Saudi Arabia '25: FP1 Recap

Round 5 of the 2025 F1 season brings us back to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Saudi Arabia. It was a hot first day on the tight and twisty track, as the drivers leaped onto the circuit for FP1. The teams treat this first practice in Jeddah as a confidence boost for the drivers, learning how close they can push their cars without huge consequences. There is no margin for error on this track, so less setup changes in this session mean more laps to build up comfort in the car. 

One of the first out was McLaren’s Lando Norris, who was questioned about his issues seen in previous Grands Prix on media day at the track. He mentioned having to alter his driving style to adapt to the new McLaren car, and the testing conditions of Saudi Arabia could go either way for him. In FP1 it seemed to be positive, with both drivers from the team setting fast laps within the first 10 minutes. 

A big lock up and skim of the wall saw Ollie Bearman run off the track, causing scuffs to his Haas rear wing. Oscar Piastri also clipped his McLaren, and promptly asked his team to check the damage. All was fine, and he switched to softs to run 0.6 seconds faster than his previous lap time on mediums. 

It was George Russell who led the pack from the 40 minute countdown mark, but Pierre Gasly embraced the adrenaline-fueled laps and pushed his Alpine to the max. He had a close call just 10 cm away from the wall, but kept it controlled and shot up to the top of the timings. With 22 minutes to go, Carlos Sainz was also looking good, gaining more valuable experience in the Williams week by week. He had to remind his race engineer with a quick, “I know what I’m doing”, as he ran 7th fastest. His teammate Alex Albon was up 2 places in 5th, even though he described a lack of balance during the session. No balance mixed with high speed corners is such a dangerous combination, especially in such a tight track like Jeddah.  

Both VCARBs were delayed during the session, due to the cars being worked on for some time. Looking over to their sister team, Max Verstappen at Red Bull experienced troubles in the first sector. He fed back to his team about the lack of balance he was experiencing around the high speed corners, which will hopefully change their approach to FP2. 

Towards the end of the session Russell’s continuing brake issues were vocalised, Leclerc touched the wall in the entry to turn 4 (with no major damage), and Piastri suffered with the seat temperature inside the car. Overall, FP1 was a positive learning curve for all, and offered a key opportunity for the teams to iron out any small problems ahead of the rest of the weekend.

Photo credits: "Alpine F1 A522 - Fernando Alonso" by jfhweb is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.