March 24, 2023
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix gave us some shocks. Reliability was a problem for some teams, the midfield switched up on us, and there weren’t any major crashes! I’m sorry for the late post, but here is your 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend recap:
Practice: March 17-18, 2023
The Red Bull and Aston Martin dominance continued to show as Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, and Fernando Alonso set the top three times in all three practice sessions. The two Mercedes drivers were consistently ahead of the Ferraris, who continued to struggle with mechanical issues. It seems like Alfa Romeo will not be “best of the rest” at this track. The team’s best practice result was Zhou Guanyu’s P12 in FP3; Valtteri Bottas didn’t make it past P18 in any of the three sessions. McLaren is giving me a little bit of hope. Lando Norris’ car was fitted with four new parts ahead of the weekend, so maybe the reliability problems from Bahrain will be resolved. The team started FP1 in P20, but throughout the weekend they improved their pace and FP3 saw them in P7 and P8! Hopefully this upward trajectory continues and the papaya team can convert that speed into race pace.
Qualifying: March 18, 2023
Charles Leclerc has a 10-place grid penalty after exceeding the limit of energy stores and control electronics a driver is allowed in a season. He will start the race ten places below where he qualifies. Since he is already taking a penalty, Ferrari also replaced parts of his power unit and his Internal Combustion Engine. Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz took a new ICE as well, but will not face any penalties for this change.
Q1:
Max Verstappen almost immediately set the pace and went fastest.
Eliminated: Tsunoda (P16), Albon (P17), De Vries (P18), Norris (P19), Sargeant (P20)
AlphaTauri lost both of its cars in Q1. Nyck de Vries had a spin at the beginning of the session that affected the way his car performed in later laps.
Lando Norris also had a spin in which he clipped the wall and picked up steering damage. McLaren unfortunately had to retire his car from Quali as Norris settled for P19.
Logan Sargeant had a very unlucky qualifying session. His first lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits, then he spun at Turn 22, and had to abandon his final attempt because something broke in his car.
Q2:
Sergio Perez showed the true speed of the Red Bull as he dominated Q2 and left everyone else in the dust.
McLaren had something to celebrate as Oscar Piastri made it to his first ever F1 Q3!
Eliminated: Hulkenberg (P11), Zhou (P12), Magnussen (P13), Bottas (P14), Verstappen (P15)
Verstappen was the favorite to take pole but a driveshaft failure at the end of his first run had him limping back to the pit lane. By the time he got back to the Red Bull garage, there were only six minutes left in the session. Since his car would not be repaired in time, Verstappen had to retire from Q2.
Q3:
With Verstappen out, his teammate Sergio Perez took Pole position with a lap that was two-tenths of a second faster than anyone else’s.
Leclerc made us Ferrari fans proud when he took P2, but his penalty will put him in P12 for the start of Sunday’s race.
Fernando Alonso qualified P3 but gets bumped up to the front row when Leclerc takes his penalty
The Alpine garage was very happy when both of their cars made it to Q3, qualifying P7 and P10. This track really seems to suit their car.
Race: March 19, 2023
The race started with Alonso taking the lead off of Perez into the first turn, but the Spaniard soon got a five-second penalty for lining up incorrectly on the grid. Even before he could serve the penalty, Perez retook P1 on the main straight with DRS. Alonso didn’t really fight Perez because he knew the Red Bulls were way out of his (and everyone else’s) league.
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Notice how Alonso (left) is not lined up within his grid slot |
McLaren had issues again when Piastri picked up damage on his front wing after making contact with Gasly on Lap 1. The other McLaren of Lando Norris then picked up front wing damage when the Brit ran over his teammate’s debris. By the end of Lap 2 McLaren had pitted both drivers, fitted their cars with new front wings, and was dead last.
The pit window opened around Lap 12, with most of the midfield pitting first. On Lap 14, Ferrari made a dummy call to Sainz, tricking Aston Martin into pitting Stroll earlier than they wanted. I was very proud of Ferrari at this moment because they were finally using their brains and coming up with strategies! Sainz actually pitted on Lap 16 and his teammate followed a lap later. Both Ferraris came out ahead of Stroll.
Moments after Stroll lost out to the Ferraris, Aston Martin urgently told him to stop and retire his car on the side of the track. The team still hasn’t disclosed what prompted this retirement. To give the marshals time to clear Stroll’s car, a Safety Car was deployed for a few laps. The front-runners got free pit stops, with Mercedes and Red Bull double-stacking their drivers and Alonso serving his penalty. By the end of the Safety Car, Perez led Alonso, Russell, and Verstappen.
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Stroll's Aston Martin after he retired from the race |
After the Safety Car, Verstappen overtook Russell and Alonso, securing Red Bull’s second 1-2 finish of the season. Verstappen was then on a charge to take P1 from his teammate, setting ridiculously fast laps as he closed the gap to five seconds. Toward the end of the race, Verstappen began to complain of driveshaft issues again and Perez reported a stuck brake pedal. These concerns didn’t amount to anything though, and Perez managed to win the race! Verstappen took P2 and took the extra point for fastest lap. The Dutchman was driving like a maniac in the closing laps of the race.
Fernando Alonso took P3, marking his 100th F1 podium! But then, the FIA decided to do what the FIA always does and the stewards investigated Alonso for not serving his penalty correctly. They added ten-seconds to his race time – pushing him down to P4 and Russell up to P3 – because one of the mechanics had started working on the car too early. Aston Martin challenged the penalty using their Right of Review and got the penalty overturned, saying it wasn’t fair because they didn’t get a chance to respond. With Alonso reinstated as the final podium finisher, he can join the group of just six drivers who have reached 100 podiums in F1 history.
| Alonso celebrates after securing his 100th career F1 podium |
Just after the Safety Car came in, Alex Albon retired from the race after suffering from brake failure. Williams tried to keep him out in the race for a few laps, but they ultimately had to call him in.Kevin Magnussen got the final point in P10 after battling the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda for much of the race. McLaren was, once again, out of the points as Piastri finished P15 and Norris P17. The two were racing wheel-to-wheel around Lap 45 when the team actually ordered Norris to let Piastri through. I was not pleased with this call, to say the least.
Honorable Mentions:
Saturday was Aston Martin's team principal, Mike Krack’s, birthday! Commentator David Croft, in true Crofty style, said that he must be having a “Krack-in” birthday with Alonso’s great Qualifying result.
Crashes like Mick Schumacher’s from last year were not repeated this year, so the changes made to improve the safety of the track seem to be working!
The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was pretty good. Although it wasn’t necessarily the result I would have hoped for, Red Bull won again and Ferrari and McLaren SUCKED, it was still an action packed weekend. Hopefully Ferrari can figure out their lack of race pace, McLaren can make their car durable, and Red Bull will get the flu or something so that they give everyone else a chance to catch up.
That’s all for now! I will be back next week for the Australian Grand Prix!
- Divya
Where I got these
from:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1142/saudi-arabia/practice-1.html
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1142/saudi-arabia/practice-2.html
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1142/saudi-arabia/practice-3.html
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1142/saudi-arabia/qualifying.html