How Jeddah highlights Ferrari’s contradictions: Charles Leclerc on attack from first to last lap. Ferrari's two-faced performance.

Charles Leclerc on fire in Jeddah
The Arabica blend coffee gave wings to Ferrari and suddenly, when no one truly expected it, we saw Charles Leclerc no longer forced to defend, but fully on the attack from the first to the last meter.

A miracle not even Charles himself imagined, which brightened Easter in Maranello by finally offering a glimmer of hope for the future. However, Leclerc himself tempers any excessive enthusiasm by stating that some basic elements, such as aerodynamic load, are still lacking in the SF25. Nevertheless, in a difficult and unpredictable championship for everyone, Ferrari made its way by leaving Mercedes behind and threatening not only Red Bull but also McLaren in terms of pure performance.

After the pit stop, Charles Leclerc had a 13-second gap to Piastri, which was reduced to 8 by the finish line. A situation unimaginable beforehand, which would be too easy to explain merely with the car’s perfect adaptation to Pirelli’s harder compounds. There was more to it, though no one explained it, even if Maranello’s technicians should have a good idea where to intervene to close the gap and give the drivers that crucial qualifying edge needed to think big.

But one cannot deny the contribution of a fired-up Charles Leclerc in securing Ferrari’s first podium of the year in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. It’s all too evident that Charles is racing to cancel out and cast doubt over the arrival of Lewis Hamilton to the team. His hunger for revenge is welcome if it yields results like this. Undoubtedly, Leclerc feels relieved of many leadership responsibilities that, for better or worse, were all on him until last year. The fact is, he’s now racing like a lion—free in his mind, creative in setting up his car after abandoning Hamilton’s input, aggressive and effective without making mistakes. He’s someone else entirely.

As for Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari needs to find the remedy to awaken him from hibernation. They thought they had landed the genius capable of solving every problem with a wave of the magic wand, and instead, they now face a real ‘case’—with the premise that Lewis hasn’t lost his way and must bounce back for himself, the fans, for everyone.

Then in Saudi Arabia, there was a winner named Oscar Piastri, who at the first corner behaved just like Verstappen has done many times to others—but this time, it was the world champion who paid the price. Against someone like ‘Ice’ Piastri, Max Verstappen came out worse and didn’t take it well.

He’ll have to accept it. Oscar Piastri has talent, knows how to race, and is coldly rational. And yet he’s only raced in 51 Grands Prix. He has already knocked out Norris in their in-house duel, and now he must try to hold onto the championship lead—an area still full of unknowns.

But with each race, he impresses with his maturity, and on Sunday, he won with the measured pace of someone thinking long term. Has a star been born? We’ll wait before saying it, but Oscar’s star shines bright—and you can see it from far away. Yes, perhaps this is the beginning of something that will leave its mark.