Heroics Into Saint Devote

Here we are then folks. The final stop on the first triple header of the year, and it’s at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. A semi-permanent street circuit on the coast of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia. And what a circuit it is. First introduced during the incredible 2021 season, where we saw plenty of drama. From Hamilton crashing into the back of Verstappen, to Verstappen’s incredible qualifying lap that was undone by the final corner. Lets look at what we have in store.

According to Motorsport.com, Mclaren, Ferrari and Red Bull have all introduced an upgrade package for the weekend. Let’s go through them in order shall we? Mclaren have re-worked the rear diffuser of the MCL39 to find what little time they can, whilst also working on their rear brake ducts, introducing a series of small winglets to improve and rework the car’s already incredible aerodynamic efficiency. Meanwhile, their colleagues in the Scuderia have taken a simpler way of doing this, and have just introduced a circuit-specific lower downforce rear wing and beam wing to combat the drag the SF-25 has. When married with the low-downforce wing the team have brought, this should allow the drivers to achieve more top-end speed when tackling the 27-turn circuit. As well as a revised rear airduct, presumably for more cooling. Red Bull have also gone a similar way, introducing a ‘reduced-chord’ revised beam wing, which will help shed drag at higher speeds, and more engine cooling toward the rear of the engine cover, to tackle the high heats expected in Jeddah, which Red Bull suffered from heavily in Bahrain.

Down the grid, Haas and Aston Martin have also revised their low-downforce rear wings, which have been carried over from the VF-24 of last year, which signifies little development for this year, and may mean more focus on 2026 in the American camp. Supposedly, the front wing has also been revised, allowing less downforce, therefore less drag at high speeds. Visa Cashapp Racing Bulls have also introduced a new rear-wing, noted to have ‘reduced camber and incidence’ to take to combat for the weekend.

Sauber have made the most gains this weekend. Whilst they have introduced similar wings as those detailed above, they have also re-designed the central part of their floor. This will allow for better airflow to the diffuser, granting more downforce when required. This is also coupled with a new front wing end plate design.

Looking ahead to the weekend, it’s been noted that all 4 cars powered by Red Bull Powertrains engines are running with fresh components. Max and Yuki, Isack and Lawson have all opted to dip into their allocation and have fitted a new ICE (Internal Combustion Engine), TC (Turbo Charger), MGU-H (Motor Generator Unit – Heat), MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic) and EX (Exhaust). This is also the case in Bahrain, where all four drivers took new CE (Control Electronics) and ES (Energy Store) components. Could this be a sign of reliability issues with the RBPT unit? Or is it purely strategic?

Coming into the weekend-specific stuff now, and Pirelli have opted to bring the C5 Soft, C4 Medium and C3 Hard tyre this weekend, a step softer than years past. Other than that, little else to report. Verstappen has supposedly been offered a EUR264 Million 3-year contract at Aston Martin, though Verstappen neither confirmed nor denied these rumours when questioned by David Croft from Sky F1. When asked, Verstappen stated his focus was on improving his car. And David’s focus should remain on commentating.

Practice Review.

So we’ve just had the third and final hour of practice here in Jeddah, and a somewhat mixed up bunch of results we have had.

In practice 1, we say Pierre Gasly go purple in his Alpine, soon followed by Lando Norris of Mclaren, +0.007s behind, then Charles Leclerc of the Scuderia in 3rd, a further 0.070s behind. But what about the session itself? Antonelli was the first to break the dust covers off his W16, and soon began complaining of vibrations he could feel, presumably through his arse. That’s how every driver feels things. We also saw a bunch of lock-ups from varying drivers up and down the paddock, including Gasly into turn one, Bearman locking up all 4 into turn 13, Antonelli also included in this group. Lawson was noted and handed with a warning for crossing the painted area on pit-entry not once, but twice. His actions were deemed unnecessary. And after the first time, he was handed with a warning from the stewards, the second time he was handed a driving reprimand. Funny. Hamilton also had a near-miss with the wall in Turn 5, seemingly having just misjudged his positioning. Piastri also touched the wall in Turn 4, getting away with a small amount of damage to the floor of his MCL39.

Practice 2 saw a few incidents, Starting with Bortoleto of Sauber, who missed the entire session due to a fuel leak in the garage. This lead the team to give the Brazilian a new chassis for FP3 and Qualifying. Antonelli had a hairy moment in Turn 1, with the rear of his W16 stepping out of line, thankfully the Italian collected himself well and continued the session. Lance Stroll recorded the first spin of the weekend, seeing the Canadian go round into turn 1 after catching a huge lockup. Plenty of impeding went on too, with Lewis Hamilton getting in the way of Alex Albon in the Williams at Turn 5, whilst the Williams was on a push-lap. Also impeding was a Sauber in the pit-exit on Oscar Piastri. Verstappen also impeded Norris at Turn 11. A few drivers clipped the ever-present walls around the circuit. Gasly on the exit of T27, Hadjar in T4, Albon T27 twice. But the biggest brush on the wall went Yuki Tsunoda’s way. The Japanese driver clipped the wall on the inside of turn 27, breaking the front left suspension, sending Tsunoda straight on into the wall, and his front wing about 20 metres further down the track. This brought out the first red flag of the weekend. On replay, it seems Yuki misjudged his entry on the final turn of his hotlap, sending the Red Bull into the wall. It seems that corner is cursed for the Milton Keynes outfit. The session ended with a Mclaren 1-2 in Norris’ favour, followed up by the ever-fast Max Verstappen.

Practice 3 now. By far the dullest of the three sessions, with very little to talk about. A few lockups here and there from Tsunoda, Most of the session was taken up by small complaints from drivers. Verstappen complained about the engine braking of his car, which was soon rectified by the team. Hamilton complained about the poor grip he was getting from his soft compound tyres, but this the track ever evolving this weekend, I can see it being a 2 stop race, with the softs hardly featuring up and down the grid. Leclerc also reported that he was being limited by the grip of his car, preventing him from maximising the potential of his Ferrari.

And I think that’s all I’ve got time for folks. Qualifying is up soon, and I also want to discuss the WEC race this weekend too. Not enough time! Damn Easter. Goodnight.