#Formula1 STC #SaudiArabianGP 2022 Preview – #F1 #SaudiArabiaGP

Saudi Arabian GP Preview – After Charles Leclerc lead home team-mate Carlos Sainz to a Ferrari one-two finish at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix giving the Scuderia its first one-two finish since the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix and starting Formula 1’s new radical rules change era on a high, round two of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship heads to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on the streets of Jeddah, Hejaz, Saudi Arabia this weekend for the inaugural Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2022.

 

 

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 being 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.

 

 

The fastest lap of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is currently held by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, the Briton posted a 1:30.731 at last season’s inaugural event in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team F1 W12 EQ Performance entry.

 

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team were the inaugural winners of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

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Saudi Arabian GP Preview – Onboard Pole Lap of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit

 

 

Here is the onboard pole position lap of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit last year’s inaugural event, set by Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team F1 W12 EQ Performance. The Briton posted a 1:27.511. You can watch the footage right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugJ-rYS-9JU

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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.

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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.

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Saudi Arabian GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits

 

Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

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ICYMI – Leclerc clinches Bahrain GP victory as disaster strikes Red Bull

 

 

Charles Leclerc claimed victory at the Bahrain GP leading team-mate Carlos Sainz home in a Ferrari one-two as Red Bull hit disaster with a double retirement for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

 

Red Bull’s reliability drama allowed Sainz to finish behind his team-mate in second place to give a one-two result for the Scuderia for the first time since the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix and handed Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton a shock third place.

 

When the 57 lap Bahrain GP began, pole-sitter Leclerc and Verstappen got off the line equally, with the Ferrari rapidly swinging across to his right to cover off the RB18 and hold the inside line into turn one.

 

There, Verstappen braked later and went alongside the F1-75, but Leclerc’s position on the inside meant he was able to pull ahead through turns two and three, then weave along the short straight up to the right hand turn four, where the Monegasque driver pulled away clear.

 

Leclerc was already out of DRS range at the end of the opening tour, with Sainz chasing the reigning world champion and being followed by Hamilton, who edged out the other Red Bull RB18 entry of Sergio Perez as he slid out of the first corner, falling behind Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen as a result of it.

 

Over the next few tours, Leclerc – on new C3 red-marked softs versus Verstappen’s used ones – moved away from the Red Bull who had one stage complained about his mid-corner engine braking being “funny”.

 

Leclerc’s lead increased by a few tenths per tour, with the duo of the front-runners able to consistently keep in the 1:38’s bracket.

 

By the tenth lap, Leclerc’s gap reached three seconds, with Sainz a further heap behind and now running in-front of Perez, who had passed Hamilton after the Briton had dropped from pressuring Sainz to falling back and unable to match the front-runner’s pace.

 

At the end of the 14^th tour, Verstappen and Sainz, who also started on the used set of softer rubber, came in for a fresh set, with Leclerc following suit on the next lap to do the reverse.

 

Verstappen used his out-lap on the fresher softs to eliminate Leclerc’s lead completely, but the Ferrari was able to maintain P1 at the pit exit.

 

But by the next tour at the beginning of lap 17, Verstappen used DRS to close the 0.7 second gap and dived into the inside of Leclerc at turn one, taking first place with a solid move on the inside line, although it was brief as Leclerc used DRS assistance himself on the rundown to turn four, reclaiming P1 with a great pass around the outside of the Red Bull.

 

The same sequence happened again on the next lap, although this time with Leclerc retaking the lead by moving to the inside of Verstappen on the turn four approach, then edged his rival wide to get back in-front.

 

On his third attempt into the opening corner, on lap 19, Verstappen went from 0.9 seconds behind to send a huge move on the inside, but this time the Dutchman massively locked up and the Ferrari was able to sneak back in-front and pull clear, moving out of DRS range.

 

The lock-up and DRS loss hurt Verstappen’s momentum, as the Red Bull driver slipped into the low 1:38’s, whilst Leclerc ran into a string of mid-high 1:37’s that soon saw the Ferrari restore it’s gap to three seconds.

 

At the halfway point, Leclerc was four seconds ahead, losing some time while lapping Aston Martin’s Nico Hulkenberg before gaining it back and more as Verstappen for around four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel’s replacement at the Silverstone-based squad.

 

Red Bull pitted Verstappen first at the second round of pit-stops, bringing the Dutchman in at the end of the 30^th lap, to put on the mediums, with Ferrari reacting and bringing in Leclerc on the following tour.

 

Leclerc returned to the track much further ahead this time round, despite Verstappen doing a much faster out-lap than earlier on, with Ferrari beating Red Bull by half a second in stationary time.

 

The pairing instantly hit the 1:36 bracket, which they had not been doing earlier on, even as they lapped traffic during the early stage of their third stint, where Verstappen angrily told his Red Bull team, he had taken it easier on the out-lap than he wanted and would “never ever” do so again, just as his frustration was to have stayed so far behind Leclerc even with the advantage of the under-cut.

 

Although Verstappen ate into race-leader Leclerc’s gap to reach two seconds behind in the tours immediately following their second pit-stops, the Ferrari was able to regain its advantage once more, as Leclerc held into the 1:36’s, whilst Verstappen dropped into the 1:37’s.

 

By the 43^rd lap, Leclerc built his lead up to four seconds, when Red Bull decided to bring both RB18 entries in for another stop – Perez having run the C2 yellow side-walled mediums on his second stint and then closed in to run adrift of Sainz’ Ferrari, well behind the two leaders.

 

Ferrari looked to be leaving Leclerc out in the aim of him running a two stopper all the way to the end, with Sainz brought in to cover Perez, but the closing stages were made more dramatic when AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly retired with an engine problem that became a fire on the Grand Prix’s 46^th lap – the AT03 came to a halt at the exit of turn three, just at the beginning of the short second straight.

 

The virtual safety car was activated before the full safety car was deployed, which was then when Ferrari opted to bring Leclerc in and was able to put on another set of softs for the restart.

 

Racing went green on the 51^st tour, with all lapped cars allowed to overtake, before which Verstappen complained about his steering getting heavier in the corners and on the straights, with Red Bull telling the Dutchman that it would be an issue to the end of the Grand Prix, which he needed to adapt to.

 

When the safety car peeled in, Leclerc shot back into racing speed whilst Verstappen’s door was shut at the second-to-last corner and was so far in-front that the action became about Sainz pushing for second place.

 

Verstappen forced Sainz to take the outside line, with the pairing rapidly falling behind Leclerc, who charged into a 1.6 second lead with the Grand Prix’s fastest lap of a 1:24.570.

 

Leclerc easily pulled clear to clinch the Bahrain GP victory by 5.598 seconds, giving him his first win at the venue where he lost the win due to a late engine problem in 2019.

 

But it was Sainz who was able to follow his Ferrari team-mate to the flag in second after Verstappen went from complaining about his steering problem to reporting about a battery issue, which Red Bull initially dismissed and then later said it was a fault that nothing could be done about it.

 

With two tours remaining, Verstappen suddenly fell on the second-to-last straight and then slowly travelled back to the pits to retire, with Perez then reporting a loss of power as Hamilton – who ran a soft, hard, medium, soft three-stop strategy – closed in to take an unlikely third place.

 

Just as it looked like Perez might hold on, the Mexican spun at the opening corner on the final lap, with his engine seizing and spinning the RB18’s rears, putting him out instantly.

 

Hamilton therefore finished third for Mercedes, 9.675 seconds behind race-winner Leclerc, with team-mate George Russell fourth having quickly rise up the order from starting ninth on the grid during the early proceedings and had been following his team-mate 14 seconds behind before the safety car deployment.

 

Magnussen battled his Haas to fifth place, having run most of the Grand Prix between Russell and Gasly, with Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas recovering from a slow start to come home sixth.

 

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda got by Fernando Alonso’s A522 ahead of the safety car, with that trio reaching the chequered flag seventh-ninth places respectively.

 

In his debut Grand Prix, Zhou Guanyu finished tenth to score his maiden championship point for Alfa Romeo, with the other VF-22 Haas entry of Mick Schumacher 11^th, ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who ended the race 12^th.

 

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi were 13^th and 16^th respectively with McLaren duo Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris splitting the two in 14^th and 15^th.

 

The aforementioned Aston Martin of Hulkenberg brought up the rear.

 

Catch up on all the race highlights on the thrilling season-opener right here at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.highlights-all-the-action-from-the-season-opening-bahrain-grand-prix.eXT6zPORORjAAR72p26pU.html

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The Situation

 

 

Charles Leclerc heads to Jeddah on top of World Driver’s Championship with 26 points and an eight-point lead over Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz who is second on 18 points while Lewis Hamilton is a further 11 behind the Monegasque driver in third on 15 points.

 

Scuderia Ferrari comes to Saudi Arabia sitting on top of the World Constructors Championship with 44 points and a 17-point advantage over nearest rivals Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team who are second on 27 points whilst Haas F1 Team are third and a further 34 points behind the Scuderia on 10 points.

 

Can Ferrari go two from two? Or will the Bulls bounce back from their reliability issues and triumph? Or are we in for a shock result?

 

Click here for the 2021 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings

 

The Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2022 weekend begins Friday March 25 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and the Qualifying Saturday March 26 and the 50-lap Race Sunday March 27.