losing so much laptime - and what McLaren thinks

McLaren does not share Lando Norris's assessment that he needs a "big reset" if he is going to get fully on top of his 2025 Formula 1 car.Norris was despondent after qualifying in Bahrain when, having appeared to have had a car that was quick enough to fight for pole position, he ended up sixth on the grid after losing more than four tenths of a second to team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Speaking to th...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/where-norris-is-losing-so-much-laptime-and-what-mclaren-thinks/

Why Red Bull's troubled F1 car is more exposed in Bahrain

Max Verstappen could only muster a distant seventh in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, only a week after putting Red Bull's 2025 Formula 1 car on pole position in Japan. So what changed?The reigning F1 world champion has a simple answer to that. There was nothing fundamentally different about the car, he said, the drop-off in performance instead reflects the different environment with high t...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/why-red-bulls-troubled-f1-car-is-more-exposed-in-bahrain/

Bearman regret and Ocon shunt: Haas's Bahrain GP anguish

Haas was sent crashing back down to earth in qualifying for the 2025 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix which left Ollie Bearman ruing a seemingly easy choice and Esteban Ocon hoping for respite after his wreck.Bearman qualified last and made an unusual admission on Saturday night at Sakhir. The rookie gave up first practice in Bahrain for Haas’s new reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa. This seemed a simple dec...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/bearman-regret-and-ocon-shunt-haass-bahrain-gp-anguish/

Mark Hughes on Norris and Hamilton's Bahrain misery

Lando Norris perhaps provided a clue after Bahrain Grand Prix FP2 yesterday when, despite the McLarens showing a big advantage over the rest of the Formula 1 field, he was playing it down, suggesting the margin over George Russell's Mercedes might be more to do with respective power unit modes or fuel loads.Sure, it was probably partly Lando's half-empty way of looking at things, but there were al...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hughes-on-norris-and-hamiltons-bahrain-misery/

'We got it wrong' - FIA explains late Bahrain lap deletion mess

The FIA has admitted it “got it wrong” in missing Nico Hulkenberg’s track limits infringement early enough in qualifying for Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix.Hulkenberg had run off the circuit at Turn 11 during his fastest lap in Q1, but this was not spotted by the FIA at the time.That meant the Sauber driver was allowed to proceed to Q2, having knocked Williams’ Alex Albon out behind him.However, f...

Read more: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/we-got-it-wrong-fia-explains-late-nico-hulkenberg-lap-deletion/