McLaren’s Oscar Piastri hints Red Bull and Max Verstappen can win the F1 2025 Saudi Arabian GP, refusing to count the four-time champion out at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit as he admits he’s unsure of his pace.
The Australian will have to overtake the Dutchman if he hopes to secure his third victory of the season and also assume control of the drivers’ championship by displacing Lando Norris, who starts from 10th.
And even though his car is leading the constructors’ championship, the 23-year-old already knows that’s a tough task to achieve following the 2025 Japanese GP, where the defending champion fended off both McLarens for 53 laps around Suzuka.
The F1 2025 Saudi Arabian GP should, in theory, be a bit different with higher degradation and DRS zones to create overtaking opportunities; but all the same, Piastri remains unsure of the pace of Red Bull and hints Verstappen can win the race.
“I’ll see how I feel. I think we’ve got good pace,” Piastri said of McLaren’s odds to members of the media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “I think the Red Bull and Max look more competitive here than they did certainly last week.
“Suzuka is not a completely different layout to somewhere like here with a lot of high-speed corners.
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“So it kind of makes sense to me at least that they’re a bit more competitive, and we’ll see if that translates to the race tomorrow.
“I’m feeling confident in what we’ve got. There’s a lot of DRS zones around here, which is a nice difference to Suzuka. So, let’s see if we can make some progress.”
Piastri: McLaren thought about copying Verstappen F1 Saudi Arabian GP pole strategy
Verstappen and the Red Bull engineers pulled a rabbit out of the hat to beat McLaren to pole at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Saturday night, with a bit of on-the-fly innovation to beat Piastri by 0.010.
They did so by fuelling for two consecutive laps, with a race-speed pitstop in the middle, thus allowing the four-time champion to carry momentum through with the most up-to-date knowledge of the nuances of the track.
This idea also occurred to Piastri and McLaren, but they ultimately opted against it and the man from Melbourne explains why they chose to follow the conventional qualifying format.
“We spoke about it, yes, but decided against it,” Piastri said, to media including Total-Motorsport.com. “Considering I had a lap on the board, I didn’t need to put another one on. It was going to be extremely tight.
“As Max said, he had to fuel for the whole run. That first lap on used tyres with a bit more fuel, you’re weighing up how much you’re learning versus how much it puts you off. When you don’t have a lap on the board, it’s a very different scenario.
“For us with a lap one the board, we had done three or four new sets in a row. We decided to go for that single lap at the end, and I think for us, it was the right decision.”
