A Dream Debut and Supreme Speed in Jeddah
Source: @ScuderiaFerrari on X/Twitter
Returning for its fourth consecutive running, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix gave us another brilliant story once again as we saw 18-year old Ollie Bearman make his Formula One qualifying and race debut. Elsewhere, we saw some entertaining battles in the midfield and dominance out front once again - let’s get into the best bits of the weekend!
Qualifying
Max Verstappen claimed his first pole position around the Jeddah Corniche circuit, with a time of 1:27.472, just over three tenths clear of a speedy Charles Leclerc in P2, making his statement of intent for race day, taking place once again on Saturday. Debutant Bearman missed out on Q3 by a mere 0.036s, nearly knocking out Lewis Hamilton on his first qualifying outing - very impressive stuff!
RB’s Yuki Tsunoda also showed strong pace, placing eighth in Q2 and eventually qualifying ninth, much to the embarrassment of his more experienced teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Zhou Guanyu crashed out of FP3 after a nasty helping of oversteer and gusts of wind unsettled his car on the exit of the fast and sweeping Turn 8 sent him into the barrier, meaning the Chinese driver missed out on Qualifying entirely. He thankfully confirmed over the radio shortly after the shunt that he was okay.
Source: @FormulaWorldita on X/Twitter
Norris jumps the gun
Something we don’t see all too often in Formula One is a jump start, where a driver releases the clutch and pulls off from their grid slot before the five red lights go out. This weekend, however, Lando Norris became the centre of conversation as the FIA stewards investigated the Brit after he rolled his MCL38 just over the white line of his grid box. His onboard camera shows clearly that he began moving before the red lights went out, however the FIA later declared this to not warrant a penalty.
The reasoning behind this decision was that the sensor on Norris’ car didn’t trigger the FIA’s transponder placed on the white line to indicate a jump start, therefore the driver was not penalised. The governing body’s official quote ran as follows:
“Article 48.1 a) of the Formula One Sporting Regulations states clearly that the judgement of whether or not there was a jump start is to be made in accordance with the transponder, which did not show a jump start. In the circumstances, we took no further action.”
Some small controversy across social media has arisen as a result of this, with many fans and experts questioning why the FIA chose to believe the supposedly faulty sensors rather than footage that clearly shows Norris jumping the start.
Stroll smooches the wall
On lap 7 of the race, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll gave the wall a tap on the inside of the tricky and quick Turn 22, whacking his front-left wheel out of kilter and causing him to glide straight on and into the Tecpro barrier. This is a mistake that has caught a few drivers out in the past as everyone wants to get as close to the wall as possible in order to make the most of the track width and, in turn, maintain the highest minimum speed throughout the corner.
We got a humorous radio exchange from this, with Lance bluntly replying to a rather silly question from his race engineer Ben Michell:
Michell: “Can you make it back Lance?”
Stroll: “No, I’m in the f*****g wall!”
This was Lance’s second only Q3 appearance in the last twelve races, so it must certainly sting for the Canadian to be throwing away opportunities like this.
This brought out the Safety Car on lap 8, which saw almost all in the top ten, including race leader Verstappen and teammate Perez, come in for new rubber, except for Lando Norris, who led the race for a subsequent five laps or so before inevitably being breezed past by Max in his so far rapid RB20.
Bearman’s bold brilliance
18-year old Prema Formula 2 driver Oliver Bearman received the call up of his dreams on Thursday after Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was admitted to hospital for emergency surgery for appendicitis, meaning the young man from Chelmsford got the opportunity of a lifetime to race for the Prancing Horse, as well as qualify on Friday.
Bearman had driven Formula One cars previously, if only in free practice sessions for Haas, meaning he had some prior knowledge of how these machines handle, but he realistically only had an hour of preparation time leading up to his first F1 Grand Prix on Saturday.
After qualifying in eleventh, Bearman had his work cut out for him to prove his worth on the global stage of the sport and it’s fair to say he delivered, finishing in P7 as the flag fell. He hovered around P10 for most of the race, getting his final few daring overtakes done in the final quarter of the running.
What a great experience and opportunity to have my first race in Formula 1 with Scuderia Ferrari.
Ollie Bearman post-race on his Formula One debut
Ollie has done more than enough to advertise his talent and tenacity to the other teams on the grid and, as Charles Leclerc himself even said, it surely won’t be long until we see him on the grid permanently.
Alpine in agony
After showing the weakest pace in pre-season testing and qualifying on the back row at the first round in Bahrain, Alpine’s prospects for the season have been bleak at best so far this year. Senior staff walking away from the team and less than middling performance are spelling danger for the Enstone outfit and this race weekend, as you can imagine, hasn’t brightened any moods within the team.
Both cars were a ghastly 1.3s off the pace in Q1 and were swiftly eliminated, meaning the French pairing started Saturday’s race in P17 and 18. Gasly was put out of his misery on the formation lap as he lost sixth gear and, consequently, the synchronisation of all seven other gears, meaning he made it just about one lap of the circuit after lights out before being told to retire the car by his engineer.
Esteban Ocon floated around near P10 for most of the race and ultimately finished in 13th - not exactly the result he would’ve wanted. It seems that the team needs to have upgrades coming in thick and fast and improve reliability if they want even a whiff of points this year.
The team posted this on Instagram following the race, with a rather distinct lack of any commentary:
Magnussen’s midfield masterclass
Image: @HaasF1Team on X/Twitter
Haas were nervous heading into the 2024 season, to say the least, with newly appointed Team Principal Ayao Komatsu declaring pre-season that the team isn’t expecting to be quick in the early stages of the year. The American team’s pace seemed strong this weekend, however, and the experience of their driver lineup was put on display under the lights in Jeddah.
Kevin Magnussen had picked up a few penalties for causing a collision with Alex Albon and also leaving the track and gaining an advantage in an overtake attempt on Yuki Tsunoda. Being on the back foot, the Dane decided to play the team game and follow his teammate Hulkenberg to P10 and 11, but holding up the four or so cars behind that were vying to get past and attack for the final single point on offer.
This resulted in Nico Hulkenberg scoring the team’s first point of the season early doors and his first in twenty Grands Prix, excluding Sprint races - so all in all some lovely teamwork from the team under new management.
Final Words
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix has once again provided us with some brilliant racing action and entertainment, with this weekend’s main story for us being Ollie Bearman’s impressive debut - a star for the future and one to watch for sure! We’ll see how he gets on in the coming events as Carlos Sainz recovers from surgery.
We’ve got less than two weeks until F1 arrives in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix - we’ve already got our alarms set for 4am here in the UK! We’ll be covering all the best bits, so keep it right here on Race Reaction.
