The F1 circus continues to roll on and heads to Saudi Arabia, the fastest street circuit in the world they say. Talking of fast and street, here is our 2024 Saudi Arabia F1 Grand Prix Preview
The Gurgler’s 2024 Saudi Arabia F1 Grand Prix Preview brings some thoughts on the race itself, a few bold predictions here and there, a more than a few barely interesting stats.
Essentially a quick summary of what a casual F1 fan needs in the shortest possible time for your convenience.
The track map looks like someone has gone to town on a butter knife. Maybe it is a tribute to the Saudi Arabian flag which has the sword like feature on it. This track is certainly more sword than butter knife as it ridiculously fast for the surroundings, and the bold claim of the world’s fastest street circuit is hard to deny. Thankfully it’s not a track where Max Verstappen dominates, although good luck tipping against him.
2024 Saudi Arabia F1 Grand Prix Preview – Race Rating
The Gurgler does like to use some obscure drivers in our Race previews and report, so who better to use than Teo Fabi to determine a race rating system.
So before each race we give a rating out of ten for four key category that are loosely based on each letter of Teo Fabi’s surname. Don’t know who Teo Fabi is, you should.
FAST? 10/10 – It’s plenty fast and looks even faster too because of the nature of the track.
ACTION? 8/10 – In the relatively short history of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix we saw the colossal battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton as they added another chapter of grudge to their season. The next season Max Verstappen managed to have a battle with Charles Leclerc without incident, and last year saw one of three time the number one car didn’t match the finishing position.
BIG HISTORY? – 3/10 One point for every year of existence. Who knows, in a decade we might be saying this is the greatest Middle East Grand Prix, but it is off to a good start.
INCLEMENT WEATHER? – 1/10 One point for every percent chance of rain for this weekend. Although one year it rained bombs/missiles nearby, but we won’t factor that in. You could argue that the track doesn’t need rain anyway.
RACE RATING 55% – It’s fast and action packed but still lacks the prestige of other tracks for now.
2024 Saudi Arabia F1 Grand Prix Preview – Stats
Want to know if your favourite driver for this weekend is a master of the track or the track is a master of them? Here then are some barely interesting facts and stats.
- A car qualifying second or third has never missed the podium. Pole position has missed the podium once – but the record is two wins and one fourth. The other winner came from fourth on the grid.
- Sergio Perez holds the record for pole positions at this track with two.
- Perez is one of only four drivers to not miss out on Q3. He is joined by the two current Alpine drivers and Oscar Piastri, who was an Alpine driver on Twitter for an hour or so.
- Despite never taking pole position in Saudi Arabia, Max Verstappen has never finished lower than second.
DRIVER GRID POSITION vs RACE RESULT – CURRENT DRIVERS
TEAM GRID POSITION vs RACE RESULT
HISTORIC DRIVER RESULTS
99 = a DNF. Grid position 20 is overstated as that was also used for cars starting in pitlane.
HISTORIC TEAM RESULTS
99 = a DNF. Grid position 20 is overstated as that was also used for cars starting in pitlane.
RACE RESULTS FROM GRID POSITION
- Max Verstsappen to be so far in front on the final lap he will stop the car and reverse backwards over the finish line.
- Sergio Perez to bin the car in Q2.
- Daniel Ricciardo to uncomfortably explain “Helmut” fifty times.
- Podium for Lewis Hamilton.
- Fifth place for Alonso in qualifying and the race.
- VCARB drivers to have brake testing incident during practice.
- Carlos Sainz to be eliminated by George Russell on the first lap.
- Nico Hulkenberg to finish lower than his qualifying position.
- Alpines in no way able to finish lower than they qualified.
ALL RACE RESULTS – SAUDI ARABIA F1 GRAND PRIX
ALL TIME RESULTS
