What we've learned at F1's Saudi Arabian GP already
Though McLaren looks in control like before, there were a lot of interesting developments both in the front pack and in the midfield through Saudi Arabian GP practice
A McLaren 1-2 in Friday practice for Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix did little justice to how intriguing the Jeddah event has been so far.
Here is what our team learned from the paddock and a trip trackside.
McLaren’s first proper upgrade
McLaren has shown no signs of backing off in trying to improve its dominant MCL39 as it introduced its first major upgrade of the season in Saudi Arabia on Friday.
A new diffuser, aimed at increasing aerodynamic efficiency, was tried out by Oscar Piastri in FP1 before Lando Norris got to run it in the later evening session.
Mixed in were lower-downforce wings that are better suited to the Jeddah track.
Early analysis suggests no major alarm bells in the diffuser inducing any of the balance woes or bouncing headaches that some teams have encountered in the past when making changes to their cars.
In fact, pace-wise McLaren seems to be even further ahead here than in Bahrain last week - with Mark Hughes’ analysis putting it 0.3s ahead in qualifying and up to 0.7s clear in race runs.
It is a margin other teams would love to have, though pace-setter Norris was not too happy with the edge.
“At the minute I would say we feel confident,” he said.
“But the others are not far behind. I probably was hoping for a bigger gap than what we had today. I mean, we know we're fast, we know we have a great car, but certainly not 'comfortable' - not as comfortable as we would like." - Jonathan Noble
A 2025 first for Verstappen
For the first time, Max Verstappen and Red Bull broke into the top six in an FP2 session in 2025 - with the third-fastest time overall.
And the car looked genuinely quick. While it wasn’t without its troubles, it was a far cry from the depths of its Bahrain form.
Verstappen appeared relatively content by his standards, saying “we tried some different things with the car, trying to find a different direction with it, and I think we learned a lot”. And team-mate Yuki Tsunoda looked brisk, until he clipped the inside wall at the final corner and crashed as a consequence.
While that doesn’t mean Red Bull can be a McLaren-beater, it could well be a Ferrari- and Mercedes-beater this weekend based on what we saw today. - Edd Straw
Tsunoda's first major setback
Tsunoda’s shunt at the last corner marked his first major setback as a Red Bull driver, and was a shame given he had compared well to Verstappen until then.
He was just 0.003s slower in FP1, and was competitive on the mediums in the first runs in FP2 - but fell away on the softs. Tsunoda missed the first corner on his first flying lap, then just seemed a little more cautious afterwards as a result.
Crashing during the long run hurt his prospects given his tyre management has been weak compared to Verstappen in his first two Red Bull events. But if Tsunoda can brush it off and get back to his Friday best, this is shaping up to be his strongest showing yet.
“It is frustrating because the pace was looking good, so it’s a shame, but also a positive, as I was getting the car in a good window,” he said.
“My last soft run was also compromised with the warm-up and everything, so we don’t have a great read for qualifying - but so far, the weekend has felt pretty OK."
“Importantly, my confidence level is still pretty good here," he added. - Scott Mitchell-Malm
Mercedes messier than normal
George Russell described FP2 as a “messy session”, with team-mate Kimi Antonelli calling it “quite tricky”.
That matches with the trackside evidence as, for the first time in 2025, the Mercedes looked a handful with the roughest ride of any car in the field. While that translated into so-so single-lap pace - only fifth-quickest car given Carlos Sainz’s pace - the degradation on Russell’s long run looked good. And Mercedes is optimistic about further gains come Saturday.
“In the later session, the car was a bit trickier for both drivers, so we’ll pick through those changes on the simulator overnight and decide what to keep and what to discard,” said trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin. - ES
New Ferrari floor, same Hamilton struggle
Lewis Hamilton was optimistic heading into the weekend that a driving style breakthrough in the second stint of the Bahrain Grand Prix signposted the way for how to get the best out of the Ferrari.
Combined with the Ferrari floor upgrade, that meant he came into the weekend in a good frame of mind, saying on Thursday “I feel positive”.
After a Friday practice he described as “not the greatest” with struggles getting the soft-compound Pirellis to work, that changed. He lacked consistency and balance, as well as - in our view from trackside - exhibiting signs of struggling once again with rear instability in the fast corners.
“Normally, Saturday goes backwards but I hope there’s not a lot of backwards for me to go from where I am,” he quipped after lapping six tenths slower than team-mate Charles Leclerc in FP2. - ES
FP1 star's step back
A slightly unrepresentative daytime FP1 is not the kind of session anybody gets super excited about topping, so Pierre Gasly’s slump from P1 to P8 in FP2 was within the realms of acceptability for the Alpine driver.
Gasly said he had a great feeling in the car but as evening descended and track conditions shifted, he admitted it became tricky at times. The Alpine looked more of a handful at low speed in particular, with Gasly doing a better job of working around that than Jack Doohan.
The Alpine doesn’t look as stellar as it did in Bahrain as Williams appears to be the standout midfield car so far in Jeddah - with both Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon performing well. But Gasly in particular seems to still be in the mix.
“Q3 is on the table,” he said. “It's very tight - Carlos put in a strong lap tonight, Albon was fast in FP1, we know they're quite efficient in this low-drag type of track.
“Clearly they'll be in the mix, hopefully we can be with them. This afternoon I wasn't too far, and it feels like there's room for improvement.” - SMM
Haas high-speed fears well-founded
After a hat-trick of points finishes gave the impression that Haas really has turned its season around, Friday practice at Jeddah has confirmed it was right to fear its big problem from Australia could return in the right (or should that be 'wrong'?) conditions.
Team boss Ayao Komatsu admitted ahead of this weekend that there were still some issues with aerodynamic performance at high speed even after its rushed upgrade that arrived two races ago in Japan helped mitigate them.
And he said that the prospect of the Australia issue return was “absolutely” in everybody’s heads because they knew it wasn’t completely solved and couldn’t even say with certainty if “we improved it by 25% or 40% or what”.
He said: “We know it’s still underlying there, and when we take car to a certain level it will happen - whether that’s very close to optimum, so you can still set the car up in an optimum window, or far away, that’s the difference.”
A tricky Friday in Jeddah ended with Haas 1.5s off the pace, although at least not totally adrift like it was in Australia. Still, Komatsu admitted the car was not “consistent or predictable enough to give confidence to the driver” in the high-speed corners - so whether Haas can address that will define the rest of its weekend. - SMM
Softer tyres' lack of impact
Pirelli is using the next few races as an experiment to see how it can best spice up the racing and avoid one-stop races becoming the norm.
For the Saudi Arabian GP this resulted in it electing to go one step softer in its tyre compounds than last year - bringing the C5, C4 and C3 for Jeddah.
But in a year when teams have made good gains in downforce to stop tyres sliding too much, and as they are overall getting ever better at managing the rubber, early indications point to things remaining in one-stopper territory.
The pace on the C4 and C3, allied to low degradation levels, means that they are the likely choices teams will aim for in the race - unless we get the jeopardy of some red flags or safety cars. - JN
Racing Bulls upgrade (temporarily?) removed
Racing Bulls removed its upgraded rear wings from both cars after discovering a micro-crack after FP1. The issue was easily repaired but the team did not want to take a risk for second practice.
It may decide to re-fit the new rear wings for final practice and qualifying on Saturday but that decision will be taken overnight, depending on what the team concludes is best for drag levels.
“We have a new rear wing for this event, and we saw a small issue with it after the first run of FP1,” said racing director Alan Permane.
“That caused us to revert to an earlier specification and we lost some running time doing this.”
Racing Bulls looks less competitive here in the midfield so far, with neither driver cracking the top 10 in either FP1 or FP2. - JN
Drivers getting caught out a lot
It’s well-established that Jeddah is a tricky track, due to its blind high-speed corners and the punishing walls close to hand - but it's the slower corners that were catching plenty of drivers out on Friday.
FP2 was particularly disrupted, notably by Tsunoda’s red flag-inducing wall crunch. But The Race’s vantage point on the outside of Turns 1 and 2 provided a great view of several cars and drivers having rear slides, taking to the run-off area, or - in Lance Stroll’s case - arriving backwards with the wheels all locked up!
While teams will attempt to tidy up their set-ups overnight, drivers will get little chance to get settled before qualifying as FP3 takes place in unrepresentative daytime conditions. - SMM
