Piastri’s F1 world title message as wobbly teammate in all sorts; Red Bull crisis talks — Talking Points

At the 22nd time of asking McLaren has finally won the Bahrain Grand Prix.

It was a remarkable stretch of underperformance indicative not just of the team’s long time in the competitive wilderness in the previous decade but also the circuit’s status as a bogey track for the way McLaren builds its cars.

Even in its relatively competitive visits it’s been well off the pace. It had just one second place to show for its toil before now and had led only eight laps prior to Oscar Piastri’s pole-to-flag masterclass.

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The significance of the drought-breaker is just as great as the drought itself.

The race was yet another example of McLaren’s status as the team to beat this year, the reigning constructors champion overwhelmingly favourite to go back to back and to add the drivers title to its trophy cabinet.

But it also demonstrates that it has few places left to fear as it resummits the F1 mountain.

Certainly in Piastri’s hands, this McLaren looks capable on taking on anyone anywhere this season.

‘PROUD’ PIASTRI MAKES IT LOOK EASY

There’s been a common theme joining Oscar Piastri’s two victories this season: control.

Every winner this season has started from pole, but only Piastri has made victory look easy.

Lando Norris was challenged all the way to the flag in Australian.

Max Verstappen could only just fend off the McLaren drivers in Japan.

But in China and now Bahrain Piastri dominated, quickly and easily putting himself out of reach of his rivals on his way to victory.

Even his safety car restart was brilliantly composed. It was perhaps the one time all race that his lead was genuinely threatened, Geroge Russell behind him resuming with a softer set of tyred, but the Australian aced him before rebuilding his healthy lead.

“I’ve been proud of the job that I’ve been doing and very proud of the job the team’s done,” he said.

“Obviously the car is in a great place. It still has its moments where it bites, but for a lot of the time it’s an incredible car to drive and clearly very quick.

“I’m very proud of the work we’re doing. This has been a track that’s not been kind to us in the past, so to have a weekend like we have had this weekend is a really meaningful result.”

Piastri has won 50 per cent of this season’s grands prix, but you can credibly argue that he’s been the fastest driver at all four.

In Australia he was right behind Norris when both made mistakes as the rain arrived, dropping Piastri down the order.

In Japan the team suspected he was only roughly as fast as Norris, but generally drivers can’t stick within a second of another for that long without having a decisive advantage.

Even in the China sprint he was the quickest driver, with only the slog through dirty air allowing Lewis Hamilton to build what ended up being an insurmountable lead.

These are important indicators for two reasons.

The first is that they demonstrate his big strides forward in his third campaign, and around tracks at which he’s historically struggled. The sample size is still small, but his results have been consistent.

The second is that there’s no evidence Piastri is anything but one with the slightly tricky 2025 McLaren car.

“This weekend I felt comfortable with it,” he said. “I think there have been times where it’s been tricky definitely, but I would say for the most part I’ve been pretty happy with the car, to be honest.

“Clearly it’s got a lot of pace. We’ve kind of known from pre-season testing that there’s some things that we wanted to iron out, but I think we’ve done a very good job of doing that.

“I’ve been comfortable, especially this weekend, in what the car’s been able to do, and I think the team’s been doing a great job.”

And that’s especially important in the context of the championship given Norris’s distinctly opposite feeling.

NORRIS IN NEED OF RESET AFTER SCRAPPY RECOVERY

There was a long stretch of the race during which Piastri seemed sure to take the championship lead from teammate Norris. Though the Briton had recovered from sixth to third on the first lap, he was later passed by Charles Leclerc and demoted off the podium, which would have been enough for him to cede the title lead to the sister car.

The safety car reset that chance, and with Ferrari stuck on uncompetitive hard tyres, Norris was able to take back a spot on the podium and hold his lead by just three points.

But the third-place trophy and his slender points lead were cold comfort.

“I qualified sixth yesterday, which is pretty terrible, so how can I possibly be happy?” he said when asked if he was happy with how his race unfolded.

“I think P2 was the best we could have achieved today, so we should have achieved it, but we didn’t, and I didn’t, because of some mistakes.”

But more than the substandard result was the key takeaway message of the weekend.

Piastri is in the ascendancy, and Norris has significant work to do to catch up.

“Something’s just not clicking with me and the car,” he said. “I’m not able to do any of the laps like I was doing last season.

“Then I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car, how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car.

“This year I could not have felt more opposite so far. Even in Australia, whether or not I won the race, I never felt comfortable, never felt confident.

“The car was just mega, and that’s helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute, but I’m just nowhere near the capability that I have, which hurts to say.”

You could see as much in his race performance.

The false start was needlessly sloppy. His racecraft was tentative and error-prone. In a car capable of dominating the race he took too long to pass drivers in slower machinery.

Even Russell in a heavily compromised car could fend him off, albeit in a single-lap duel.

“I’m not doubting myself, even though sometimes it may seem like that,” Norris insisted. “It’s just something’s not gelling, something’s not clicking, and therefore I just don’t feel comfortable when I’m in the car.

“I’m confident — I know I’ve got what it takes — but just not confident [in the car].

“When you’re not confident in the car, to know what the limit is, what to do in the slow speed, high speed, any corner, I’m never going to be as quick as I need to be.

“Especially when you’re fighting the best in the world. As soon as you’re not settled, then it’s going to be an issue, and that’s what happening now.”

RED BULL IN CRISIS TALKS AFTER BAHRAIN FLOP

If crisis meetings paid out championship points, Red Bull Racing would be comfortably leading the title standings after four rounds.

Following its crisis meeting that resolved to bin Liam Lawson from the team two weeks ago, Red Bull Racing is now embroiled in another performance emergency, this time after its woeful Bahrain Grand Prix performance.

Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda qualified seventh and 10th and finished sixth and ninth respectively. Those single-place gains were made only thanks to Andrea Kimi Antonelli dropping out of the points because of the safety car.

It wasn’t just the lack of pace. Operationally Red Bull Racing was unusually blunted, with pit stop problems compounding strategy missteps, as Verstappen reeled off in his post-race debrief.

“Basically everything went wrong,” he said. “We had a poor start — too much wheel spin when I dropped the clutch.

“Then the first stint it was basically the same problems I had in qualifying, plus we’re just overheating our tyres too much compared to the competition ahead of us.

“Then the first stop I think the lights [on the gantry] got stuck on, but I didn’t want to drive through the lights; I stuck to the protocol of the team. That put me into traffic as well.

“Then the hard tyres unfortunately didn’t work, so I was just sliding around even more than I was on the soft.

“Then we boxed again — an even worse pit stop, so then I was last.

“Considering everything, to be honest, to finish P6 is then all right!”

It’s quite the list of grievances.

Sixth might be reasonable given the scale of problems, but it meant Red Bull Racing was behind McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari as the slowest of the frontrunners.

“More than that anyway was not possible, even with a good pit stop or other tyres selected,” Verstappen added. “It’s of course not what we want, but it’s where we are at with our car.

“Everything is just highlighted even more on a track like this.

“It’s just a bit stuck at the moment. Hopefully we can improve soon.”

The race was sufficiently dire that key management figures were called into a crisis meeting after the race to decide on a course of action ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

“It’s a very difficult day for Red Bull, that’s obvious to all of us,” Red Bull motorsport adviser said, per Autosport, describing the race as “very alarming”.

“We have to get, as soon as possible, performance in the car again, and also standards like a pit stop have to work. The car is not the fastest and then the pit stops are not working. That is not acceptable.

“We know that we are not competitive and there will be parts coming in the coming races, and hopefully they bring improvement.”

But these problems were supposed to have been address during the off-season. Having been unable to do so over the northern winter, it’s unclear what odds the team has of sorting them in-season and in tandem with the critical 2026 program.