[Official] Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2023: Grand Prix Weekend Thread - Round 2 of 23

[Born Racer]

The Jeddah street circuit made quite the impact a couple of years ago on becoming the fourth track to stage a full F1 night race after Marina Bay, Sakhir and Losail, but not because of the nocturnal novelty. Its scary thrill of a relentless rollercoaster-like ride around its 27 corners coincided with a sensational turn of events in the championship competition between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

Four months later, we returned for the 2022 season, with barriers moved back and rounded in many places and the circuit widened on the exit of the final bend. Already under the spotlight due to the country's controversial human rights record, the Saudi event and everyone's safety was threatened following a Houthi missile attack on a nearby Aramco oil depot. In the drivers' briefing this Thursday, several drivers gave positive comments on safety ranging from fairly muted to optimistic, although Lewis Hamilton's comments suggested a high level of dissatisfaction.


The history

Saudi Arabia has little motorsport history, although there is a push to change this in many forms now, including big sponsorship deals, such as Aramco's. In the late 1970s, the late Sir Frank Williams secured Saudi sponsorship. The Race of Champions took place in Saudi Arabia in 2018, while the Diriyah ePrix Formula E race has been run on the Riyadh Street Circuit, and Extreme E off-road racing held.

In 2019, it was announced that a Qiddiya motorsport complex would be developed for the entertainment hub in Riyadh, and it has been suggested that a Grand Prix will be staged there at some point. In the meantime, Jeddah stepped forward to host last year's inaugural event. Situated on the Corniche, a coastal area by the Red Sea, the track comprises a whopping 27 corners near the waterfront, although many of these are fast kinks, rather than big turns per se.

Qualifying featured the customary battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton set provisional pole and Verstappen looked to be on an even better one, before locking up at Turn 27 and crashing. Hamilton duly took pole from Valtteri Bottas and Verstappen.

Pérez locked up and came close to hitting Verstappen at Turn 1, before Leclerc then challenged the Red Bull leader on Lap 1, although he couldn't make it stick, while the Mercedes led away in perfect formation. On Lap 10, Mick Schumacher crashed the Haas, leading to the deployment of the safety car. Verstappen complained on the radio that Hamilton was running too slowly. Then, both Mercedes pitted. A red flag shortly followed, during which time Verstappen changed tyres. Verstappen challenged Hamilton round the outside into Turn 1 on the Lap 15 restart, but without space, went across the run off and cut ahead anyway. Meanwhile, Pérez got caught out in a sandwich and was taken out, among others.

Race Director Michael Masi then offered Red Bull the chance to restart with Verstappen behind Hamilton and Ocon, who would be on pole. This therefore seemingly gave them the chance to get away without a penalty for the Turn 1 incident. The race started for the third time, now on Lap 17, and this time Hamilton was sandwiched by Ocon on the outside and Verstappen on the inside, the latter of whom took the lead.

Once past the Alpine driver, Hamilton set about homing in on his adversary and on Lap 37, endeavouring to sweep around the outside into Turn 1, he was rebuked by Max, who left him to run wide. Hamilton called him crazy. Max's engineer instructed him to award the place back, after which point he slowed down and Hamilton ran into the back of him.

On Lap 42, Verstappen attempted to finish off letting Hamilton past, the Mercedes driver successfully getting ahead, before then retaking the lead. We then learned that Max had a 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. Hamilton made an overtake on Lap 43 to finally seal the move, with Verstappen coming home 2nd, while Bottas nipped past Ocon to steal the final podium spot at the finish line. Verstappen and Hamilton entered the final, infamous round at Abu Dhabi equal on points.

In March last year, Pérez took pole and held the lead into the first lap, followed through by Leclerc. Alpine teammates Alonso and Ocon had a close moment when the latter edged closer to the wall on the start-finish staight on Lap 5 and Alonso appeared to be making a move there before he had to take avoiding action. He soon got by cleanly on the outside around Turn 1.

Leclerc was called into the pits and Pérez stopped to cover him, but the Ferrari driver didn't enter and Pérez was extra unlucky to have been duped, as a safety car followed just after his stop after Nicholas Latifi bashed the wall. Both Ferraris and Verstappen were among the many to pit during the SC and switch from mediums to hards, and Verstappen ended up being in line to chase Leclerc on the restart. Meanwhile, Pérez was deemed to have not given Sainz room as the Ferrari emerged from his stop and was forced to give the place up.

On Lap 42 of 50, Verstappen made it past Leclerc, but as Leclerc got the DRS, he was able to repass as they entered Lap 43. The world champion held back as they neared Lap 47 and waited for the pass to get DRS and made the pass, taking first place, which he held to the finish, followed by Leclerc and then Sainz.


Trivia

Max Verstappen won the opening round of 2023 in Bahrain. The winner of the opening round of the season has finished 2nd in the championship every year since 2017.

Verstappen's victory was also only Red Bull's second in a season opener (after 2011)

The world champion has won at 18 of the 23 venues to host races in 2023. He needs to win in Australia, Britain, Singapore, Qatar and Las Vegas to complete the list.

Hamilton has won at 19 of them, lacking only Azerbaijan, Miami, the Netherlands and Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, out of the three world champions, Hamilton and Alonso are the only two drivers to have won at two of the venues (Silverstone and Marina Bay), while Hamilton and Verstappen are the only two current world champions to have won at five venues (including Jeddah).

Leclerc has won at only five.

All the world champions have won at eight of them.


The track

Jeddah has a lot of muscle when it comes to the statistics. It is the second-fastest circuit, after Monza, with average speeds around 250km/h and it is the fastest F1 street circuit ever (Albert Park has an average speed of around 237km/h and Baku 215).

It is also the longest street circuit in use recently, at just over 6km, pipping Baku, and the second-longest track in F1, a kilometre shorter than Spa.

Turns 1 and 2 are made of of a chicane including a 90-degree left, followed by a right, both taken in 3rd gear, before and the left-hand kink at Turn 3. Turns 4 and 5 are fast left and right-handers, 5th and 6th gear. The semi-circular Turn 5 is followed by a similar shape but in mirror image at Turns 6 and 7. Turns 8, 9 and 10 are fast and gentle turns. The drivers will just shuffle through 11 and 12 before the big banking at 13, a fast and long hairpin, not dipping under 4th gear.

After the fast sweepers of 14 and 15, the right-left sequence of Turns 16 and 17 is mighty, driven at around 200km/h and in 5th gear before immediately getting detection for the first of three DRS zones. After the slight kinks of 18, 19 and 20, we have DRS Zone 1, immediately chased by DRS Detection Zone 2 and the quick Turns 22, 23 and 24 (6th gear), before the long Turn 25, whose curvature levels off into Turn 26 (all this in DRS Zone 2) before the hairpin at Turn 27, one of the slowest turns on the track, tackled in 3rd gear, with DRS Detection Zone 3 just before it and DRS activation on the start-finish straight.




Other information

Circuit length: 6.174km
Number of laps: 50
Race distance: 308.45km
Race lap record: 1:30.734 (Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes - 2021)
Dry weather tyre compounds: C2, C3 & C4
First Grand Prix at this circuit: 2021
First Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: 2021

Join in the predictions contest here: https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=157781

And Fantasy F1 here: https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=157755

[S griffin]

Excellent intro BR. Not my favourite venue, but that's hope we get a decent race.

[Lancsbreaker]

Ferrari could be struggling with Leclerc having grid penalties for Electronics replacement, and in P1 Alfa Romeo and McLaren look to be struggling.....although of course P1 is the least representative session...

[bjohnsonsmith]

Great intro as ever.

I'm looking forward to this, in particular as to whether AMR can continue with their new found form, after their performance at the season opener and if FP1 is anything to go buy, it all looks good.

Otherwise, can Mercedes begin to turn things round, after their crunch factory meeting on Tuesday? As for Leclerc it looks like damage limitation time after he got that 10 place grid penalty.

[seanyb505]

I will say, as uninspiring as the track may present itself, the flow-y ness of most of the track would be lovely to watch with a nice European natural background. Lots of nice left right left right activity. I'd enjoy driving that rhythm in my station wagon..

[chunterer]

Hmmm seems that RB are maintaining their Bahrain laptime advantage on both compounds. Quick in the twisty stuff.
Alonso up there in the Aston 'RBM' but reportedly on lower fuel?
Ferrari and Merc someway off but for different reasons.

Mover of the weekend so far appears to be Alpine?

[chillibowl]

Wonderful intro BR!

Must say I really do like this track but like many I do find it difficult to separate the event from the politics of its host.

Great addition of Collins to the SKY team. Don’t know why it took so long to get an actual strategy expert on the panel. Looking forward to her insight!

Fun Q1. Not sure about Sargeant losing his lap time but great lap at the end by Piastri.

Lack of early pace from Ferrari is worrisome.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Verstappen with a drive issue and less than 7 minutes left in Q2.

Edit: Verstappen out of qualifying.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Perez on Pole. Leclerc would have been on the front row except for his grid penalty, which puts him 12th on the grid. Alonso joins Perez on the front row. Russell is 3rd, with Hamilton in 7th. Verstappen starts 15th. Sainz, Stroll and Ocon, 4th, 5th and 6th. Should be an interesting race.

[Tourer]

Thanks you for the intro BR - great work as always.

Still have mixed feelings about this place. First there's the question of whether the sport should be going to Saudi at all, then there's the track - exciting in many respects but also scary and the question of whether the balance between the two is right. Still have my doubts but no question that the track presents a genuine challenge for drivers and teams.

Qual was really quite interesting - with now Max back behind even the penalised Ferrari of Charles, Lando having his issue, Logan Sergeant putting in a great lap but getting the pit entry white line, George Russell looking more comfortable than Lewis with the car, and of course Fernando on the front row for tomorrow's race. Plenty of "what if" stuff to look forward to!

[AndreasDavour]

I'm pretty convinced we will see the next fatality at this track, which is kind of fitting considering it's a track in the country who finance so much murder and terror since 9/11.


F1 should never have gone there, and full respect to Lewis who even with the FIA gag order still say he's not ok with being in that country.

[S griffin]

Bad luck hits Verstappen. All way down in 15th. Perez has a big opportunity, as has Alonso

[seanyb505]

Pretty difficult to see verstappen emerging this race with his championship lead intact.

[steve_r]

Such is the dominance of the RBR / Verstappen combination, added to the fact that only 6 of the cars ahead of hm are even going to bother putting up a defence, I expect Verstappen to make rapid progress through the field. Add in a safety car when someone inevitably bins it, and he probably will get onto the podium with ease.

[Aysedasi]

It wouldn't surprise me at all if he wins it. He may need 'compliance' from Perez, but it could well happen.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by seanyb505

Pretty difficult to see verstappen emerging this race with his championship lead intact.

I think he'll be leading by half way lol.

[AndreasDavour]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

It wouldn't surprise me at all if he wins it. He may need 'compliance' from Perez, but it could well happen.

This is exactly what I expect.

[chillibowl]

Will this track allow him to pass so many in a stint and a half? Forget about Perez letting him by, I want to see what Alonso does!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

Will this track allow him to pass so many in a stint and a half? Forget about Perez letting him by, I want to see what Alonso does!

As well as Russell, Sainz and Hamilton. I don't think any of them will make it easy for Verstappen to get past.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

As well as Russell, Sainz and Hamilton. I don't think any of them will make it easy for Verstappen to get past.

Right! Should be fun!

[Greem]

This is going to be a bit daft. I can see some significant incidents happening today, with Verstappen coming through the field and many drivers not wanting him to.

Bring it on!

[Greem]

Crikey. Alonso takes the lead *but* gets a 5s penalty for not being in the right position on the grid. Bummer.

Amazing overtake by Stroll on Sainz though!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Great start from Alonso but they are saying he had an incorrect starting location.

Edit: he gets a 5 second penalty.

[Greem]

Stroll told to park the car. Full SC.

[Greem]

Alonso takes the penalty under the SC and remains in P2.