New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\nTOPSHOT – Ferrari’s British driver Lewis Hamilton arrives to the paddock ahead of the 2025 Saudi Arabia Formula One Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on April 20, 2025. (Photo by Giuseppe CACACE \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n
\ufeff6. LAWSON-TSUNODA SWITCH HASN\u2019T PAID OFF YET… BUT IT SHOULD<\/b><\/p>\n
It took only two rounds for the season\u2019s first driver change, with Red Bull Racing dropping Liam Lawson for Yuki Tsunoda.<\/p>\n
Lawson flailed badly during his two rounds in the cockpit, qualifying 18th and 20th and on average 1.485 seconds behind Verstappen \u2014 a total discombobulation.<\/p>\n
Given the presumed importance of the team\u2019s score rate to Verstappen\u2019s future, management moved hastily, backflipping on its previous opposition to Tsunoda\u2019s promotion and dropping the Japanese ace into the car for his home grand prix.<\/p>\n
It was an immediate improvement, but not an immediate hit.<\/p>\n
Tsunoda is qualifying an average of 0.655 seconds behind Verstappen and has scored just two points for ninth place in Bahrain, the team\u2019s least competitive weekend of the year.<\/p>\n
That said, Tsunoda has clear potential where Lawson didn\u2019t seem to. He looks like a close match for Verstappen until he has to take the car to the very limit late in qualifying, when he struggles to take the final step, which is in keeping with the car\u2019s problemed handling profile.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been enough to call the switch a qualified success, even if it\u2019s yet to pay off with any serious points \u2014 but the team will need to see more soon.<\/p>\n
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA – APRIL 19: Yuki Tsunoda of Japan and Oracle Red Bull Racing prepares to drive in the garage during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia at Jeddah Corniche Circuit on April 19, 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Alex Pantling\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
7. THREE ROOKIES STAND OUT\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n
Formula 1 has welcomed a bumper six-driver crop of rookies to the grid this year, and there have been some clear and immediate standouts among them.<\/p>\n
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the extremely highly rated 18-year-old who was fast-tracked through the junior categories to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, has adjusted well to life at the front of the field.<\/p>\n
Australia was arguably his most impressive result, scoring from outside the top 10 on a treacherous day that tripped up drivers with for more experience.<\/p>\n
While he\u2019s still lacking ultimate qualifying speed, his race performances have been super assured and devoid of the sort of rookie errors you might expect of someone so young and green. He\u2019s showing all the promise Mercedes had hoped he would.<\/p>\n
Norris CRASHES out in Saudi Q3 | 01:19<\/p>\n
Oliver Bearman has been less consistent but very impressive when he\u2019s on form \u2014 perhaps unsurprising given his strong stand-in appearances last season. Three points finishes from five grands prix has helped Haas to a close sixth in the title standings.<\/p>\n
But Isack Hadjar has been the surprise entry among the rookies. Promoted almost by default from a Red Bull driver program that had run dry, he\u2019s been extremely fast at every race, was a close match for Tsunoda in the opening rounds and has beaten Lawson two qualifying session from three.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been an effective race performer too, finishing twice in the top 10, and suddenly looks like an F1 stayer.<\/p>\n
Mercedes’ Italian driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli walks in the paddock ahead of the third practice session of the 2025 Saudi Arabia Formula One Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on April 19, 2025. (Photo by Giuseppe CACACE \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n
8. \u2026BUT THE JURY IS OUT ON THE OTHERS<\/b><\/p>\n
Not every rookie has had such a good run, however.<\/p>\n
Aussie rookie Jack Doohan has been fast in qualifying but patchy in the races \u2014 good enough to reportedly earn a stay of execution until at least the middle of the year but not enough to totally resolve the uncertainty around his seat.<\/p>\n
His qualifying trend relative to Pierre Gasly is moving in the wrong direction, though he was severely compromised in Japan, and Jeddah is a high-confidence circuit that sternly tested every rookie.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s yet to score points, but Gasly has scored only once. Overall it\u2019s difficult to be definitive about Doohan\u2019s F1 promotion, with a bigger sample size needed.<\/p>\n
Liam Lawson\u2019s return to Racing Bulls looked tough until the weekend in Saudi Arabia, where he outqualified Hadjar for the first time this season. He was beaten in the race, however, and finished outside the points.<\/p>\n
There remains a risk that one of the Racing Bulls drivers ends up without a drive at the end of the season, and Lawson will have to maintain his trajectory to give himself a fighting chance of seeing 2026.<\/p>\n
Gabriel Bortoleto, the reigning Formula 2 champion, deserves a qualified pass given the low quality of his machinery. He\u2019s been a decent match for teammate Nico H\u00fclkenberg despite the tough baptism, and it\u2019s good to know his long-term contract will at least get him to next season, when a more representative car might allow him to prove himself.<\/p>\n
BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN – APRIL 10: Jack Doohan of Australia and Alpine F1 looks on in the Paddock during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit on April 10, 2025 in Bahrain, Bahrain. (Photo by Clive Mason\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
9. WILLIAMS\u2019S SAINZ-ALBON COMBO IS STARTING TO PAY DIVIDENDS<\/b><\/p>\n
Carlos Sainz\u2019s switch to Williams hasn\u2019t been as smooth as he and the team had hoped. Alex Albon easily had the Spaniard covered early in the run of five opening races, and Sainz talked openly about the difficulty adapting to the Mercedes-powered backmarker after years with Ferrari at the front of the field.<\/p>\n
But things have finally started clicking, with Sainz leading the way for Williams in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, at the latter race scoring vital points that put the team fifth on the title table.<\/p>\n
Jeddah was a particularly strong race for Sainz not only because of his race management to hold a place in the points but also because of the way he slowed late in the race to give Albon a DRS advantage to hold off Hadjar in the final stint, securing eighth and ninth for the team.<\/p>\n
It was the sort of tactical play a driver not at one with or fully comfortable in the car wouldn\u2019t have been able to pull off.<\/p>\n
Team principal James Vowles has long talked about the various off-track benefits derived from Sainz\u2019s experience, but in the tight midfield battle his on-track contribution had been lacking.<\/p>\n
But after five rounds it looks like Sainz is a long way down the road to solving the Williams puzzle and becoming the midfield force he\u2019d been expected to be.<\/p>\n
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA – APRIL 20: Carlos Sainz of Spain and Williams gives a thumbs up on the drivers parade prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia at Jeddah Corniche Circuit on April 20, 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
10. ASTON MARTIN IS F1\u2019S MOST DISAPPOINTING TEAM<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s been easy to forget Aston Martin is even at the races this year, so hard has the team fallen since is podium heroics of 2023.<\/p>\n
Neither driver is yet to qualify better than 12th. While Lance Stroll has scored points twice, they were more indicative of circumstance that genuine car performance. On average the best-placed Aston driver is finishing 56 seconds off the lead.<\/p>\n
After finishing 11th ahead of Stroll in 16th in Saudi Arabia, Fernando Alonso had a brutal message for one of the best-funded and most ambitious teams in the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get used to it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be difficult to score points this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
On pure qualifying pace Aston Martin is eighth in the rankings, though if you exclude Haas\u2019s woeful performance in Australia, the green team drops to ninth ahead of only the wayward Sauber squad. In Jeddah Stroll set the record for most Q1 eliminations in Formula 1 history. We\u2019re only five races into the season but the performance trend suggested the AMR25 is moving backwards, not forwards.<\/p>\n
The team insists it\u2019s not giving up on 2025, but with so much money and effort spent on preparing for 2026, it must be hard to justify diverting even minor resources to a car that\u2019s unlikely to contend for anything more than its current seventh in the championship standings, though it\u2019s easy to imagine it finishing as low as ninth.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it\u2019s the price to pay for a big uplift in 2026, but given where this team sat only two years ago, it\u2019s a disappointing decline all the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 will arrive at the Miami Grand Prix recharged and refreshed after a frenetic five grands 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