What are the strengths and weaknesses of the top F1 cars?

Although McLaren have established themselves as the field-leading team so far in 2025, their rivals were quite close to the Woking-based outfit last time out in Jeddah. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his latest analysis.

McLaren looked the dominant force last time out at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. However, the papaya team was caught by surprise in the all-important qualifying session when rivals outfits, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull closed in on them. Lando Norris crashed out on his first hot lap in Q3 while his team-mate Oscar Piastri delivered a great lap, but he was unable to beat reigning champion Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman was right in the mix all through qualifying, and he started to feel himself more and more comfortable in his RB21 as the track surface cooled down. The 27-year-old went for two runs after the Q3 red flag, and it proved a masterstroke, his second lap was good enough to take his 46th career pole position.

Mercedes driver George Russell did not look particularly strong in the opening two sessions of qualifying, but he suddenly found pace for the closing stages of the session. The Briton went on to secure third place, just over a tenth of a second behind Verstappen's pole position time.

Ferrari struggled all through the qualifying session, but Charles Leclerc managed to put together a lap that was good enough to take fourth on the grid.

The quickest laps highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the four top cars. Ferrari clearly struggle to keep the tyres in their optimal temperatures window for a whole qualifying lap. The Scuderia lost around three tenths of a second through the opening two corners as Leclerc was forced to start his qualifying lap below the ideal tyre temperature in order not to overheat soft Pirellis for the ultimate corner.

In addition, the SF25 appears to struggle for traction out of the slow corners which is shown by the fact that Leclerc spent the least amount of time on full throttle.

Despite its issues with tyre warm-up and traction, Ferrari's 2025 F1 machine appears to be aerodynamically efficient. Although Leclerc achieved the second highest top speed in the high-speed Turn 9, he was the quickest through the speed trap, confirming his car's efficiency and his excellent ERS deployment.

As for Red Bull, Verstappen spent the most amount of time on full throttle (75.1 percent). Interestingly, he was five kph slower across the finish line compared to his speed at the start of his lap. While it was partly down to his ERS deployment, the difference was mainly caused by the fact that he enjoyed slipstream from his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda down the start straight when he started his push lap which meant that he gained top speed at the start of his final hot lap.

Although the reigning champion was not the quickest through the speed trap, the slowest or the quickest corner, he was close to the highest speed in all three critical sections of the track as his car did not show any apparent weaknesses.

When is comes to McLaren's 2025 F1 car, Piastri was extremely quick through the opening corners which his MCL39 dominated across the entire weekend. He was impressive through the medium-speed corners as well, although McLaren was lagging behind in terms of top speed as the MCL39 looks less aerodynamically efficient than Red Bull or Ferrari.

Russell, who came tantalizingly close to take his first pole position of 2025, recorded the highest minimum speed in both the slowest and fastest corner of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, and spent the second highest percentage on full throttle with 71 percent. The Briton was only 2kph slower through the speed trap than Leclerc's SF25, with his W16 showing no significant weaknesses.