Red Bull closed the Saudi Arabian GP on parade: Max Verstappen first, Sergio Perez second despite a 5-second penalty for an unsafe release at the pit stop with Alonso. MIlton Keynes' team, despite the very violent controversies that rock the team's top management, continues its domination undaunted. Max Verstappen achieved the 56th victory of his career, but the extraordinary Dutchman was unable to set the fastest lap after pole and victory. The orange was surprised by a surprising Charles Leclerc who on the last lap, with a set of hard tires that had 43 laps, achieved an amazing 1'31″632, leaving the RB20 at 141 thousandths.
The world championship scenario is clear: Red Bull is impregnable because it manages to collect doubles with a very consistent Sergio Perez, but Ferrari is unquestionably the second force. The red one suffered a bit with medium and full tanks, but the behavior of the SF-24 improved as the tank emptied. Charles Leclerc's third place is the best the Monegasque could muster in Jeddah: the Scuderia had to deal with a stronger wing than the competition to avoid a feared slip of the rear which didn't happen in the race.
It is true that Jeddah is a track with minimal degradation, but the SF-24 confirmed that certain defects from last year have been eliminated and Ferrari can look to the future with confidence, counting on developments that will allow Charles to get closer to the Red Bull missiles. In the flying lap the red car can compete for pole, but in the race it still has to close a gap.
The SF-24 is good and Oliver Bearman can attest to this. The 18-year-old Englishman called to replace Carlos Sainz shortly before qualifying was fantastic, so much so that he deserved the title of driver of the day and compliments in parc fermé from Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris. The boy had no awe and fell into the role like a seasoned professional: 11th on the grid, out of Q3 by 3 hundredths, Ollie climbed to seventh position with a very consistent race without any flaws. Bearman did a masterpiece managing his emotion: he didn't do anything wrong (including the pit stop) and managed to manage a physical decline (he put his helmet on the headrest because his neck muscles were sore) without Norris and Hamilton being able to catch him despite had soft tyres.
The youngest rookie in Ferrari history has already carved a page in the history of F1: seventh place is a valuable contribution to the Prancing Horse's season. The FDA deserves credit for its ability to nurture talent who is immediately ready on the first call.
Off the podium is Oscar Piastri with McLaren: the Australian suffered in his attempt to get rid of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes. The MCL38 with the open DRS could not compete with the silver arrow which had a very low wing. Oscar lost a lot of time behind the seven-time world champion, but the 13 second gap to Leclerc highlights that they still have work to do in Woking.
Fernando Alonso's fifth place with Aston Martin was positive: the Silverstone team feared that the “verdona” wouldn't keep up. Of course the top three were out of reach, but the Spaniard was excellent among the chasers. It is curious to note that two teams with customer Mercedes engines were ahead of the official team, a sign that this W15 does not represent the leap that they expected in Brackley.
George Russell is sixth with the Star and once again the younger of the two drivers gained more than Lewis Hamilton who played the card of not stopping to change tires after the safety car which was necessary due to Lance Stroll's crash . The Canadian hit the barriers at turn 22 with his front left, broke the steering arm and crashed on the outside of turn 23. The driver was unharmed, but a truck was needed to move the damaged AMR24.
Lewis' idea was followed by Lando Norris, Nico Hulkenberg and Guanyu Zhou. The person who benefited most from this strategic choice was the German from Haas who took home a tenth place which is worth one point. Nico managed to stay in the top 10 thanks to the “dirty” work done by his teammate Kevin Magnussen who acted as a stopper for several fires in a train of cars that could undermine the VF-24. The Dane was unstoppable after adding two penalties for a total of 20 seconds.
Alex Albon stayed out of the points for Williams and finished ahead of Magnussen and Esteban Ocon's Alpine, while Pierre Gasly was unable to complete a lap with a broken transmission. All the others were dubbed…
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