How Charles Leclerc’s tactical intelligence earns Ferrari a key result in Saudi Arabia. Charles Leclerc's smart tyre management earns Ferrari its first podium of the F1 season in Jeddah.

Ferrari claims its first podium of the 2025 Formula 1 season with Charles Leclerc. The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix partially smiles on the Monegasque driver, who delivered an excellent first stint thanks to outstanding management of the yellow tyre. This allowed him to extend the opening phase of the race and be less conservative with the white tyre at the end, where he could push without too much concern.

The winner was Oscar Piastri, who beat a too-aggressive Max Verstappen at Turn 1. The Dutchman’s goal was clear: take the lead immediately and then set his own pace, as he did in the Japanese Grand Prix. However, this opportunity only existed in the first stint, since after serving his penalty, the four-time Formula 1 world champion was no longer able to overtake the Australian.

Looking at the first phase of the race, Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen, and Charles Leclerc had similar pace at the front. The Monegasque driver managed his tyres intelligently, adopting a conservative approach and lapping slightly slower than the three leaders. In doing so, he controlled tyre temperatures, avoided rear overheating, also thanks to clean air, and extended the first stint.

At this stage, Charles Leclerc laid the foundation for Ferrari’s first podium of the 2025 Formula 1 championship. In the final part of the stint, the Monegasque was lapping in the high 1.33s, a pace similar to that of his rivals who had already pitted. Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, had a more difficult first phase, being stuck in traffic. The Brit struggled more than his Maranello teammate in managing rear temperatures.

Additionally, in the battle with Lando Norris, he lost around five seconds of pace while “playing” with the McLaren driver to get DRS. This fight also wore out the tyres of the seven-time Formula 1 world champion, forcing him into an early stop. Looking at the telemetry data related to tire degradation, Lewis Hamilton began to lose pace after lap 17, as the British driver was no longer able to extract grip from the tyres of his SF-25 single-seater.

Lando Norris, by contrast, after overtaking Lewis Hamilton, was able to execute his strategy in the McLaren thanks to the clean air ahead, lapping at times similar to Charles Leclerc’s. Even the race leaders were struggling with rear thermal management. Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, and George Russell were the only ones to show a real drop in tyre performance.

The Dutchman built up barely a two-second advantage, an insufficient margin to stay ahead of the Australian after the penalty. However, it is interesting to note that the Red Bull driver was more consistent in lap times during the early laps, taking advantage of great speed at the end of the straight. The Australian, by contrast, had a more fluctuating pace, trying to close in on his opponent while also managing tread temperature.

In the second stint, Lando Norris on yellow tyres and Charles Leclerc, who had extended the first phase, were the fastest on track. Even in the second part of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix race, the Monegasque driver confirmed the great progress Ferrari had made in tyre management. Despite being slightly slower than Lando Norris, the Ferrari driver had virtually zero tyre wear, overtaking George Russell with relative ease.

Mercedes, with both drivers, was unable to maximise the W16 car’s performance in the race which was held at the 6.174-kilometre Jeddah Corniche Circuit last Sunday. Both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli repeatedly complained about the lack of grip. They were, on average, the slowest among the top teams in the second stint. In particular, George Russell was unable to manage the tyre performance drop, also due to defending against Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc.

Max Verstappen, meanwhile, never maintained a clearly faster pace than Oscar Piastri that would have allowed an overtake. The Australian was able to control the gap to the four-time Formula 1 world champion, who only closed in near the end of the race, but not enough to attempt an attack.

Ferrari has found the key to building race pace to match its rivals with Charles Leclerc. However, as the Monegasque himself stated post-race, the Italian side still struggles to extract a good level of downforce in terms of qualifying pace, which is proving to be lacking. The Maranello team still has to make compromises, choosing, at least until the next updates, to sacrifice qualifying performance in favour of race pace.

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