[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

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