Saudi Arabian GP
I am several days behind schedule… My goal is to post by Wednesday, and it only took me one week to miss that goal, BUT it was for a good reason- my husband and I are moving! We’ve both been busy packing and preparing for the move, but I should be back to Wednesday-ish posting next week! So without any further delay, let’s talk about what happened last weekend.
Race 2 Summary
March 27, 2022
BEFORE LIGHTS OUT
Phew, what a weekend. An already controversial track on the F1 calendar, became increasingly more controversial after reports spread of a drone strike on an Aramco oil facility on Friday, which was only 20 miles away from the track. F1 fans across the globe took to Twitter (including myself) to share concerns of the race continuing. Between FP1 and FP2, the drivers, team principals, and F1 bosses/execs all met to discuss the developing situation, delaying FP2 by 15 minutes. No consensus was reached, so F1 scheduled to meet with the team principals and the drivers again after FP2, which didn’t end until after 9:00pm local time. After about an hour meeting, the team principals left the room, and it was announced that it was “unanimously” decided that the race would continue as scheduled. However, all 20 drivers stayed in the room for a drivers only meeting, clearly showing that it was not unanimous. After a total of almost 4.5 hours, the drivers got the reassurance they needed to continue. Most teams and journalists didn’t leave the circuit until after 3:00am local time, after an exhausting day of practices and meetings.
Following FP3, Qualifying was another dramatic event. Here are the highlights:
-No laps for Tsunoda (car issue)
-Latifi wreck in Q1
-Hamilton knocked out in Q1
-Horrifying wreck by Mick Schumacher (no injuries, but he did not race Sunday)
-Sergio Perez secures his first ever pole, and the first pole position by a Mexican driver
Sadly for Perez, his success was overshadowed by talk of Hamilton’s (and Mercedes’) failure to make it out of Q1. Fans were quick to unjustly claim that Sir Lewis Hamilton’s record-breaking success in F1 was all because of a car, not his skill as a driver or knowledge of car set-up. It was incredibly frustrating to read, and completely diminishes his legendary career. He and Toto Wolff both admitted that they tried to continue car improvements, after a somewhat promising performance in FP3. They tried something, and it didn’t work, and I commend them for that. With Hamilton only managing P16, many fans thought Mercedes may take a grid penalty to make changes to the car, but forcing Hamilton to start from the pit lane. I was initially in to this idea that was being floated around, because of how tight and fast this track was. I didn’t trust the drivers around Hamilton, so starting from the pit lane may keep him out of trouble, and from getting collected in an incident towards the back of the grid. Mercedes opted to continue with the set-up from qualifying in the race, which definitely made the most sense. Could they have gone back to a previous set-up that “worked”? Sure. BUT they wouldn’t have been able to gather data on the race pace of this set-up, which is vital information for Mercedes at this point.
RACE SUMMARY
Again, with free choice of tires, every driver except for Hamilton, Hulkenberg, and Magnussen started on Mediums, with those other 3 drivers opting for the Hard tires. I still miss the old qualifying rule, with the top 10 being required to use the tires that got them into the top 10 during the Q2 session for the start of the race. That could have been interesting to see play out, especially with Hamilton out in Q1. The Mediums were the clear favorite for the grid, so we could have potentially seen a greater top 10 shake up if some of the top teams used their Mediums in Q2 to secure those tires as their starting tire. I’m still not a fan, but who knows… maybe I’ll change my mind as the season goes on.
As the drivers were leaving their garages to set up on their grid spots, Yuki Tsunoda had another issue, which ended his race before it even started. This left only 18 drivers lining up for the start of the race, as Haas did not run a second car following Mick Schumacher’s crash in qualifying. One more grid shuffle I should point out: Daniel Ricciardo had a 3 place penalty for impeding another driver during qualifying, which dropped him just in front of Hamilton.
Perez had a great start, and as the 2 Ferraris battled for position, Max Verstappen was able to move from P4 to P3, passing Carlos Sainz. George Russell held on to P6 between the 2 bright pink Alpine cars. George managed a great pass on Esteban Ocon, to grab P5, and one of the best battles of the race began. Ocon and teammate, Fernando Alonso, battle for P6/P7 for the first 15 laps of the race. While it was some of the most exciting racing of the weekend, everyone (except for Alpine apparently) were a little baffled why they were racing each other so hard, so early on. Alonso looked like he had more pace this weekend, so wouldn’t they just give “team orders” (aka swap positions) to Ocon? Well they didn’t; Alonso had to earn his position. Despite the hard racing, Ocon, Alonso, and team principal, Otmar Szafnauer, all maintained that it was fair racing. Clearly, the team let the 2 drivers race each other, I’m guessing for a certain amount of laps, before the team wanted them to stop racing each other. On one had I understand the battle, as the two drivers are often on their own on the track, so not having the chance to race other cars could prevent your team from developing the most competitive cars possible, and the drivers from understanding overtaking and defending in this new generation of cars. On the other hand both drivers probably had high degradation on their tires because of the hard racing, and they lost out on vital positions. George Russell was able to pull away in P5, and was never challenged again, and Bottas managed to easily pass Ocon for P7 around lap 15.
Hamilton made up a position at the start, as Zhou Guanyu struggled at the start. By lap 15, Hamilton was up to P10 thanks to a mixture of overtakes, and an early pit stop by Ricciardo. He was looking strong as he continued to break in those Hard tires, and hopefully he could gain additional ground as other drivers went into the pits.
Speaking of pits- Ferrari played some radio trickery on Red Bull. Leclerc radioed to his team “box to overtake” suggesting that he wanted to undercut Perez. Red Bull responded by also calling Perez into the pits; however, Leclerc did not come in to the pits. He was likely told by his team to do the opposite of Perez, so if Perez stayed out, Leclerc would pit, and vice versa. With Leclerc riding in P1 now, Perez dropped down to P4 after his pit stop. Unfortunately for Perez, the following lap (Lap 16), Nicholas Latifi crashed into the wall, causing the safety car to come out. Only a few laps before this, my mom was joking that all these teams were taking risks with early pit stops because Latifi is still in the race, and whadya know… he binned it. Everyone, except for the 3 drivers who started on Hards, was gifted a “free” pit stop essentially, as they lose less time with all cars traveling slower behind the safety car. Hamilton, Magnussen, and Hulkenberg all had their strategy compromised, as time that they could gain on other teams as they pit, was neutralized under the safety car. With it only being lap 16, it was too early to justify pitting those 3 drivers, so they all continued. Hamilton found himself all the way up in P6, and gaining on Russell in P5.
There was *of course* drama under the safety car, as Perez and Sainz had an issue over track position. As Sainz was coming out of the pits, Perez pushed him wide, as he went around him. Under a safety car, you can’t overtake on track. Once Sainz crossed the safety car line, which is a line that goes across the pit exit, and the main straight. Whoever hits that line first (while maintaining the safe speeds required for pit exit and as required under a yellow flag), has the track position. After review, it was clear that Sainz hit the safety car line first, so Perez had to stay behind him. It all got sorted out, and Perez yielded the position to Sainz after the restart. No brake tests required.
By lap 37, there was a flurry of retirements, as Bottas entered the pits, Alonso crawled around the track and barely making it into the pit lane, and finally Ricciardo stopped just in front of the pit entry. It was a rather dramatic 30 seconds… My husband was laughing as Alonso was crawling around the track, but instantly mortified when they cut to Ricciardo doing the same thing. Magnussen and Hulkenberg were able to sneak past the 2 cars, and take their much needed pit stop; however, Hamilton didn’t feel that he had the time to slow down for the pit entry, and by the time he completed another lap, the pit lane was closed. This was pretty horrible luck for Hamilton, as the timing of both incidents ultimately compromised his race strategy. Once the 2 stalled cars were removed, the pit lanes were opened and Hamilton was able to come in for his required pit stop, putting him in P12.
<— When Alonso had to retire
When Ricciardo had to retire —>
With less than 10 laps to go, the final sprint was on. Verstappen and Leclerc were once again in a tight battle at the front. Leclerc successfully baited Verstappen AGAIN, as they exchanged P1/P2, but Leclerc held on to the lead. I should also note that Verstappen listened to his team this week, and saved battery and tires for the end of the race, which is something he was VERY critical of his team at Bahrain. I’m assuming he looked at the data from Bahrain with his team, and realized that they were right, but I’m just guessing. Coming around the final turn, Leclerc attempted to bait Verstappen for a second time this race, but I guess by the 5th time, he learned. Both drivers locked up as they braked hard to try to be behind each other (ironically). Despite Verstappen successfully staying behind Leclerc, the lock up did exactly give him the best ground to overtake Leclerc. By lap 46, Verstappen got the timing right, and managed to get DRS down the main straight and overtake Leclerc for the lead.
On lap 49, Alex Albon plowed into Lance Stroll, which earned Albon a 3-place grid penalty for the next race (Australia in 2 weeks). Sector 1 was under a double yellow, which means that when driving through that part of the track, drivers are expected to slow down and be prepared to stop. Well, there was no official penalties awarded; however, several drivers were called to the stewards after race for not slowing down enough. In post race coverage, they reviewed the on-boards of the drivers in question, and there was absolutely a sign that they let off the gas, slowing slightly, but many felt it wasn’t enough in the double yellow (again, must “be prepared to stop”). I stated after the race that the FIA should probably clarify expectations of what the phrase “slow down and be prepared to stop”, not just for racing integrity, but also (and most importantly) for the marshals on track. The marshals (who are volunteers for the event) should know what to expect of the drivers on track when they are coming out to help a driver in an incident. If “slow down and be prepared to stop” is fulfilled by simply letting off the gas, then the marshals really shouldn’t be on track while cars are going past them.
Trying a new segment called the winners and losers of the weekend, because I am nothing but original… Anyways:
Winners:
-McLaren
-Ferrari
-Haas
McLaren- you may be wondering why I am considering them a winner of the weekend? Well, considering how abysmal their first race of the season was, everyone wrote them off for the whole season. McLaren clearly made some adjustments, and it improved their qualifying and race pace rather dramatically. Lando Norris finished in P7, scoring the teams first points of the season. Unfortunately, Daniel Ricciardo had to retire, but at the time he was running in P10, so a potential double points finish wouldn’t have been out of the question for McLaren. They proved that they are still going to fight this season, and in a week’s time were able to put a comparatively competitive car on the track.
Ferrari- Still a dominant performance, with both drivers finishing on the podium for the second week in a row. They are looking very strong, and as a whole, more consistent than Red Bull over the first 2 weekends.
Haas- My third and final winner of the weekend. Despite Mick Schumacher not running in the race, Kevin Magnussen still managed to score points for the second weekend in a row. Hoping they can continue to develop the car this season, and keep putting together impressive performances.
Losers:
-Williams
-Alpha Romeo
-Alpha Tauri
Williams- Oi… Double DNF for Williams is not how this weekend should have gone. I don’t think anyone was surprised about Latifi crashing during the race, which is so sad. He’s a bit of a liability for Williams. Outside of their drivers both crashing, their car is clearing lacking pace. Many are blaming the Mercedes PU, but Williams struggled when the PU was the clear favorite, so… They’ve got to find a way to set up that car to improve performance, and hopefully both drivers are spending lots of time in the simulator practicing…
Alpha Romeo- Despite some impressive qualifying performances by both drivers, they are struggling with their starts. Losing so many positions at the beginning of the race isn’t helpful for a midfield team. The main reason they are one of my losers is because of how they handled Zhou Guanyu’s race. They didn’t instruct him to give up his advantage/position, which caused him to get a 5 second penalty. Okay, fine, but when serving that penalty, they didn’t serve it for the full 5 seconds! How hard is that?! This forced Zhou to have to do a pit lane drive through, to make up for not serving his penalty.
Alpha Tauri- I actually really like both of their drivers, but not a fan of the team. Poor Yuki Tsunoda had an awful weekend. Not laps in qualifying, and then the problem still wasn’t fixed before the race, causing him to retire before the race started. They are clearly having reliability issues, and while they weren’t alone this weekend, they’ve now struggled with it for 2 weeks. Time to step it up.
>SILVER ARROW POINTS:
>Hamilton had an awful qualifying session, but he fought like a champion (cause he is), and managed to score a point for his team. Obviously if the qualifying set-up wouldn’t have been as bad, we could have been looking at a better haul of points, but I think he drove the best race he could.
>Russell had a couple great passes (that first one on Ocon was BEAUTIFUL). He drove a great race, and while they’re still struggling to keep up with Red Bull and Ferrari, he still managed P5.
>I am incredibly optimistic. Mercedes now have 2 weeks to spend time in the simulator, and further analyzing their past 2 weekends of data. There are rumors that the first upgrades could come at Australia.
My other favorite F1 commentators for additional coverage:
Quick Stop F1 Podcast: Saudi Arabia GP Review
On the Chicane: 2022 Saudi Arabian GP Rundown
So that will do it for me. I’ll be back to discuss the Australian GP, which for my fellow Eastern Standard Time Americans takes place at 1:00am.