Red Bull continued their perfect start to 2024 with a second consecutive double in Jeddah, while super substitute Oliver Bearman also impressed on his F1 debut. However, for others he was not so successful. We have selected our winners and losers of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Winner: Oliver Bearman
Oliver Bearman’s handling of his shocking F1 debut in Saudi Arabia was textbook. The 18-year-old brilliantly absorbed the pressure of jumping in with just a few hours’ notice to drive for F1’s most famous team, Ferrari, in place of Carlos Sainz.
After just one hour of practice, he qualified a brilliant 11th, just 0.036 seconds behind seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. The Briton achieved a secured Grand Prix, with crucial overtakes on Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hulkenberg and an elegant defense by Lando Norris to finish seventh.
The opportunities to show that you have what it takes to perform in F1 are few and far between. Bearman grabbed his opportunity with both hands and put in a performance that not only earned him the fan-voted Driver of the Day accolade, but improved his chances of driving full-time somewhere on the grid in 2025.
Loser: Lance Stroll
This was an unforgettable weekend for Lance Stroll.
While the Canadian made it to Q3 for the second time in the last 12 races, he was still six places behind teammate Fernando Alonso (although he said he encountered some problems in his final race).
On race day, the Aston Martin driver crashed into a wall, causing damage that subsequently threw him into the barriers and out of the race.
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024: Stroll crashes and activates Safety Car in Jeddah
Winner: Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen’s relentless control of Formula 1 continued in Saudi Arabia as he controlled another weekend with aplomb.
The reigning world champion completed two laps that were good enough for pole in Q3 and once he made a clean escape from P1, he pulled away to the front to claim a ninth consecutive victory.
This was his 100th podium finish (only the seventh driver in history to achieve this feat) and he will go into the next race in Australia without retiring from a Grand Prix for two years.
Losers: Alpine
Alpine’s pain continued in Saudi Arabia as the A524 was woefully off the pace. Both cars were eliminated from qualifying in the first segment, their best lap being 1.3 seconds behind the leader.
On Saturday, Pierre Gasly did not even have the opportunity to compete because a gearbox problem (he lost sixth gear and the synchronization of all the others) on the formation lap forced him to retire.
Esteban Ocon struggled in the race and at times flirted with the edge of the top 10 as the field tightened after a Safety Car. But he eventually faded and crossed the line in 13th place. Updates are on the way, and they won’t be long in coming.
Winner: Sergio Pérez
Red Bull has asked Sergio Pérez to prove that he deserves to stay with the team in 2025 and, so far, he has done what they asked: the Mexican took second place from Charles Leclerc early in the race to make up for his loss of the forehead. row.
He took the blame for the five-second penalty he received for an unsafe start and subsequently erased that deficit with very strong pace to finish comfortably second.
These are second consecutive places to start the season, leaving him second in the drivers’ standings and helping Red Bull build a healthy 38-point lead in the constructors’ championship.
Loser: Daniel Ricciardo
It has been a difficult start to the season for Daniel Ricciardo, who knows he is on Red Bull’s short list to be promoted back to the factory team in the future if he can demonstrate the turn of speed and consistency that has characterized most of his career.
In Saudi Arabia, the RB driver lost a lot of time on his pit stop (race director Alan Permane said the team had a tire problem) and that left him at the back of the field. Then, with a few laps to go, he hit the brakes too hard and spun. A frustrating end to a frustrating weekend.
Winners: Haas
Haas started the season fearing being at the bottom of the pack and struggling to keep up, but the reality has been positively different.
In Saudi Arabia, the American team split the two cars during the Safety Car period, with Nico Hulkenberg going long. He showed great pace in clear air, and with teammate Kevin Magnussen, who received two penalties for infringements, backing up the group behind, he had enough time to complete his mandatory pit stop and return in P10.
It was an impressive team effort that produced what could be a crucial point: Hulkenberg’s first in 20 Grands Prix (not including Sprints).
Losers: Mercedes
Mercedes fell down the pecking order in Saudi Arabia, with the Silver Arrows emerging as the fifth-fastest team behind Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin.
While Lewis Hamilton had hope for their speed in the medium and low speed corners, they were in a world of pain in the high speed corners, with the car bouncing around in those corners.
That meant they lost a lot of time in the first sector (boss Toto Wolff said the team was losing around half a second in three corners where they were not competitive) and ruled them out of contention for the podium.
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024: Leclerc fights off Perez’s challenge to maintain second position at race start
Winner: Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso was one of the happiest drivers after the race, the Spaniard feeling he had gotten everything out of his Aston Martin on his way to fifth place, beating a McLaren, a Ferrari and both Mercedes.
This was his second consecutive score and came after a qualifying session in which he missed the front row starting spot by just 0.055s. He may be the oldest driver on the grid at 42 years old, but he shows no signs of losing his advantage.
Losers: Kick Sauber
For the second race in a row, Zhou Guanyu moved up the field to fight in and around the points, but a slow pit stop (where the team encountered the same problem as in Bahrain) left him at the back of the pack.
Valtteri Bottas got off to a decent start, but the team said yellow lights indicating “a potential stalled car forced him to brake” and that cost him a number of positions. Like Zhou, he had trouble getting the hard compound tires into their optimal operating window and thus spent a second race without either car scoring points.
Winner: Oscar Piastri
Oscar Piastri delivered a confident drive that built on a strong performance in qualifying and allowed him to achieve an impressive fourth place in Saudi Arabia.
Fourth place was McLaren’s best result in Jeddah and the Australian’s final position shows how far the team has come compared to last year: the team failed to finish in the top five in any of the first eight races of the season. last season.
Race Highlights: 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix