Bahrain GP takeaways: Piastri outshines Norris, Ferrari progress

We'll offer our takeaways following each race weekend this year. Here are our thoughts after the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Moments that decided the race 👀

Piastri emerging as McLaren's best driver

The drivers' standings will show Lando Norris as McLaren's lead driver with a championship-leading 77 points, and Oscar Piastri right behind him with 74 points. However, the performances on track – especially in Bahrain – have told a different story.

Piastri was rarely discussed - or seen - as he controlled the pace from lights out to the checkered flag. After a phenomenal pole lap, the Australian led 54 of 57 laps and got home over 15 seconds ahead of the next closest driver.

Unlike Piastri, Norris struggled all weekend. He qualified sixth – behind an Alpine – and was then handed a time penalty after lining up ahead of his grid box. He worked his way back to a third-place finish, but it wasn't easy: Norris struggled behind Charles Leclerc and then failed to pass George Russell in the closing laps.

The main difference between Piastri and Norris thus far is clear: composure. While Norris has repeatedly admitted he's struggled to extract the most out of the MCL39, he's made the simple seem complicated, while his counterpart has often been on cruise control.

Perhaps Norris shouldn't focus on the chatter from the camp and team of reigning champion Max Verstappen, as the main threat to his title hopes might be next door, in Piastri's garage.

Ferrari's upgrades show promise

After a disappointing start to the season, Ferrari brought its first major upgrade package, focused on floor performance, to Bahrain. The verdict: so far, so good.

Leclerc qualified third, which later became his first front-row start of 2025 due to Russell's grid penalty. From there, Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, who began ninth, brought Ferrari its best result of the year - both drivers finished in the top five.

Unlike the rest of the top 10, Ferrari opted for a medium tire start and appeared to be heading for a better result before a safety car in the middle stage of the race. In the end, Leclerc placed fourth, though he frustrated and defended the faster Norris for as long as he could for the final podium spot.

Ferrari was still miles off Piastri's pace, but crucially, Leclerc was only a couple of hundredths of a second off the leading Mercedes in terms of average race pace and quite ahead of Red Bull, according to Formula Data Analysis.

While it's atypical to feel optimistic about Ferrari, there should be a lot of hope that this SF-25 package has a lot more to give.

Red Bull disasterclass

In the words of Max Verstappen, Red Bull's only problems this weekend were the race start, pace, car balance, braking, tire degradation, pit stop errors and the poor strategy that left him stuck in traffic.

In short, it was a disastrous weekend for Red Bull, and it was only saved by another damage limitation race by Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda scoring his first points with the team.

The reigning world champion, who at one point was running in last, scraped a sixth-place finish. His deficit in the drivers' championship is still only eight points, but it adds more evidence that he's falling further back than climbing up.

That may be hard to fathom considering Verstappen was atop the podium just last week, but the team's recipe for success has become glaringly obvious. First, the track must be low degradation and emphasize front-tire performance. Next, there must be an outside element, such as rain like Brazil last year or next to impossible overtaking like Japan last Sunday. And the final ingredient: Verstappen must be firing on all cylinders. Unless those all come together, results like those at Bahrain are more likely than not.

Reports surfaced that suggested Red Bull held a post-race meeting that included team principal Christian Horner, advisor Helmut Marko, and others. If they wanted to discuss a crisis, they were late to react. In a little over a year, Red Bull's dominant advantage has more than been erased. It's been doubled by its rivals.

Verstappen said before the race that he's merely "taking part" in the championship, not fighting for it. If races like Sunday, in which Verstappen battled a Haas and Alpine car, continue, he'll be proven right.

Driver of the Day 🙌

George Russell: Russell was driving a car that resembled something out of The Flintstones by the end of the race. There were DRS issues and a brake-by-wire problem that had the Mercedes driver battling a pedal that was going all the way to the floor in the final laps. Still, he held off a faster Norris to collect his third podium of 2025. The track threw everything it had to rattle Russell, including a grid penalty after qualifying, but the British driver proved unflappable.

They said what? 🗣️

Zak Brown on Piastri and Norris competing for for drivers' championship: "They race hard. I'm sure we're going to have some excitement over the year, but they race very cleanly, and they're free to race as we've discussed. I think we've yet to see that epic battle between them - I think that's just a matter of time - but they're pulling the whole team forward, and it's exciting."

Lando Norris on feeling like he's struggling: "Honestly, I'm surprised I'm achieving anything at the minute with how I feel in the car. I'm not comfortable, I'm not happy, I'm not feeling good, so getting the results that I'm getting, I'm quite surprised by it. Something's not clicking. I don't have an answer."

George Russell on the brake-by-wire issue at the end of the race: "When I was hitting the brakes, the pedal was going all the way to the floor. ... For 10 laps in a row, I didn't know going into every corner if my brake would be solid or if it would be going to the floor. It really compromised the race, but at the end of the day, coming home in P2 is mega."

Lewis Hamilton on growing pains with Ferrari: "I've been driving a certain a way with the same team for such a long time, and I've moved to a new car and it requires such different driving style and settings. ... So I'm adjusting to that, and I think I am slowly getting it into my head."

What's next?

The Saudi Arabian GP goes Sunday, April 20 at 1 p.m. ET.

Red Bull has claimed three of the four races at the Jeddah Circuit - Verstappen won in 2022 and 2024, and Sergio Perez won in 2023. Hamilton won the inaugural grand prix in 2021.