#Formula1 STC #SaudiArabianGP 2021 Preview – #F1 #SaudiArabiaGP
Formula 1 Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix 2021 Race Start, Losail International Circuit, Doha, Qatar. Image credit to Mark Thompson/Getty Images. Saudi Arabian GP Preview, 2021 Saudi Arabia GP.
Saudi Arabian GP Preview – After Lewis Hamilton cruised to a dominant victory at the inaugural Qatar GP to close down title-rival Max Verstappen’s Driver’s Championship lead down to just eight points, the penultimate round of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship heads to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on the streets of Jeddah, Hejaz, Saudi Arabia for the first time this weekend for the inaugural Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2021. The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is set to be the fifth night race on the Formula 1 calendar following the Singapore, Bahrain, Sakhir and Qatar Grands Prix.
Saudi Arabian GP Preview – A Look At The Jeddah Corniche Circuit
The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is a temporary street circuit (albeit with some permanent sections) located on the Corniche, a 30-kilometre coastal resort area of the ancient Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, Hejaz, Saudi Arabia. The circuit is built adjoined to the Red Sea and the track was designed by Carsten Tilke, son of circuit designer Hermann Tilke.
The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is described as “The fastest street track” on the Formula One calendar with the cars simulated hit average speeds in excess of 250kph (160mph), with the track being the second longest circuit on the F1 schedule, with the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps being the longest.
The circuit runs in an anti-clockwise direction and is 6.174km (3.836 miles) in length with 27 corners.
The race distance is 308.450 kilometres (191.661 miles) with 50 laps in total.
Saudi Arabian GP Preview – Tyres
Pirelli will be bringing with them to Jeddah, the C2 white side-walled Hard compounds, the C3 yellow-marked Medium tyres and the C4 red-branded Soft rubber. F1’s sole tyre supplier will also take along the green-branded Intermediates and the blue-branded Wet tyres in case of rain.
All drivers will have eight sets of the C3 softs, three sets of the C2 mediums and two of the C1 hards.
Saudi Arabian GP Preview – DRS Zones
There will be three DRS zones at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit with the first DRS detection point just after turn 17 before with the initial activation zone between turns 20-22. The second detection point is positioned right where the first activation zone ends with the second DRS zone just before the turn 25 left-hander to the final corner. The final detection zone is just before the last corner turn 27 with the final DRS activation point on the main-straight into turn one.
Saudi Arabian GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits
Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.
ICYMI – Hamilton storms to dominant Qatar GP victory
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton claimed a dominant Qatar GP victory and ahead of title-rival Max Verstappen who recovered to second for Red Bull and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso who completed the top three in a race, which saw a series of punctures.
Hamilton closed the Driver’s Championship lead down to eight-points with his 102nd career win as the sport heads to Saudi Arabia for the first time in a fortnight.
When the 57-lap Qatar GP began, pole-sitter Hamilton immediately moved to cover the inside of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly on the rundown to turn one, swooping ahead of the Frenchman as Alonso closed up behind him.
By covering off Gasly’s line, Hamilton had a comfortable time in the right-hand, long opening corner, with Gasly and Alonso trailing behind him – whilst behind Verstappen, who had immediately launched past the slow-starting Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, the duo beginning the Grand Prix in sixth and seventh thanks to their grid penalties for speeding through double-waved yellows in qualifying, followed McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz into turn one.
As the pairing went deep, Verstappen jumped ahead on the inside and had the momentum to run alongside Alonso – who swung across unsighted and forced the Dutchman to run half onto the sandy AstroTurf run-off and back off into the turn two long left-hand corner.
But Verstappen managed to remain in-front of Norris and chase the leaders out-front, with Alonso up ahead, then getting by Gasly into turn three.
Hamilton completed the opening tour 1.7 seconds clear of his former McLaren team-mate as the Briton continued to pull clear as Verstappen complained that he was “stuck” behind Gasly.
The Frenchman ran wide at the last corner at the end of the third tour – as Verstappen got the momentum with DRS assistance to fly ahead of the AlphaTauri as they ran down the main-straight to begin the fourth lap.
At the end of that lap, Verstappen closed in on Alonso using DRS and on the fifth tour was easily ahead of the Spaniard by the opening corner braking zone, always 4.4 seconds behind race-leader Hamilton.
F1’s leading duo shot off into the distance from Alonso, who was almost 20 seconds off the lead by the Grand Prix’s opening ten laps, but during this stage, Verstappen reported possible damage to his front wing after striking the kerb heavy during the initial tours after he reached second place.
Red Bull initially reported everything looked out, but Verstappen reported lift-off over-steer going through the first corner and was put down a front-wing end-plate damage.
He was at first able to match Hamilton’s times in the mid-1:27’s, but as the Briton increased his pace and reached the low 1:27’s, the Red Bull driver could not keep up and began to stably drop back.
The gap between the front-two was close to ten seconds when Red Bull brought Verstappen in at the end of the 17th tour to switch from the C2 yellow side-walled medium rubber he and Hamilton began the Grand Prix on to the C2 white-marked harder compounds – emerging just ahead of the yet-to-stop Alonso.
Mercedes brought Hamilton in on the following lap, despite the world champion insisting his tyres were “good” and said “don’t stop me too early” – the race leader also putting on the hards as his team copied Verstappen’s strategy.
The earlier stop assisted Verstappen take a chunk from Hamilton’s lead, which was at 8.3 seconds at the end of the Briton’s out-lap.
From there, the duo traded quickest laps across the next proceedings of the race, with Verstappen steadily bringing down the gap to 6.7 seconds at the halfway point – after reporting to his team they should “have a bit of run” charging on with second place secured.
The main focus for the rest of the Grand Prix was who would take the final podium place, with Alonso holding onto third throughout the initial stint.
The double world champion came in to swap the softs for hards on the 23rd tour, rejoining in-front of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who was yet-to-stop, and the charging Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who already pitted for a set of mediums to hards as part of his push from 11th on the grid.
Alonso covered Perez for a few tours – including as they overtook the long-running Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who suffered a lock-up into the opening corner when Alonso attacked at turn one and ran deep after moving late to defend late against the Alpine – with the Mexican then making the move stick in a close wheel-to-wheel fight through the first two turns on the 29th lap.
But Bottas was also a consideration for Perez as his Mercedes Team-Boss Toto Wolff ordered the Finn to start overtaking cars that passed him as he fell to 11th off the line, with the Silver Arrows leaving him out on the mediums until five laps pat the midway point of proceedings.
On the 33rd lap, Bottas was hit with a sudden front-left puncture as he reached the turn six hairpin, with the Mercedes driver slipping into the gravel as the Finn struggled to control his F1 W12 EQ Performance racer in scenes mirroring the end of the 2020 British Grand Prix.
Bottas had to do nearly a full tour on the deflated tyre, dropping behind Perez and Alonso, and raised concern for the front-runners.
With Hamilton and Verstappen both reporting vibrations with their harder tyres approaching the final 15 tours of the race, Red Bull kicked off the second window of stops by pitting Verstappen at the end of the 41st lap and Hamilton stopping again at the end of the next tour.
As they went back onto the mediums, the gap between the duo was 8.4 seconds having been going back towards the 10 second margin before Verstappen pitted, their focus became on taking the bonus fastest-lap point.
In the battle for third place, Perez pitted on the same lap as Red Bull team-mate Verstappen and had to fight his way past several cars attempting to keep on the one-stopper despite the threat of a puncture.
This included Alonso, Norris and the other Alpine of Esteban Ocon, who was told to defend aggressively against Perez flew back up the order as his team-mate done so late in the Hungarian Grand Prix to save the team’s victory against a rapid Hamilton.
After passing Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll a few tours after rejoining from his second stop, which he complained about on his team radio, on the 47th lap, Perez used DRS to get a slipstream on Ocon down the main-straight.
Ocon defended the inside line, but Perez flew around the outside and although the Frenchman attacked back into the second corner and turn four, the Alpine driver was unable to get back in-front.
This set-up a showdown for P3, with Perez still needing to get ahead of Norris to catch Alonso, but a series of late punctures meant the battle was stopped.
Williams Racing’s George Russell had his front-left tyre let go with six tours remaining and on the following lap his team-mate Nicholas Latifi had the same tyre on his set of tyres puncture as the Canadian ran down the main-straight.
Although Russell was able to make his way back to the pits, Latifi pulled off at the end of the turn six hairpin and a short moment later – just after Norris came in with his own puncture – the virtual safety car was deployed.
Red Bull stopped Verstappen for a final time for a fresh set of the C3 red-branded softs and emerged so far behind rival Hamilton that he still had the final lap to go when the Grand Prix went green again with the leader well into his final tour.
This meant that even though Verstappen already had the fastest lap after he and Hamilton traded it during the earlier proceedings on their second set of mediums – Verstappen’s final stint – using the softs he had been given to lock in the fastest lap bonus point setting a 1:23.196 as he crossed the line 25.743 seconds behind the racing-winning Briton.
The virtual safety car stopped Perez from eating into Alonso’s gap and meant the Spaniard did not have to abort his one-stop strategy.
Alonso then officially took his first podium in his F1 comeback by 2.8 seconds ahead of Perez, with Ocon and Perez following them in fifth and sixth respectively.
The Ferrari duo of Sainz and Leclerc were stuck in the one-stoppers’ DRS train behind Ocon before the virtual safety car deployment and remained there even as the race resumed to take seventh and eighth.
Norris’s late stop meant he came home ninth, with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel rounding out the top ten – his one-stop strategy combined with the virtual safety car to help the German gain ground after dropping back at the start.
The virtual safety car also ruined Gasly’s attempts to make his two-stop strategy work, the Frenchman one of the first to pit in the opening stint and being unable to follow Perez through the one-stoppers, settling for 11th.
McLaren’s Ricciardo finished in 12th and in-front of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who was 13th and Alfa Romeo Racing pairing Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi who were 14th and 15th respectively.
Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin ended the race 16th and at the rear as Williams’ George Russell ended up 17th.
Mercedes retired Bottas in the pits just before the puncture drama unfolded.
Saudi Arabian GP Preview – The Situation
Max Verstappen heads to Jeddah on top of World Driver’s Championship with 351.5 points and an eight-point lead over title-rival Lewis Hamilton who is second on 343.5 points while Valtteri Bottas is a further 148.5 behind the Dutchman in third on 203 points.
Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team comes to Saudi Arabia sitting on top of the World Constructors Championship with 546.5 points and a five-point advantage over nearest rivals Red Bull Racing who are second on 541.5 points whilst Ferrari are third and a further 249 points behind the Silver Arrows on 297.5 points.
If Verstappen were to win this weekend’s Saudi Arabian GP with or without the fastest lap and championship-rival Hamilton were to retire and/or score no points, the Dutchman will be crowned the 2021 Formula 1 World Driver’s Champion.
If Hamilton wins and along with taking the fastest lap or not with Verstappen finishing second-tenth, the title-fight goes to the season-finale in Abu Dhabi.
You can catch up on the race highlights here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZy-NZF8mEA
Click here for the 2021 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings
Saudi Arabian GP Preview – Vale Sir Frank Williams
It was announced on Sunday November 28, that F1’s longest-ever serving Team Principal Sir Frank Williams passed away at the age of 79 surrounded by his loving family.
Sir Frank marked 50 years as a Formula One team boss in 2019, having run two teams at that time, the latter of which went on to claim seven Driver’s and nine Constructor’s World Championships.
The Briton and his family, along with daughter Claire who ran the team on a day-to-day basis since the 2013 campaign, left the sport earlier this year after they sold the team to Dorilton Capital.
Sir Frank, who suffered a spinal cord injury from a car crash in 1986 that rendered him unable to walk, began reducing his workload capacity in 2012, when he stepped down from the team board.
Claire was installed as Deputy Team Principal looking after the day-to-day running of the Grove-based outfit – however Sir Frank held onto his Team Principal title.
Sir Frank spent some time in hospital back in 2016 recovering from pneumonia and stopped travelling to Grands Prix. He was also admitted to hospital in December last year.
Following the news of Sir Frank’s passing, a statement on behalf of the Williams family read:
“It is with great sadness that on behalf of the Williams family, the team can confirm the death of Sir Frank Williams CBE, Founder and Former Team Principal of Williams Racing, at the age of 79.
After being admitted into hospital on Friday, Sir Frank passed away peacefully this morning surrounded by his family.
Today we pay tribute to our much loved and inspirational figurehead. Frank will be sorely missed. We request that all friends and colleagues respect the Williams family’s wishes for privacy at this time.
For those wishing to pay tribute, we ask that donations are made in place of gifts to the Spinal Injuries Association, alternatively we would welcome flowers to be placed at the entrance of the team’s headquarters in Grove, Oxfordshire. Details of the memorial service will follow in due course.” Credit to Williams Racing for the quote.
Sir Frank Williams was the very definition of a racer and a hard-worker, giving absolutely everything to achieve what he did. A true legend that will never be forgotten.
Vale Sir Frank Williams: 1942-2021.
The Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2021 weekend begins Friday December 5 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and the Qualifying Saturday December 6 and the 50-lap Race Sunday December 7.
