An F1 driver of the day quibble. Plus: Early championship standings takeaways

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Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s twice-weekly F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox on Tuesday and Friday.

Welcome back to Prime Tire, where we’re wondering for a friend how to say “I have a great car” in French. That friend is Oscar Piastri.

my multilingual king pic.twitter.com/1rBttnZbdK https://t.co/sNDLJKkdSt

— نور (@81sprmanager) April 13, 2025

We’ve never met.

Anyway, after another McLaren win in Bahrain, we have ourselves a three-way fight atop the standings. (Catch up with our race briefing.) I’m Patrick, and Madeline Coleman will be along shortly. Let’s dive in.

Driving in the Dark

George Russell’s ‘unbelievable’ race

For my money, George Russell pulled off one of the coolest/most impressive drives by an F1 driver in some time in Bahrain. From Madeline’s story:

Russell admitted during the post-race news conference that he was pleased to see the checkered flag. The Briton had essentially driven in the dark (no pun intended, considering the Bahrain GP is a night race).

That’s right — Russell’s car was starting to shut down as he drove. As the race unfolded, Russell experienced a brake-by-wire failure, lost GPS functionality, and encountered DRS issues that required his race engineer to guide him via radio on when to use the system.

And he still managed a defensive clinic, holding off Lando Norris for P2. Here’s a video of the end of Russell’s race:

If it feels like Russell has hit his stride lately, you’re not imagining things: He’s finished in the top five in the last nine grands prix.

For more on Russell’s drive in the dark, read here.

Inside the Paddock with Madeline Coleman

A Driver of the Day quibble

F1 fans voted Lewis Hamilton as Driver of the Day for the Bahrain GP, with the Ferrari driver receiving 29.6 percent of the vote. That surprised me. He may have secured his season-best finish after navigating from ninth to sixth, but his drive is not one of the ones that caught my eye on Sunday. I’d argue Pierre Gasly, Ollie Bearman or even George Russell deserved the acknowledgement more.

Gasly did receive 6.5 percent of the vote after an impressive weekend, capping it off with scoring Alpine’s first points of the season. The Frenchman qualified fifth and that turned into starting fourth after Kimi Antonelli’s penalty. He battled largely in the main pack, and while Max Verstappen did take sixth from him on the last lap, the Alpine driver finished seventh.

Bearman had a rough qualifying, but he pulled it together come race day, navigating from last place to a 10th-place finish as a rookie. The Haas driver had a solid start and navigated his way to his third consecutive points finish. But what was impressive was how he kept Mercedes’ Antonelli behind him. (If you haven’t yet, make sure to give his end-of-race radio a listen, as there is a special appearance from Bearman’s father and brother.)

And then there’s the case of Russell, who did everything right as his car experienced a series of failures. His one-place grid penalty was due to a team mistake, just like Antonelli’s, and he jumped to second after nailing his start on Sunday. Second is realistically the maximum he could have achieved in a fully functioning Mercedes given McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s pace.

Inside the Paddock with Madeline Coleman

No margin for error at the top

We’re only three races into the season and a pattern is emerging. The pole sitter has won each race, and the championship battle is much closer than in recent years, with Verstappen trailing Norris by just a point heading into Bahrain.

But it would be too early to call this a three-way title fight. There are still 21 grands prix and five sprint races remaining, with the season lasting into December. As Verstappen said, “A lot of things can happen, right?”

Norris pointed out how Charles Leclerc “was not that much slower,” noting that “his second stint on the Hards was just as quick as mine,” and George Russell was also quick during the weekend. The Mercedes driver secured consecutive podium finishes in Australia and China before bringing home fifth in Japan. There may have been a notable gap between the top three finishers in Japan and Leclerc and Russell, as the Ferrari driver was 16 seconds off of Verstappen. But Piastri also isn’t writing off Mercedes and Ferrari.

“Mercedes looked very threatening at times this weekend,” he said. “Ferrari — people forget that Charles’ race in China he did with, essentially, half a front wing. So if anyone else had tried to do the race he did in China, they would have had to box pretty quickly.”

McLaren currently leads the constructors’ standings with 111 points, while Mercedes has 75 and Red Bull 61 (entirely thanks to Verstappen). While McLaren is the most complete team right now, between the driver lineup and strong car, the margins are thin.

“We have a small advantage,” Piastri said Sunday, “but this weekend has really shown that any small mistake and there’s a lot of competition there to capitalize.”

Thanks, Madeline. Now it’s time for …

Standings Update

Wow, look at these standings

It’s been a minute since we glanced at both championships. Here is where things stand after four rounds and after McLaren’s latest win on Sunday.

Some thoughts:

• Every team has scored points. Congratulations all around!
• Haas already 10 points clear of Aston Martin is wild.
• If you’re wondering whether that gap between McLaren and Mercedes is normal… no. It reminds me of 2023, when Red Bull led the standings by 93 points after four rounds. We all remember how close that season wasn’t.
• Have we started saying goodbye to the idea of Lewis Hamilton winning his eighth championship this year? It’s almost time…

Verstappen’s Future

Red Bull’s struggles in focus

Verstappen said “everything went wrong” for him in Bahrain after a sixth-place finish. It was something to see the F1 juggernaut get overtaken by rookie Kimi Antonelli early on and have to battle his way past a Haas for position.

On Monday, Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko admitted that “the concern is great” about Verstappen’s future with Red Bull due to its current car struggles. It’ll be the storyline to watch on Thursday when media day gets underway in Jeddah.

Outside the points

📚 Kimi Antonelli is making F1 history with Mercedes, while still trying to finish high school and prep for final exams.

🏎️ Hamilton is struggling to find his groove at Ferrari, qualifying ninth in Bahrain and admitting he’s “just not doing a good enough job” despite believing the car is capable of better results.

🤦‍♂️The FIA admitted they “got it wrong” in Bahrain qualifying when they sparked controversy about track limits enforcement.

🔥 And, finally, Oscar Piastri’s flawless Bahrain GP win while teammate Lando Norris made several costly mistakes shifted momentum in the title battle

📫 Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.

(Top photo of Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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