There is always much to speak in the world without Formula 1 stop, and Flasscore’s Finley Crebolder gives his thoughts on the biggest stories that go around the driving in this regular column.

The first tripleheader of the year is over, and while hardly ending in style in a very uneven Saudi Arabia Prix Grand, the season is looking much more interesting now than at the beginning of it.

At that time, it seemed as if McLaren would prevail the campaign, with Lando Norris most likely to see a challenge from teammate Oscar piastri become a world champion.

Now, however, those roles are empathy.

In the piastri, Verstappen may have fulfilled his match

Max VerstappenAccess when you go to the wheel at the wheel has always been to not give his opponent an inch and make them choose between giving way or clashing with him.

Lewis Hamilton They called the Dutch Bluff several times in 2021, and they gathered many times as a result, with Verstappen often moving worse, but Norris has always been more willing to stay on his land and risk a collision.

“I need to draw my elbows out and I have to tell the one that I will not give him any position, but I also have to be a smart driver,” Britain said at the beginning of this season.

“I don’t need to take any unnecessary risks. I need to focus on myself.”

The piastri had never really gone to the foot with Red Bull Man himself before this season, and it was unclear if his approach would be more similar to Hamilton or Norris’, but it is no more.

“Once I got inward from the inside, I was not getting out of curves 1 per second,” He said after his victory in Saudi Arabia, a victory that was secured when he spent Verstappen and made the Dutch take a five -second penalty.

Aussie was ahead going to the first corner and didn’t light when Verstapen tried to squeeze her out. As a result, the champion of the world reign ended by cutting the corner and being penalized for it, and it eventually set the battle for victory between the two.

She did more than just that, showing Verstappen that he is against someone who is ready to take as many risks like him, who will not move aside to avoid a collision.

Piastri learning from the webber while Norris is imitating it

With his victory, the piastri became the first Australian since 2010 to run the World Cup. The man who did that then is Mark WebberHis manager and former Red Bull leader seem to be a great fortune for him.

“I think with Mark next to him – he is helping him very much” Verstappen said at his press conference after the race.

“Gray is great. People learn from their careers and that is, of course, what I have with my father, and Mark is trying to advise oscar in that.”

I would go so far as to say that Webber is an even more valuable mentor than Verstappen’s father. Unlike JOS, Aussie has the experience of running a high team, teammates, fighting generative talents, and – most importantly – fighting for Formula 1 title. These experiences make it well equipped to ensure that his prosthesis does not make the same mistakes he made.

McLaren’s other driver seems to only do it, though. The fall of the Webber was the lack of sustainability, an inability to give in the most moments, with a clash in the third-last competition of the 2010 season, dedicating the championship and title to him, and Norris is showing the same disability now.

After being classified by the piastri for the last time, he left for Saudi Arabia knowing that he had to dance again, but then collapsed at the last qualifying session and everyone, but lost his opportunity to do so. This was the latest of the many mistakes he has made at high moments in his Formula 1 career.

Webber was finally overshadowed by his teammate (Vettel Sebastian) During his time at the top, and working to ensure that the piastri does not suffer the same fate, he can condemn Norris for him.

With the honeymoon phase Hamilton is in trouble

Hamilton entered in 2025 at the top of the world, buzzing that he was fulfilling his dream of driving for Ferrari. He remained there at the beginning of the season, not worrying too much to be generally slower than teammate Charles Leclerc And instead focusing on positives such as his Sprint victory in China, but that honeymoon phase now looks very finished.

“It was terrible, not at all nice,” He said at the end of the race in Saudi Arabia, which he ended up in the stature while Leclerc claimed third.

“At the moment, there is no adjustment, so that will be for the rest of the year. It will be painful.”

Adjusting to a new team after a decade in Mercedes and the challenging leclerc would always be a big challenge, but he would probably hope that the emotion of driving a Ferrari would unlock a level within it that would see him return to the best glorious, a level he lost in his final years on Mercedes. Now, he is realizing that this is not the case, and he is fighting with him.

If things do not get quickly, he will start to ask if he is still capable of competing with the best, and this is a slippery slope. F1 leaders continue to continue how important it is to believe that you are as good as anyone, and when this belief goes, as well as speed.

That can be seen in two of the other Hamilton veterans, Fernando Alonso and Vettel. Alonso has never had a shadow of doubt that he is even best around, and he is still going strong to 43; Vettel began to interrogate himself when he began to see the second for Leclerc during his last years Ferrari, and never healed.

Will we now see the second one of the two drivers who dominated in 2010 have their own careers but ended up with Leclerc? To paraph. Or will it be enraged against the death of Light?