All Info You Want to See Before the 2024 Saudi Arabian F1 GP Starts

The second race of the 2024 Formula 1 season is coming this weekend with another Saturday night race: the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Never a Dull Moment in F1

Formula 1 just doesn't seem to shake off controversies. Ever since the final round of the 2021 campaign, the series has been involved in several scandals. This time, a couple are happening at once. The FIA recently started an investigation into its president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, and his participation in eliminating a penalty for Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso in last year's Saudi Arabian event.

Also, there's another controversy involving the FIA president, with him allegedly asking officials to find issues with the Las Vegas circuit and not certify it, according to the BBC.

On the other hand, Red Bull seems to be struggling off track, with several rumors surrounding Team Principal Christian Horner and statements from Max Verstappen's father suggesting the championship-leading driver could leave Red Bull. It all started with a scandal surrounding Horner and allegations of wrongful behavior with a female staff member. Moreover, the main issue seems to be Horner's attempt to buy the team and get full control of the operation.

Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner talks with Max Verstappen and race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase

Huge changes could be coming at Red Bull, with former F1 driver Gerhard Berger stating the following: "As of now, Horner stays, Helmut Marko and Adrian Newey quit, and Max goes to Mercedes."

On the sporting side, which continues to be overshadowed and also seems to be in a bad state, Red Bull is favored to win another Grand Prix in dominant fashion. A win for Red Bull will be the team's 115th, surpassing Williams in fourth place among Constructors in F1 history.

Also, it would be a ninth consecutive win, tying the fourth-largest winning streak in F1 history and the team's second-best.

Ferrari started the year better than the previous one and should be the second force in Jeddah with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz possibly struggling for the highest spot available for them.

Mercedes (George Russell and Sir Lewis Hamilton) and McLaren (Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri) seem evenly matched and could struggle in Saudi Arabia due to the lack of top speed shown last week in Bahrain.

Moreover, Aston Martin (Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll) seems to be far behind the Top 4 but comfortably ahead of the rest of the grid.

2024 Saudi Arabian GP Facts & Figures

The 2024 edition will be the fourth of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Formula 1 history and the event will be another full-night race at the brand-new Jeddah Corniche Circuit. In its first edition, the event was celebrated near the end of the season in 2021, but it has been an earlier round since the 2022 F1 season.

The fast, twisty circuit is tremendously difficult and we've seen some big accidents in past editions of the Saudi Arabian round, both in the race and throughout the weekend. One thing to fix could be the DRS zones, which have been a bit too powerful in some instances of the past. Still, the DRS hasn't been bad, as many battles in straight-line speed have been solved in the braking zones, which seems ideal.

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen battled for victory in a controversial 2021 edition that included several ugly situations between the pair of drivers, with Verstappen ultimately penalized for brake-testing the British racer during the race and also walking off the podium.

Hamilton won the first-ever Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, while the Dutchman went on to win the 2022 race after a tremendous fight against the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, although both drivers even fought to be behind in the DRS detection line to enjoy the drag reduction in the main straight, which could be dangerous.

The Pole Positions at the venue have gone to Hamilton in 2021 and to Red Bull's Sergio Pérez in 2022 (his first career Pole) and 2023. From Pole Position, Pérez won the race in 2023 in a dominant Red Bull 1-2.

The event has been under criticism due to accusations of 'sportswashing' human rights issues in the country through hosting international sporting events. Moreover, there was a missile strike at an Aramco facility around 10 miles away from the track and the situation was visible from the circuit during the first practice session of the 2022 weekend.

Despite lengthy meetings between drivers and F1's management, the event went ahead.

In another incident throughout the 2022 weekend at Jeddah, a marshal was fired by the FIA after tweeting that he hoped to see Lewis Hamilton suffering a fiery crash during the event. The marshal was set to work during the GP and indicated in the tweet that he wished Hamilton had a crash like Romain Grosjean's near-fatal accident at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Jeddah Corniche Circuit Track Info

The Jeddah Corniche Circuit made its debut in Formula 1 on 5 December 2021, and it was a big event at the time, as Max Verstappen had a chance to seal the 2021 title fight, but Hamilton and Mercedes kept it going after a crazy, ugly race. Verstappen won in 2022 with a late overtake on Charles Leclerc and Sergio Pérez gave Red Bull another win in 2023.

The track is a 6.174 km long circuit with 27 corners and lots of areas that were high-speed and flat-out in 2021, but a bit different with the new cars. It is been described as the fastest street circuit in the world, and it was stellar to see the 2021 cars flying around the track, but also scary. Since 2022, the circuit had some changes to improve the drivers' sensation in the circuit, after some racers complained about the risks of the track.

Saudi Motorsport Company, the race's promoter, announced changes to the circuit for the 2023 round and on. The main changes looked to address safety matters when cars went off track, kerbs, adjustments of fences to improve drivers' sightlines, and more details.

The race distance will be 308.45 km (50 laps).

The Lap Record during a race was set by Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes W12 with a 1:30.734 min lap in the 2021 event.

The race will have three DRS zones, with three detection zones. One DRS zone will go from T19 to T22, with the other two zones located between the high-speed T25 and T27 (last corner) and on the main straight.

2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be the C2 as P Zero White hard, C3 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C4 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli explained their choice to go with the medium option with a statement in a press release:

"Just a few days on from the curtain raiser in Bahrain, Formula 1 has decamped from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea for round 2, which runs from Thursday 7 to Saturday 9 March. While the distance, as the crow flies, from the Sakhir permanent track to the Jeddah street circuit is only around 1260 kilometres, the characteristics of the two tracks could not be more different.

From a track with a very abrasive asphalt, where thermal degradation is particularly high and where stability under braking and for traction are key factors, one now moves to a track with quite a smooth surface and very high speeds (an average per lap of 250 km/h) second only to Monza in this regard.

At 6.174 kilometres in length, it is the second longest track on the calendar, particularly twisty with 27 corners, the most of any circuit and on Saturday the drivers will tackle it 50 times.

The fact that many of the turns are medium to high speed means the tyres are subjected to high lateral forces. As in Bahrain, qualifying and the race take place in the evening, starting at 20.00 local time, with temperatures that are therefore lower than during the first free practice sessions on Thursday and Friday.

Based on the experience of the previous three editions of this race, Pirelli has chosen its three mid-range compounds: the C2 as Hard, the C3 as Medium and the C4 as Soft. Another difference when compared to Bahrain is race strategy. Last Saturday, the overwhelming majority of drivers made two stops, with a three-stopper the only other likely choice.

However, in Jeddah, it is quite possible to envisage a one-stop race, with drivers swapping between Medium and Hard depending on their grid positions. As this is a street circuit, there are not many run-off areas and so the risk of accidents is quite high, as is therefore the chance of seeing the Safety Car on track or even having the race red-flagged. Overtaking is pretty tricky, with the best opportunity coming on the entry to turn 1.

As is usually the case at street circuits, track evolution will be very high and in qualifying, it will be crucial to choose exactly the right moment to go out on track to set a good lap time and also important will be getting the preparation lap just right.

In past events here, we have even seen drivers doing two preparation laps to get the Softs to the right temperature and that can cause traffic-related problems."

The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 24.0 PSI (front) and 21.0 PSI (rear).

2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Weather Forecast

Due to the start of the Islamic holy month, Ramadan, on 10 March, the first two races (Bahrain and Saudi Arabia) will be celebrated on Saturdays to accommodate the back-to-back events.

Thursday, Mar 7th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Windy
Max. temperature: 29°C
Chance of rain: 0%

Friday, Mar 8th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Windy
Max. temperature: 28°C
Chance of rain: 0%

Saturday, Mar 9th - Race
Conditions: Mostly Sunny
Max. temperature: 29°C
Chance of rain: 0%

Who will be on the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix podium?

Race winner Sergio Perez and second placed Max Verstappen and Ben Waterhouse, Head of Performance Engineering at Red Bull Racing on the 2023 Saudi Arabian F1 GP podium

The pecking order seems quite set ahead of the second Grand Prix of the 2024 Formula 1 season.

Despite the controversial situations surrounding Red Bull, the team seems quite comfortable in car performance and should be looking at another dominant victory with a 1-2 around the streets of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Max Verstappen should be looking at his ninth consecutive victory, going back to last year's final seven races, and would have the two largest winning streaks in Formula 1 history (with Sebastian Vettel also tied with nine consecutive wins in 2013).

Sergio Pérez should have all the tools to give Red Bull the desired result: a Max Verstappen victory followed by the team's second driver being comfortable in the second spot.

Among the rest, Ferrari seemed faster by a lot ahead of McLaren and Mercedes. While the W15 cars of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton had some heating issues, Charles Leclerc's Ferrari also had braking problems and still went on to finish comfortably ahead.

The prediction for the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix podium is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Sergio Pérez, 3. Charles Leclerc.

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