Luke’s Weekend Take – Jeddah GP 2024

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Jeddah Lights Up: Night Racing Thrills at F1's Fastest Street Circuit

Jeddah 2024

We are back at Jeddah the fastest street circuit on the calendar in the F1 Season and the 2nd longest track we will go to this season as well which is 6.175 km (3.837 miles) long where we will be racing under the night sky for the 2nd time this season.

We start by looking at FP1 where all teams were out in full force getting their programs completed ahead of the race on Saturday (Yes, it’s still very weird for me to say that) and we see a few drivers complaining that the car is very bouncy and in FP1 we had Lewis Hamilton, Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen that we heard on the radio complaining about this.

For Aston Martin we didn’t hear the drivers complain about the bouncing, but we did see Lance Stroll hit the barriers on Turn 22 when he was on a fast lap. This resulted in some front wing damage and front left wheel damage as we see bits of carbon fly off the car. Luckily for Stroll the suspension remained intact and he was able to get back to the pits and have the damage fixed. Later in the session we get a radio message from Charles Leclerc complaining that the track is like Mario Cart with the amount of plastic waste on track. Leclerc was alluding to the 2 plastic bags he picked up on his flying lap where we saw the bags get stuck on the Ferrari for a big portion of the lap. Impressively despite all of this, Leclerc still managed to get the 3rd fastest time at that point of the session. At the end of the session in FP1 we see Max Verstappen topping the leaderboard followed by Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez who shared the podium here last time out.

Later on Thursday we head into FP2, but we were hit with a delayed start due to possible loose bolts on drain covers in the pitlane. Unlike they do usually, the FIA didn’t start the timer for FP2 which in Free Practices they usually run the timer down no matter what has happened which was a good thing for the teams in this case as it meant that they do not get to lose any time on track due to this.

Valtteri Bottas was a bit too eager when they got going as we see him lock up the rears coming into turn 1 which resulted in him spinning a bit but luckily, he didn’t hit any barriers and was able to get going again with no issues or stoppages.

Bouncing was still an issue in FP2 as we hear both Perez and George Russell complain about the bouncing and Russell specifically said that the car is very unstable at high speeds which meant that there are still some gremlins in the setup that the teams need to sort out ahead of qualifying where Parc Ferme will apply.

Setup issues weren’t the only thing we saw in FP2 as we see Logan Sargeant having to take avoiding actions as he found Hamilton’s Mercedes in the middle of the track while he was on a hot lap. This was fairly dangerous which is why the incident was noted to the stewards and was to be investigated after the session. In the end Hamilton got a warning and Mercedes got a €15K fine for failing to warn Lewis about Sargeant. Hamilton later in this session suffers some power issues with 4 mins left as he went back to the pits. Luckily, this was nothing serious as the car was ok the following day for FP3.

Stroll’s woes weren’t finished in FP1 as we see him get the Black and White flag during FP2 for going over the painted line for the pit entry essentially cutting the corner a bit when you are on the way to the Start/Finish line. This is something you rarely see in Free practice but shows how serious the FIA are being about safety this season. At the end of the session, we see Alonso topping the leaderboard followed by Russell and Verstappen.

Sainz's Setback: Bearman Steps Up in Jeddah Amidst Rookie's Impressive Debut

We now go into Friday with some sad news for the Tifosi as we heard on Thursday that Carlos Sainz has been feeling poorly since Bahrain reported to have got some sort of stomach bug but this was not correct as we found earlier today that Carlos Sainz has appendicitis and won’t be driving in Jeddah while Oliver Bearman will be replacing him for the rest of the weekend starting from FP3. After a couple of laps Bearman was putting in some impressive times in the Ferrari towards the start as he was not too far behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.

Logan Sargeant had a bit of a moment at Turrn 22 like Stroll where he hit his front left wheel on the barrier but unlike Stroll, he broke his suspension and had to go back to the pits and miss the rest of the session. We were going to have the 2nd incident free weekend but in FP3 we see the Red Flag for the first time this season as we see Zhou Guanyu lost the rear of his Sauber on Turn 7 putting him in a slide which threw him into the barriers very hard. The car looked fairly bad, so questions arose whether he makes qualifying or not.

The session resumes with 5 mins left and the queue was out in the pits for everyone to put a last flying lap which meant one thing and that was traffic. Luckily enough everyone managed to stay out of the way from everyone, but we had a few moments as Kevin Magnussen had a big snap on the last corner on his lap as the wind catches him out a bit, but he was still able to finish his lap. While we see Bearman run wide on his flying lap which is a shame as he was able to go 10th fastest overall in FP3 which is exceptionally good for the rookie considering he only had 50 mins in that car. At the end of FP3 we see Verstappen top the charts followed by Leclerc and Perez.

We now head into qualifying where the floodlights are on and the cars looking good at night. In Q1 we see a few moments as we see Nico Hulkenberg being impeded by Sargeant but this was not looked at by the stewards, while later we see a big moment from Oscar Piastri as he hit the wall on the final corner and luckily drives away Scott free and manages to go fastest at the same time at the time of his lap which was very impressive. George Russell gets the black and white flag as well for crossing the pit entry line like Stroll did in FP1. Sauber manages to get the car ready in time for Zhou and he goes out with just under 2 mins to go in Q1 but this meant he had to have a quick out lap, unfortunately for the Chinese driver he missed the line by 1 tenth of a second and we lose Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu in Q1. Bearman makes it through to Q2, but stewards will be investigating him for going slowly on his outlap after the session.

In Q2 we see Nico Hulkenberg pull to the side of the track as he lost power on his Haas bringing out the Red Flag for the second time today and halts everyone’s laps for a few minutes until they clear his car out. Once we restart the session in Q2 everyone was back out getting their flying laps in, and we see Oliver Bearman, Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg get eliminated in Q2. It was very tight for Bearman as he was only 0.054 off getting through Q3 which is mighty impressive for someone who just started in F1 for the first time earlier today.

For Q3 it seemed business as usual as there was no drama and after the first runs, we see Verstappen take provisional pole followed by his teammate Perez and Alonso. For the last runs we see Alonso time the start of his flying lap perfectly as Hamilton was just finishing his lap, so he managed to get a tow from him. This was in the hope to get on the front row but unfortunately he was unable to get there as Verstappen takes pole for the 2nd time this season followed by Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso, Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll will form the top 10 tomorrow for the race.

Who do you think will come out on top tomorrow? Will Max have another stress-free race or will we see some closer racing tomorrow?

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