We parted ways on glum terms after Round 1, when a harsh reality check was delivered by the reigning World Champion. It’s become clear that things remain under control over at Red Bull. They kicked the season off stronger than before with a 1-2 finish in Bahrain. With adjusted expectations, here’s the run down on the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix race weekend, our final verdict, and our entertainer of the week!
Surprise, Surprise!
We kicked off the weekend with the news that Carlos Sainz Jr. was feeling unwell. Although he was able to participate in FP1 and FP2, news came out early Friday that he was suffering from appendicitis and required surgery.
Enter, Oliver Bearman. The 18 year old Britton had pole position in F2 and was set to participate in the F2 sprint race that afternoon when he got the call up to F1. While wishing a speedy recovery for Carlos Sainz Jr., this brought some much needed excitement to what I anticipated to be an otherwise routine procession (such is the state of F1 in 2024).
A stellar performance in Qualifying left him P11 for the race, only .036 of a second away from knocking out 7-Time World Champion Lewis Hamilton from Q2. It was nervy stuff for his dad, who was experiencing all of the emotions in the spectrum of emotions at once in the Ferrari garage. While P11 in a Ferrari may not sound particularly impressive out of context, it’s an altogether different story when the result was achieved by a rookie that’s driven the car for all of 1 hour in arguably the most difficult circuit on the calendar. To top it all off he ended the race in P7, holding off a late charge from Norris and Hamilton. Hats off to the Bear man!
Penalties
I didn’t realize that the standard penalties for “leaving the track and gaining an advantage” and “causing a collision” was upgraded from 5-second penalties to 10-second penalties. Therefore, it was very kind of Kevin Magnussen to demonstrate that for us at the determent of his own race. In seriousness though, the first penalty seemed unnecessarily harsh. Alex Albon, the victim of the collision, said he saw it as a racing incident due to the nature of that corner. The second penalty for “leaving the track” was more warranted.
One headscratcher of an incident was Lando Norris’s jump start NOT getting a penalty. While he may not have gained an advantage, that’s not the criteria for a jump start. The rule is: no jumping the start. Apparently, there’s a FIA supplied transponder fitted on all of the cars that is meant to pick up on any jump starts. But in this case the transponder didn’t indicate a jump start. Either the transponder was faulty or they should double check the parameters for what constitutes a jump start. Because with our eyeballs, it was clear as day.
If you have F1TV, check out Jolyon Palmer’s Analysis of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix where he dissects all of the incidents in the race. You can also find a portion of it on the Formula1 YouTube channel.
Jail Time
Sauber, Sauber, Sauber. Not again. After running in P11 for the majority of the race due to staying out during the Safety Car, Zhou’s race came undone by a 25 minute pitstop that left him dead last among the race finishers. A pit stop blunder every now and then is excusable. But going 2 for 2 is not a good look. At least they’re equally distributing the misery between their drivers.
Entertainer of the Week
The most entertaining part of the race was the Kevin Magnussen shenanigans. Yes, the battle for P12 was the most entertaining part of the grand prix. After getting the Esteban Ocon 2023 treatment and earning himself a whopping 20 seconds worth of penalties, Kevin Magnussen and the Haas pitwall hatched an ingenious, diabolical plan. They would back up the pack to get Nico Hülkenberg a pitstop without losing position. By any means necessary. And it was no mean feat to accomplish. K-Mag would slow all the way down in the parts of the track where overtaking was practically impossible, then speed up before the DRS zones. It helped that the car directly behind him was the trundling Alpine.
The scheme was successful and Hass is the first point scorers outside the top 5 teams. With the chasm in race pace between the top 5 teams and the chasing pack, points will be hard to get by this season for the bottom 5 teams. So, If we can’t have a fight in the front of the field, we’ll take a fight for P10. If that takes Haas deploying a borderline illegal strategy to get points, I’m all for the Haasterplan!
The Verdict
It’s a sorry state at the front of the field. We seem to have a clear number 2 team in Ferrari, unlike last year. The Red Bull also seems to be so far clear that even Checo can comfortably coast in P2. The rest is quite literally a procession and overtaking seems even harder than before. There were no overtakes apart from Checo getting past Charles, but that was a routine drive by. All the other overtakes were due to differing strategies and were pretty routine as well.
All that being said, I actually enjoyed this Grand Prix. We had some K-Mag shenanigans and Oliver Bearman’s impressive debut performance to entertain us. Was it the most entertaining grand prix ever? No. But It was a massive improvement from the snooze fest that was Bahrain. I’m also now excited to see what Haas can accomplish and how long they will be in P6 by getting that singular point.
What I’m looking forward to in Australia? Call me delusional, but I feel like Ferrari have something up their sleeve. They don’t have any upgrades for Australia as far as I’m aware, but they feel like a much more assured and confident team. And that alone can make so much difference. Downwards to Australia!
