F1 In the Rearview: Saudi Arabia

With the upcoming weekend off, we reflect back on this past Sunday's event

Round two of the Formula One Championship in Saudi Arabia is in the books, and was highlighted by a fantastic battle for the win between two drivers and teams who look like the favorites in the fight for the championships.

Reigning champion Max Verstappen showed that in his eighth top-level season at age 24, he now has the ability to make veteran decisions to go along with his natural driving instincts. Verstappen executed a perfect late race pass for the lead on Charles Leclerc, taking the checkered flag and keeping the Ferrari driver from opening the season with his second straight win.

The two Ferraris and two Red Bulls dominated the top four positions for the entirety of the race, with neither showing a clear advantage on pure pace. After starting in pole position, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez took the early lead, but had the bad luck of a full-course caution after being the only of the leaders to pit. Perez dropped to fourth and remained there for the remainder of the race.

With the second-place finish, Leclerc and Ferrari continue to hold the lead in the standings they took after Red Bull’s twin DNFs at round one in Bahrain, but the two teams seem evenly matched, and the possibility exists that all four drivers could be part of the battle for the driver’s title this season.

The event began with some concerns regarding the safety of the course, which weren’t helped by a ferocious qualifying accident on Saturday that ended the weekend for Mick Schumacher. Schumacher was in attendance Sunday after suffering only minor injuries, but the Haas team had already withdrawn him from the event after the side impact crash shattered a significant part of the car.

The tightly configured course also claimed Williams driver Nicholas Latifi on Sunday, who lost control and oversteered into the barrier, resulting in the caution that ultimately doomed Perez.

Following the departure from the series of much-maligned Russian driver Nikita Mazepin, Latifi appears to have taken over as the favorite whipping boy of F1 social media. Already regarded as having gained entry to the sport due to family wealth (much like Mazepin), the Canadian had also crashed in the final race of the 2021 season, leading to the now-infamous call by race director Michael Masi which set up the Championship-winning Verstappen pass on Lewis Hamilton.

Following that incident Latifi reported significant online backlash and even death-threats.

While the remaining drivers were successful in navigating the course, mechanical issues significantly reduced the field by the end of the race. Alphatauri driver Yuki Ysunoda did not even reach the starting grid after his car lost power during the warmup lap, adding to concerns over the team’s Red Bull power unit which suffered multiple issues in Week 1.

Mechanical gremlins similarly finished Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo – the three vehicles quitting almost simultaneously on lap 35.

The four failed cars amounted to one each for all of the series four engine suppliers. The final two retirements of the day belonged to Alex Albon and Lance Stroll, following a collision that will result in a three-place grid penalty for Albon in the next event.

Even with the thinned-out field, Lewis Hamilton could only bring home a single point with a tenth-place finish, following his worst qualifying effort since 2009.

“Is there even a point for that position?” Hamilton was heard asking his team on post-race radio.

While Hamilton’s early 29-point deficit to series leader Leclerc is far from insurmountable, right now it doesn’t look like Mercedes has the performance to make it up quickly. While teammate George Russell was able to hold on to finish fifth, Russell also was more than 20 seconds behind four-place finisher Perez.

And once again it was a difficult day for the customers of the Mercedes engine. Stroll, Albon, and Latifi did not look to be running at competitive speeds when they were still in the race, and while McLaren’s Lando Norris was able to bring home the team’s first points of the season with a seventh-place finish, in post-race interviews he still appeared very unhappy with the car.

“We need a couple of months, and we have a couple of weeks [to fix the problem]. . . at slow speed [corners] we are really bad” he told F1 TV. Nico Hulkenberg, in the only other surviving Mercedes customer car, finished last of the 12 who were still running.

Esteban Ocon went through an early battle with teammate Alonso and managed to hold off Norris in a drag race to the finish line to bring home sixth for Alpine.

Post-race reaction once again focused on the new car regulations, which seem to be accomplishing the set goal of allowing cars to follow one another closely. While previous cars would often immediately open gaps after executing a pass, drivers on Sunday found out that getting in front often led to being left open for a counterattack from the passed car.

Drivers were required to employ more strategy when attacking, on some occasions intentionally allowing an opponent to pass to set up a DRS-enabled charge farther down the track. Verstappen learned and quickly applied this lesson, after his first pass of Leclerc resulted in the Ferrari quickly regaining the lead.

The series will take this weekend off, and resume at Albert Park for the Australian Grand Prix on April 10.