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🏁 Cool as a Cucumber

🏁 Cool as a Cucumber

Bahrain GP Recap, Saudi Arabia GP Preview

Matthew Bailey
April 18, 2025

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PLP Season 3 Edition 7

Race Weekend

I officially dub thee, First of his Name, the OG King of Cool, the Calm Wonder from Down Under, Oscar “The Cucumber™️” Piastri.

Yes you read that right. Sticking with the team’s food themed nickname, Oscar deserves one that exemplifies his steadfast and unwavering attitude. The mighty cucumber. What should Lando’s nickname be? The Pickle?

Times for this weekend in EDT:

FP1: Friday, April 18th @ 9:30am
FP2: Friday, April 18th @ 1:00pm
FP3: Saturday, April 19th @ 9:30am
Quali: Saturday, April 10th @ 1:00pm
Grand Prix: Sunday, April 20th @ 1:00pm

Quick Question!

Four races down, call it now: Who's taking the WDC title?

Race Recap: Bahrain

Podium: 🥇 PIA - 🥈 RUS - 🥉 NOR

DNF: SAI

Fastest Lap: PIA

DotD: HAM - While it was a solid drive for Hamilton and Ferrari’s best team result so far, these DotD picks have been kinda random, no? I guess it’s better than the “Lando of the Day” awards we saw at the beginning of last year.

DNF: SAI

DSQ: HUL

Quali continues to be a story, as Oscar put on a stellar lap for pole, while started way back in P6. Ferrari looked more competitive with Leclerc P3. George continued his string of impressive performances with a front row start, with teammate Kimi lining up behind in P4. Gasly put a competitive looking Alpine in P5, while rookie Doohan had his best quali so far and just missed out on Q3.

At lights out Lando would finally nail a start and quickly shoot up to P3 (granted he would receive a five second penalty for lining up ahead of his grid box), behind Russell who moved up to P2, with Oscar still leading the way. Though the podium would finish in the same order, it was not without drama in what was safely the best race so far this season (unless you’re completely partial to wet races and want to put Australia ahead). We finally got some overtaking, mixed tire strategies, multiple stops, and even a safety car due to debris (pronounced deb-Ree) to mix things up.

Carlos would finally qualify well in the Williams only to drop down the order and make contact with Yuki numerous times (Yuki would score two points - the most by a Red Bull second driver in quite some time) and be forced to retire due to sidepod damage. Kimi once again looked good - but would get betrayed by awful strategy calls from his team and poor safety car timing that left him with a three-stopper and a P12 finish.

At one point Max would find himself in dead last - P20 due to pit stop timing. Seeing that on the timing tower was surreal. But after more stops and a stellar pass of Gasly on the last lap - he’d salvage a P6 in what was a stellar drive considering what he was working with. Ollie Bearman would nab the final point for Haas in P10 - despite starting the race in P20 himself. Ferrari had their best result so far with a 4-5 finish, with Leclerc even passing Norris half way through the race to take the last podium spot - which was lost due to some unlucky safety car timing later on. The action once the safety car went in was fast and furious as Lando battled the Ferraris - losing advantage early but eventually pulling back ahead as the last laps ticked away to take the last podium spot. Oh and Oscar? Just a cool Sunday drive, chilling in P1 and taking the checkered flag first.

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Saudi Arabia GP Preview

Blazingly fast, 27 twisting turns against tight barriers makes this one pure adrenaline.. but also, a bit difficult on the overtaking front. I expect our continued streak of pole → race win pipeline. With an average speed of 155mph on the lap, it’s second only to Monza which is nicknamed “The Temple of Speed.” Therefore I dub Jeddah, “The Sanctuary of Velocity.” I’m really on a roll with these nicknames.

The track is much smoother than Bahrain and teams will need to strike a delicate balance between downforce for those fast corners and overall aero efficiency for the three DRS sections. FP2 will have the most representative conditions for the night race, so tune in for that session if you want an idea of who might have the race pace advantage.

What to Watch For:

Title Fight is STILL ON: And at this very moment, it looks like Oscar has the edge. The Cucumber™️just doesn’t seem to make mistakes like Lando does.
Jekyll or Hyde? Which version of Red Bull will show up? Japan put Max’s skills on full display while the car was simply uncompetitive in Bahrain. I think this one will be more like Suzuka for Max. I say he podiums here + wins if he gets pole.
Ferrari Step: Both drivers looked much better in Bahrain, plus their floor upgrade could even provide bigger dividends here. Calling Ferrari podium now as well. So I’m about filled up. Full pred: PIA - VER - LEC.
Midfield Fight: Let’s not forget the little guys. Every team has points on the board. Williams had a hot start, double points for Haas last weekend, and Alpine looking competitive. Who will have the edge this weekend?

Spice Report: F1 Might As Well Be Arrakis With All That Spice

Dune reference in case you haven’t seen the two part (soon to be trilogy?) Chalamet blockbusters. I recommend.

F1 is nothing if not spicy. Constant rumors, wild speculation, silly season, rule bending, some light corruption here and there. Here’s a few things to add some fuel to the fire:

FIA Deputy Abdication: A very biting and telling statement from now departed FIA Deputy President Robert Reid showcased the distrust that exists with the governing body. Reid cited a "breakdown in standards" within the organization and a "lack of transparency". He expressed his decision was about “principles not politics” and that he could no longer remain part of a system that did not reflect the values of accountability and transparency. “When I took on this role, it was to serve the FIA's members, not to serve power.” Dayum! In other words, he along with most F1 fans, thinks the FIA stinks. A strong message. Will things change? Doubtful.
Red Bull Confrontation: There was an allegedly perhaps-not-so-pleasant emergency meeting of the team’s top brass after last weekend in what was the least competitive their car has been since I can remember. Mind you they still got double points, but if that was the goal each week they wouldn’t be Red Bull right?
2026 Regulation Conflagration: In short - the teams are split on engine decisions, active aero seems like it could be a disaster, and there’s way to much uncertainty with the new rules less than a year away. This has 1 team domination a la 2014 start of Mercedes dynasty written all over it. Also, I guessed that conflagration would fit here before I looked it up. It means “large, destructive fire” btw, which totally fits. So that’s cool.

“The Lisan al-Gaib rises—not as a whisper, but a storm.” - Some guy from Dune, probably talking about Oscar Piastri.

Driver Drama

▶️ Max Verstappen was to the point on Bahrain: “everything basically went wrong”. And still P6. But P6’s don’t win championships.

▶️ Lewis Hamilton on adapting to the SF-24: “I’ve got a lot of work to do to adapt the way I approach corners but it’s not impossible, it might just take a little bit of time but hopefully not too long.”

▶️ George Russell was dealing with “all sorts of failures” on his way to a resilient P2 finish, that saw his timing transponder constantly misleading fans as to his whereabouts on the timing tower, and a DRS detection issue that caused his engineer to have to relay the info manually. We all discovered that it’s actually quite difficult to tell what’s going on when the time display is inaccurate. It kept showing George dropping down the order because his car wasn’t registering, confusing onlookers around the world.

▶️ Though no one likes to be passed on the last lap, Pierre Gasly was happy with the team performance overall: “I think it just shows how good of a weekend we had when we are fighting these guys.”

▶️ Analyst Jolyon Palmer sees a clear difference between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri - with the biggest challenge for the former being “trying to balance attacking the slow speed entries without making mistakes – whilst also not under-driving” while the latter has excelled in low speed corners.

▶️ The rough start for Fernando Alonso continues - his steering wheel literally fell off during FP2 last weekend. Imagine that happened during the races? That’s some Looney Tunes stuff right there.

▶️ Isack Hadjar says being on the poor performing hard tire at safety car restart hurt his race in Bahrain, while Liam Lawson says being stuck in traffic prevented him from showcasing the cars true pace.

▶️ While finishing out of the points when they were in reach is tough, Jack Doohan’s solid weekend may have bought him some time and released the pressure on his seat - at least until the next race.

▶️ After a tough weekend, Carlos Sainz says he needs to “pick his battles better.”

▶️ Ollie Bearman is returning to the track where he finished P7 for Ferrari last year, filling in for Carlos Sainz’s appendix: “A crazy weekend, I just hope physically I’m a bit stronger now because it was a tough race. This track will always be special to me.”

Quote of the Week

"Can you hear me? Yeah. So I spoke with Leclerc in the parade and they think the one stop is 1.5 seconds slower than the two stop only, so they might try that"

Pierre Gasly, in a radio message to his team before race start

I love the gamesmanship, but this is an odd one. It’s not too unusual for drivers to discuss strategies, but early on it seemed like Charles was indeed urging his engineer for the one stop. Also, Gasly knows that all radio is available to all teams, so Ferrari would know what Alpine now knows. Maybe some bluffing all around?

BONUS QUOTE

Because I just saw this one as well:

“You focus on commentating, I'll focus on driving.”

Max Verstappen, in response to Crofty’s question about his future at Red Bull

😲 Max is extra spicy when he’s not winning every race, so it seems.

Constructor’s Corner

▶️ Red Bull exemplifying “when it rains, it pours”: The usually lightning fast pit stop crew was slowed down by a busted release light, that refused to turn green and wasted their drivers precious seconds.

▶️ Mercedes appears to be the closest challenger to McLaren at the moment, after Toto Wolff says Bahrain was “better than expected.”

▶️ McLaren’s car is the best, but maybe not quite in the way Lando would like. “The car is definitely different to how it’s been so I’m having to adapt a lot in uncomfortable ways.” Highlights just how much car differences and driving style matter at the top.

▶️ Ferrari TP Vasseur is cursing the safety car timing: “We had the potential to do better today. The Safety Car did not come at the right time for us, at least for Charles, but this is not an excuse.”

▶️ Haas is riding high after a great turnaround Sunday from a brutal Saturday. TP Komatsu says “What a day. I’m very happy, especially after the disappointment of yesterday – nobody gave up.”

Tech Talk

This special floor edition of tech talk is sponsored not by a flooring company, but simply by the concept of floors.

Ferrari Floor: The team’s floor update helped in Bahrain, as they seek to find a “less abrupt transition of the aero balance between braking and corner entry but also between low-speed and high.” Expect it the effects to shine even more at tracks like Jeddah.
Red Bull Floor: The struggling team will be bringing a significant undercarriage update to Imola, and will also seek to draw inspiration from McLaren as they work on a brake cooling system to help manage tire temperature.
Aston Martin Floor: The struggling squad has been adjusting floor set up to address bouncing. This is a three year old problem from when the regulations were new… tough look.

Off the Grid

This special women’s edition of off the grid is sponsored by your grandmother. Give her a call, ok?

Sebastian Vettel holds his “Race for Women” karting event ahead of the GP this weekend. “Generally Saudi is opening up and it’s great to see the next generation of girls and women speaking out their dreams, being able and being allowed to do a lot of the things their mothers weren’t able or allowed to do.”
F1 Academy returns this weekend. Doriane Pin currently tops the standings.

Quick Question (My answer)

Oscar is taking it, and I don’t think this is recency bias. He’s got the car, makes less mistakes than Lando, has the zen mentality. It will be a fun battle to watch.

We’ll be back in two weeks to recap the Saudi action and preview the Miami GP. Like the great recording artist Pitbull likes to say: “I am from Miami, in case you didn’t know. And I get all my F1 news from Pit Lane Pulse.” Thanks for the shoutout, Mr. Bull.

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