Those hoping for a surprise result at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix had their hopes dashed once again as Max Verstappen continued his dominant start to 2024’s Formula 1 championship.
The irrepressible Dutchman was barely seen on screen throughout the 50-lap encounter in Jeddah, save from the start and his brief battle with Lando Norris after the first safety car of the year, as the action happened elsewhere.
Instead, much of the attention was focused elsewhere: a thrilling midfield scrap courted much of the TV time, as did the battle between Norris and Lewis Hamilton in the dying stages of the race. And, of course, F1’s viewers had the last-minute debut of Oliver Bearman to savour, as the 18-year-old Briton was thrown in the deep end at Ferrari when Carlos Sainz was laid up with appendicitis on Friday morning.
1. Red Bull’s dominance shows no sign of ending...
Last year, George Russell had suggested very early on into the season that Red Bull was likely to win every race of 2023. At the time his candour came tinged with what felt like defeatism, but his prognostications had been 95% correct by the end of the year; the RB19 had been far and away the dominant car, and only Carlos Sainz broke the team’s stranglehold of the winners’ circle.
This season? So far, the same – except it feels even more exclusive at this juncture. Only a technical issue or a Singapore-like capitulation is realistically going to peel Verstappen off the top of the race results, based on these first two races. The three-time champion’s margin of victory was not as crushing as it had been in Bahrain, with his 13.6s winning margin over Sergio Perez inflated by the Mexican’s unsafe pitstop release penalty.
Verstappen only needed to use DRS assistance in one arena, when wresting his lead back from Norris as the Briton had assumed first place post-safety car. Norris, who hadn’t stopped while the race was neutralised, did not put up too much of a fight as his focus was on preserving his medium-compound tyres. Nor could he, as the Red Bull DRS cracked open and delivered a huge straightline speed boost into Turn 1, north of 30km/h against the DRS-less McLaren.
Before indulging in too much doomsaying, it’s probably worth seeing where the RB20 stacks up in a lower-speed environment; Monaco and Singapore were among its predecessor’s weak spots, so any carryover will be something to look out for. But at this rate, not even Perez is going to get a look in at the top step.
2. ...as the behind-the-scenes power struggle takes a new turn
Facing the media in the FIA’s Friday team principals’ press conference, Christian Horner hoped, in the light of his clearance in an investigation over alleged inappropriate behaviour to a female employee at Red Bull, that a line could now be drawn under it. He cited the intrusion on his family, along with the dismissal of the grievance in Red Bull’s internal investigation, as sufficient reason to end the current thread of stories in publications worldwide.
Except, it wasn’t quite the end of it. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko was apparently set to be suspended, as the complainant had been earlier this week. Max Verstappen seemed to link his future at the team to Marko’s fate, suggesting that the current champion could feasibly consider a move to Mercedes should the Austrian be ousted from the team.
Red Bull CEO Oliver Mintzlaff appeared to quell some of the flames, meeting with Horner and Marko independently over the weekend in Saudi Arabia, assuring the latter of his future at the team. Mintzlaff stated his happiness with the current management structure, and his presence has helped the team – for the time being, at least – chart some very difficult waters. But this likely isn’t the end of the story.
3. A future F1 seat is a Bearman necessity
Carlos Sainz soldiered through pain and a fever in Thursday practice in Jeddah, but when it became apparent that he required surgery having been diagnosed with appendicitis, Ferrari gave junior driver Oliver Bearman the drive for the rest of the weekend. Fresh from securing pole for the undercard Formula 2 race, Bearman had to sacrifice the Saudi Arabian round to jump into F1 duties on Friday. He’d have just an hour in FP3 to prepare before preparing for qualifying. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end.
After narrowly missing out on Q3 after making a small error on his opening Q2 lap, Bearman acquitted himself brilliantly in the race. His early dice with Yuki Tsunoda hinted at the aggression he was willing to demonstrate from the get-go, and eventually dispatched the Japanese driver after the safety car restart into the first corner. Nico Hulkenberg supplied a sterner challenge afterwards once Zhou Guanyu was brushed aside, but Bearman patiently rallied to supplant the Haas driver and cement his place in the top 10.
There was a brief period where he looked like he’d be able to chase after George Russell, but the two matched each other toe-to-toe on lap times; instead, Bearman used the free air to gap Hulkenberg and give himself the best possible chance of keeping the later-stopping Norris and Hamilton at bay. It helped that his two compatriots were squabbling over eighth, but both were closing on the soft tyres; Bearman maintained his pace, however, and this proved to be enough for a brilliant seventh place on debut.
Although fatigued by the relentless g-forces placed upon him by the demands of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Bearman had done exactly what he needed to do in his bid to secure an F1 seat for 2025.
“Everybody has noticed how talented he is,” enthused Charles Leclerc. “It's just a matter of time before he comes here in Formula 1.”
4. Mercedes versus McLaren will be a season-long battle
Lewis Hamilton must have been sick of the sight of McLaren papaya after the Saudi Arabia race, given he spent the entirety of the race defending from one and attacking another. Mercedes’ decision not to pull Hamilton in under the safety car offered a lucrative payout in track position, but later pitched the seven-time champion into a defensive drive against Oscar Piastri.
The Australian sophomore had the benefit of DRS, but his McLaren was not able to hoover up ground like the Red Bulls when the wing flap was opened on the straights. Thus, he had to endure a few moments of frustration as his attempts to make a pass on Hamilton came to naught; the closest attempt into Turn 1 ended with him skipping into the run-off having overcooked it into the chicane, allowing Hamilton to retain position.
Piastri didn’t even get the satisfaction of pulling off the pass before Hamilton pitted, but at least came away with fourth place locked in after his team-mate Norris called in for his own stop. After pitting a lap later than Hamilton for the soft tyres, the Bristol-born racer immediately had the Mercedes driver in his mirrors as he got his new boots up to temperature. However, he had a secret weapon in his attempt to hold onto eighth.
Hamilton was taken aback by the pace of the McLaren in the opening sector, and it was visible from his onboard camera just how much speed Norris could carry through the corners after Turn 4. It allowed Norris to build enough of a gap to ward off DRS on certain laps, although one of the hairier moments into Turn 1 meant he’d copped a black-and-white flag for weaving.
Although Mercedes had the upper hand in Bahrain, McLaren appeared to be the stronger contender in Jeddah – and that’s likely to ebb and flow throughout 2024.
5. Questions re-emerge over Stroll after latest error
We probably have Lance Stroll to thank for ensuring that there was a bit more tactical latitude across the race in Jeddah, as it’s likely that the field would have been locked into a switch to the hard tyres at around lap 20, give or take a few tours as teams attempt to cover each other off. The Canadian’s Turn 22 shunt instead prompted a few split strategies, as a few drivers attempted to extend their medium stints.
As early as lap six, Stroll found that his medium tyres had started to get away from him having run them ragged in the opening laps attempting to put distance between himself and the Tsunoda-Bearman battle behind. But it’s more likely a convenient excuse for repeating his FP1 brush with the Turn 21 inside wall – although this time, he bent the front suspension and careened into the barrier on the other side of the road.
It hadn’t been a particularly great weekend for Stroll up to that point. He’d been well off Fernando Alonso’s pace in qualifying and, although he’d made a strong start to pull clear of Tsunoda off the line, his latest prang undid that good work. It just looked a bit amateurish, and not particularly befitting of someone in his eighth season of F1.
But at least he brings an element of chaos. Which is... something.
6. Magnussen’s hefty penalties are Hulkenberg’s gain
It was felt within the F1 paddock that the five-second penalty for leaving the circuit and gaining an advantage was far too lenient, and had since been upped to 10 seconds for this season. Kevin Magnussen was first to put that rule to the test, when he passed Yuki Tsunoda off the road on the 17th lap and never really fancied giving the position back. That was his first 10-second penalty.
The second was courtesy of an earlier scuffle with Alex Albon, where he squeezed the Williams driver into the outside wall at Turn 4 in an overly hasty defensive shape. Weighed down by the added time, Magnussen was not going to realistically challenge for points – but he could help his team-mate get off the mark, if Haas employed him correctly.
Crucially, Magnussen held track position ahead of the midfield runners, and behind Nico Hulkenberg and Zhou Guanyu – who had yet to stop. If he could hold up the cars behind him to the tune of just over 20 seconds, then Hulkenberg could stop and cycle out in much the same position. And that’s exactly what happened. In the opening sector, Magnussen did his level best to delay the cars behind him and charge his battery, and then deploy the extra power on the straights to avoid being jumped with DRS.
The gap proved enough for Hulkenberg to stop and rejoin about two seconds ahead of Magnussen – and the latter Haas could now drop the hammer to leave the midfield challengers behind. It was a well-executed plan, one which frustrated RB’s Alan Permane – who termed it “unsportsmanlike”.
7. Albon defies damage with exciting overtakes
The shoulder-barge into the wall from Magnussen might have ended Alex Albon’s race on a different day – but instead, the Anglo-Thai driver escaped with just front-wing damage, which barely slowed him down. Tucked in the Haas driver’s DRS train, Albon looked feisty in his pursuit of Esteban Ocon and Tsunoda ahead, attempting a move around the outside of Turn 12 on both. They might have worked too, had the outside wall just been a few inches to the left.
As Magnussen continued to compress the lower midfield order, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas were slowly catching up on the pack. Albon needed to get his overtaking shoes on. He was a long way back when he put his lap 33 pass on Tsunoda, straddling the line perfectly between comfortable pass and dive-bomb at Turn 1. Ocon was next in his sights, although it took another 10 laps to clear the Frenchman as Magnussen pulled the pin once Hulkenberg had stopped.
He ran out of time to catch Magnussen, although 11th became his once the Dane’s penalties were applied. Although aggrieved not to have been a contender for points, Albon admitted that Magnussen and Haas had been rather canny throughout the 50-lap grand prix. “It’s frustrating to not be fighting for points today,” he said. “Haas did a great job with strategy using Kevin to hold up the group, which was very smart. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the speed and we were carrying front wing damage as well, so we struggled to progress through the field.”
8. Ricciardo’s slow start hands power to Perez
A few months ago, the suggestion was that 2024 would be Sergio Perez’s last season at Red Bull. A dip in form during last season meant that he made particularly heavy weather of chalking up the championship’s runner-up position, and that another season like 2023 would be enough for Red Bull’s higher-ups to look elsewhere. With Daniel Ricciardo regaining his form at AlphaTauri last season, he looked like the man Red Bull wanted and to restore its 2016-18 line-up at the team.
But that was then. This is now. Perez has started 2024 doing the job he was hired to do: finish second behind Verstappen and pick up the pieces should anything go awry. There’s still 22 more races, but the Mexican seems to be playing the dutiful number two role perfectly so far.
In the meantime, Daniel Ricciardo’s start to 2024 with the rebranded RB team has been less than stellar so far. In Jeddah, he was comprehensively outqualified by Tsunoda; a slow stop during the safety car wasn’t his fault, but the Australian could at least catch up to the back of the Magnussen train in the lower midfield. Except, he couldn’t really sit on Logan Sargeant’s gearbox – instead, he barely scraped into DRS range of the American driver.
Then there was the lazy spin towards the end of the race at Turn 1, which rather capped off his evening. The RB package, which many suggested would be a Red Bull clone, seems to fall off the boil in race trim, which Ricciardo is struggling with more compared to Tsunoda. The Japanese driver has been able to get a tune out of it in qualifying, and at least figured in the battle for points until Magnussen put those aspirations on ice. His team-mate, however, is hardly looking like the driver that Red Bull would consider turfing Perez out for.
9. Audi has dispelled wavering commitment rumours
When Audi announced that it would be entering F1 through its purchase of the Sauber team, it seemed to be doing so tentatively. The initial purchase of 25% of the team seemed to give the German manufacturer an out if it didn’t fancy going through with its plans before the 2026 handover date, when the team becomes a full works team.
This opened the floor to sporadic rumours about its future. Last year, Audi was said to be behind with its powertrain project, and the departure of its CEO Markus Duesmann towards the end of 2023 cast further doubt on its plans. After all, his successor Gernot Dollner is apparently less enthusiastic about F1 as a whole.
This led to Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi having to bat off questions about Audi’s commitment, stating that the plans were still expected to go ahead. This has now been fully realised with the purchase of 100% of the team now approved, rather than waiting until 2026 to finalise the deal.
Andreas Seidl will remain on board as CEO, while Oliver Hoffmann – who worked with Duesmann on putting the Audi F1 plans in place – sits on Sauber’s board of directors. This will now pave the way for Audi to begin its investment into the team to ensure it hits the ground running when it joins F1 as a manufacturer entity.
10. Sauber suffers second slow stop in sullen Saudi Saturday
Audi’s takeover is probably none too soon, as Sauber endured a miserable weekend in Jeddah. Despite confidence that the C44 car is much improved over its Alfa Romeo-branded predecessor, the team does not appear to have made much headway in the midfield order; indeed, both cars were dumped out in Q1 in Jeddah, not helped by Zhou Guanyu’s practice crash that cost him a chance of setting a qualifying time.
Zhou endured further misery, having initially looked like an outside bet for a point when running to the alternate strategy having stayed out after the safety car. When he eventually pitted, Sauber suffered a repeat of its pitstop hoodoo that cost Valtteri Bottas a heap of time in Bahrain, and Zhou lost an extra 25 seconds with a slow tyre change thanks to a cross-threaded wheel nut. Bottas fared no better in Jeddah, with poor pace on the hard tyre that prompted the Finn to make a second stop.
Pace was restored to Bottas’ car with a second set of soft tyres, but was hurled even further down the order to ensure he was going to finish well outside of the points. “We went for an aggressive strategy with soft-hard, but we figured pretty quickly we were struggling quite a lot on the hard compound, never properly getting it to work,” he rued. “We switched for softs again towards the end, hoping it would make a difference – it did – but unfortunately, we had lost too much time compared to our competitors, and couldn’t make much of an improvement.”
