Never has such a familiar sim racing phrase made so much sense: “They say you cut the course, you’ll have to give up the time gained!”
The 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was a race that was ultimately decided by a Turn 1 flashpoint, a rule change that came into play last year, and the subsequent penalty. Max Verstappen gets hit with a dose of game theory as he cut the chicane, and the 5-second time penalty he got as a result demoted him from challenging for a win, to finishing second behind Oscar Piastri’s third win of 2025. Dre, Cam and super-sub guest Ryan Erik King of Jalopnik try to make sense of it all, from the nature of the rules itself, to the political nature of how it came to pass.
Also in the episode, a chat about Lando Norris making another huge mistake, crashing into the wall during Q3, more on the growing difference between Ferrari’s as Charles Leclerc picked up their first GP podium of the season, 30 seconds ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton, and whether F1 might lose its TV foothold in the United States.
