Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishThe Bahrain Grand Prix saw the same driver who secured pole go on to win the race, making Oscar Piastri the first multi-race winner of the 2025 Formula One season. But this grand prix proved to be more thrilling, with differing strategies, driver mistakes and midfield battles.McLaren and Mercedes are two teams that saw a ‘tale of two drivers’ scenario. For McLaren, Piastri controlled the race, while Lando Norris made mistakes, swinging the momentum in F1’s title battle. Meanwhile, George Russell secured another podium finish for the Silver Arrows despite multiple failures late in the race, while Kimi Antonelli was unlucky because of the safety car period.Haas took over the lead for ‘best of the rest’ after a double points finish from Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman, the latter powering back from starting at the very back of the grid. Alpine also scored its first points of the season, thanks to Pierre Gasly’s seventh-place finish.And then there’s the case of Red Bull. Yuki Tsunoda scored his first points with the senior team, marking the first time a Max Verstappen teammate brought home points since last year in Las Vegas. But Verstappen and the team face many questions, as it looks like his title defense campaign could be in jeopardy. It is still early in the season, but the car does have issues. Verstappen sits third in the standings with 69 points compared to leader Norris’ 77. Russell is only six points behind the Red Bull driver.F1 ventures to Saudi Arabia next for the final race of this tripleheader, but before we get into the new race weekend, we answered a few of your questions for our post-Bahrain GP mailbag.Editor’s note: Questions were lightly edited for clarity and brevity.What’s the perception among the teams of Lando Norris’ mentality? He’s quick, no doubt, but he just seems to be far more up-and-down than the other top drivers. They all have their strops, but with Lando, he seems far more introspective and self-critical, which probably makes him a lovely person but doesn’t seem a great fit for a champion. — Luco O.Thanks, Luco, for this very considered question, which comes after Lando Norris’ rather frank admissions about his struggles with the McLaren car last weekend in Bahrain.After qualifying sixth, he explained he felt “a bit clueless” with the car and took full accountability for not doing what he deemed a good enough job.Norris has always been incredibly hard on himself. It’s been there since I first met him as a quiet, shy kid way down in Formula Four. Throughout his time in F1, he’s stood out for being one of the few drivers to properly discuss their mentality and mental health, the latter being a significant stigma to break down.Norris recently did an excellent interview with The Guardian writer Giles Richards, saying, “I want to win a championship. I’d rather just be a good person and try to do well.”Norris added, “I want to just enjoy my life. That’s kind of the attitude that’s maybe not as much of a killer instinct. I just don’t think you have to have that to be a world champion.”Is this a weakness? Does he lack that ‘killer instinct’? McLaren does not believe so. “Being self-critical is a way to excel; it’s a way to identify your own opportunities,” team principal Andrea Stella said on Saturday, adding that he thought other drivers would share similar thoughts about themselves but “put a little bit of a screen between them and the rest of the world.” Stella also noted how Norris has never been one to point fingers at the team.Norris was slightly less tough on himself after recovering to third in the race and smiled at a question about needing to remind himself of how good he is. “Maybe sometimes I lack a bit of self-belief, and I have done in the past, but that’s just also me,” Norris said. “It’s the way I do things. It’s the way I work. It’s what has made me as good as I am.”This mentality is not going to cost Norris and should be applauded. Such vulnerability is rare in any sport, let alone one as bad as F1 at letting emotions be considered a good thing (case in point: Helmut Marko’s comments about Isack Hadjar in Australia).If being so honest helps Norris both on and off the track, then that’s good for him, even if he needn’t be quite so hard on himself at times.Luke SmithWhat on earth was happening with the Red Bull pit stop lights? And George Russell’s transponder? And the DRS? Was it a full moon or something? — Dubby W.It’s funny you say this because it genuinely was a full moon on Saturday night, which looked spectacular in the night sky above the circuit!The first thing to say is that, barring any celestial shenanigans being the root cause, the Red Bull pit stop lights issue and George Russell’s transponder failing were totally unrelated. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner confirmed after the race that a wiring loom failure in the pit stop lights caused the issue in the first stops for both Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda, where the lights did not change from red to green, leaving them to wait before being given the call to pull away by the chief mechanic.Russell’s transponder playing up appeared to result from a failure with one of the F1 signals around the track, which only impacted his car, albeit in a major way. It left Mercedes without any GPS data or onboard cameras for Russell’s car. To quote team principal Toto Wolff, it “caused the whole system to go a bit bananas.” Mercedes feared Russell could lose the entire dashboard at one stage, on top of the separate brake-by-wire failure he was managing on the car.There was also no timing data available for Russell in the final third of the race, prompting F1 to remove the usual timing tower from the world feed and instead produce a graphic that had to be manually updated to show the gaps between the leading cars.The signal failure also impacted the DRS activation relating to Russell’s car, as it is used to determine the gaps which, if under one second, permit the rear wing flap to open. Russell was told he had to be careful manually using DRS if he got within one second of another car. Still, it also meant the chasing Norris had no way of accurately knowing whether he was within one second.Wrongly using DRS can risk a penalty, meaning Norris was only opening his rear wing when it was obvious he was within one second of Russell.Luke Smith
How long can Haas lead the midfield? (Sipa USA)Haas is up to fifth in the constructors’ standings. Can they hold on to be the best of the rest for the remainder of the season? Ollie Bearman seems to be getting better every race and Esteban Ocon had really impressive outings in China and Bahrain despite binning it in Q2 this past weekend. — Matthew P.The midfield is incredibly tight and this battle likely will vary circuit to circuit, considering how few points positions are available. This season didn’t look optimistic for Haas after Australia, but the team turned it around heading into China, unlocking more performance. Sometimes luck is involved, like the timing of the safety car in Bahrain helping Bearman. However, both drivers recovered from their mistakes during the weekend, and having two drivers capable of scoring points is crucial.That being said, two double-points hauls in four race weekends don’t mean Haas will dominate the midfield. The car does have some issues that Australia exposed and China’s track characteristics helped mask it to an extent. In Japan, team principal Ayao Komatsu said they hadn’t solved it yet. Ahead of Bahrain, Ocon gave a summary of sorts about where the Haas car was.“I think we have good potential. We just need to be able to unlock it every single time and be able to optimize the car on every track. Melbourne was extremely difficult and quite a shock for all of us in the team. But we managed to get some good performance out of China and the car suddenly came alive. It’s been more difficult again in Suzuka. This is what we are working on at the moment to try to figure it out.”Madeline ColemanRank the rookie campaigns so far? — Bruno C.I love this question, so thank you for asking. Everyone debates who counts as a rookie, considering the F1 definition is a driver who has started two or fewer grands prix. Bearman competed in three last year but arguably is still a rookie. But does Lawson fall into this category with racing in 11 grands prix before having a seat this season? Just as we did when introducing you to F1’s next generation ahead of the first race, we’re going to say no and focus on these five drivers: Antonelli, Bearman, Isack Hadjar, Jack Doohan and Gabriel Bortoleto.Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes: The 18-year-old has starred. There’s zero question about it. He scored points in the first three races of the year, including powering from P16 to fourth in a wet Australian GP and making history while competing in Japan. At Suzuka, the Mercedes driver topped two of Verstappen’s records, becoming the youngest driver ever to lead a race and to set a fastest lap. He may not have scored points in Bahrain, but that came down to a three-stop strategy rather than the rookie doing something ‘wrong.’ He was undercut on the first pit stop, battled through traffic, and pitted during the safety car period (his third pit stop). That cost him dearly, as Antonelli dropped in the order again and finished just outside of points. The Mercedes driver entered the F1 scene with plenty of promise and has delivered so far, hardly misstepping.Ollie Bearman, Haas: The Briton didn’t have the best of starts to his rookie campaign, with him crashing in FP1 and FP3 in Australia and severely limiting his preparation time. But since that season-opening weekend, Bearman has improved, scoring points over the last three race weekends. Mistakes have happened, and at times, he’s struggled with the car, like front locking this past weekend. But the standout moment came in Bahrain, as Bearman went from a P20 start to finishing 10th. He overtook five drivers on the opening lap and his pit stops were timed right, his first stint going a bit longer than some of his rivals and the second stop coming during the safety car period. He dropped to P12 but moved up a spot when Carlos Sainz retired. Bearman only had to pass Doohan to get into points with 10 or so laps to go. Bahrain is just one race weekend, but there is a trend of the Haas rookie learning the car and making improvements.Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls: The 20-year-old didn’t have the best debut after crashing on the formation lap for the Australian GP. Before entering F1, Hadjar had been praised for his speed, which became evident in Japan, where he scored his first points of the season. As he noted in the team’s Bahrain preview, “We got them on merit, on pure pace,” noting how it is a confidence boost for him. The Racing Bulls’ car has been quick and Hadjar narrowly missed out on Q3 by 0.043 seconds. But he didn’t have a solid start on Sunday, tumbling from P12 to P16, and he ended the day P13. Hadjar is showing early signs of promise as he adjusts to F1, but he falls more in the middle of the pack when compared to the strength of Bearman and Antonelli.Jack Doohan, Alpine: The Australian driver entered the 2025 season with the most experience in F1 machinery compared to the other rookies, but he has struggled, with the beginning of this season being filled with incidents. He crashed on the opening lap in Australia, was penalized for collisions in China, and suffered a significant wreck during a practice session in Japan. Doohan was already under scrutiny before the campaign began because Franco Colapinto was added to Alpine’s list of reserve drivers in January, and these incidents didn’t help alleviate any pressure. But in Bahrain, Doohan showed improvement, advancing to Q2 and narrowly missing out on the top 10. A five-second time penalty for track limits, though, bumped him to a P14 finish. Bahrain marked his strongest weekend yet; however, he is still one of four drivers who have not scored points this season.Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber: And that leaves us with Bortoleto, who is last in the driver standings and has no points. He’s gone from winning the F2 and F3 titles in consecutive years to the back of the grid in a car that’s not competitive. Sauber’s struggles from 2024 are well-documented and while Nico Hülkenberg managed to score points in Australia, neither have been relatively close to the top 10. That said, Bortoleto has made mistakes, such as nearly losing the car during FP3 in Japan. With how close the grid is, misjudgments can be costly, particularly with this being the last year of the current regulations and teams preparing for 2026.Madeline Coleman(Top photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images)
