F1 2022 - Round 2: Saudi Arabia

Jordan 199

Some questions ahead of the race on Sunday:

Will Ferrari have another 1-2, or will Red Bull spoil the party?

Can Mercedes close the gap to Ferrari and Red Bull?

Will McLaren's crap start to season continue?

Will Mick Schumacher score his first point(s) now that the Haas is competitive?

All will be revealed on Sunday

TV Times:

Friday: FP1: 14:00. FP2: 17:00.

Saturday: FP3: 14:00. Qualifying: 17:00.

Sunday: Race: 18:00.

Joeface

Hopefully we get some more of what we saw last week.

So far in the world of click bait F1 journalism I have seen only 2 acceptable theories for the Redbull issue , weight limits so they under fueled the cars with a miscalculation on how much they would need. Second one which I believe a little bit more as it would kinda cover Gasly as well . That they were using the battery side in a very aggressive setup and it basically went into a fail mode on the Redbulls and A fire mode for Gasly. Might also explain the absolute monstrous speed MaxV was getting down the Start Finish Straight .

Be interesting to see if will have any affect this weekend .

Jeddah is supposed to make Mercedes worse also , so more points for HAAS .

Charlie-Bravo

I really enjoy when races are in the evening, or earlier such as mid-morning. 3pm race starts take up a chunk of your Sunday (not that I don't leave the house when I know there's a race on), so the evening stuff will be great to watch the action.

Looking forward to see if any of the other teams (Aston/McLaren) can turn around the issues, but considering its a street track with lots of bumps it does sound like this is gonna be worse than Bahrain for them. Bring it on....it's Rawe Ceek!

klose

You'd have to expect it will be much the same running order as last week as nobodys gonna have any upgrades, I know max reckoned he could have passed leclerc with a more aggressive outlap but leclerc to me had him at arms length all race.

Big question of course will be did red bull figure out their double DNF fault and how will tyre deg be again here. Never too far from the wall here IIRC from last year so chances of a safety car are high so maybe soke drivers might luck out with a free pit stop etc...

I was worried last year with all the flat-out sweepers with poor sightlines, I'm still concerned especially if we see much in the way of bouncing at those speeds.

Joeface

I dont think many teams will push as hard here this weekend , The heavier cars which kinda makes them want to run wide

i can see some teams been conservative , the 2 week gap to the next race allows them to at least address some issues . Avoiding damage would be high on some teams list

BrentMused

Love this track. It has a real old-school feel in the sense of danger lurking around every corner.

Obviously of course the most important thing is that all the drivers make it through the race in one piece and I obviously am not saying anything to the contrary, but as a spectator I will admit that the added tension really adds to the spectacle.

Plus, it's an evening qualifying and race, so it's perfect timing as you don't lose your Saturday/Sunday afternoon if watching live. Much easier to swing it with herself! 😂

Joeface

Seems Mercedes and Aston are bring small upgrades to This GP now.

Not sure what exactly can only guess at Aero given the short time frame between races .

ShamoBuc

I reckon a few more brushes with the wall this year than normal. It is an extremely tight track and I fully expect the winner to be the one to use the inevitable Safety Car occurances best.

Straight line speed of the Red Bulls might be enough to top the pile, if they finish.

Frank Bullitt

We should see some crazy speeds in the corners with the new aero as well.

Reckon it will be RB and Ferrari at the front again, probably another tough weekend for Merc along with Aston and McLaren.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118825437#Comment_118825437

I'll be interested how close they can get to last year's times. They reckon the cars are a good bit slower in the slow stuff but I haven't really thought they looked all that faster in the faster corners compared to last year. And I'm not completely sure but I think there were only a couple of aero-limited turns last year where they couldn't go full speed.

That's what I don't like about the track, most of the corners are just wide-open throttle with no sightlines. It's unnecessary danger IMO.

MadYaker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118825591#Comment_118825591

I agree I think it's dangerous and I don't like it either. I said last season that an Antoine Hubert style smash is very possible here and I still think it is.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118825591#Comment_118825591

From what I have noticed from the onboards, like Leclerc pole lap, the slow stuff is really slow but as they power on you can see the DF build up and hunker the car down. Through the mid section of Spa it should be mega fast, and the new Albert Park as well.

Charlie-Bravo

@Jordan 199 I am suprised you didn't call the thread F1 2022 - Round 2:Return of the Jeddah!

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826151#Comment_118826151

Lol. That would have been good.

I really hope RedxBull have figured out what there problem was and have it sorted. They need to be making hey while the Mercedes are away.

mr_edge_to_you

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118826292#Comment_118826292

Thought they confirmed it as a vacuum issue which stopped fuel supply? Very quick fix apparently.

Captain_Crash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118827181#Comment_118827181

Yeah they did and have said it’s been fixed already. So I’d have no doubts that they’ll be at the top again.

On another RBPT related issue, Gasly’s failure was unrelated and believed to be a problem (leak??) in the MGUK unit.

Charlie-Bravo

Vettel is still yet to produce a negative Covid test, so no decision until tomorrow on whether he will race but Hulk is on standby.

Super fast track with barriers all around, what could go wrong? I just hope everyone will be ok. The winner will probably be whoever gets luckiest with safety cars, red flags.

MadYaker

Quali might be better to watch than the race. Max’s quali lap last year was mental until he binned it.

Dont be at yourself

Can see all the Ferrari-powered cars run well here given the speed, and those who are battling porpoising to suffer a lot. Magnussen and Bottas for a top 6 finish not out of the world.

dulpit

Looks like sky have sent their B team to Saudi. No Brundle, no Ted, but we do have Paul di Resta and Johnny Herbert 😐

Jordan 199

Hulkenberg to fill in for Vettel again this weekend.

MadYaker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118832684#Comment_118832684

Was that confirmed today?

Captain_Crash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118833026#Comment_118833026

Yup!

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-vettel-to-miss-second-race-of-2022-as-hulkenberg-steps-in-for-aston.Gkem8WiQxMgktHJYyjILr.html

Charlie-Bravo

When super-sub takes it toll over the years....Moon GP :D

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbhWNzCKIYC/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

This is it

5 minutes left in practice 1 and Max is comfortably ahead with hard tyres. Most of the rest of the field on soft including LeClerc who's 3/10s off Max

This is it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118834732#Comment_118834732

And LeClerc goes top by 1/10s

McFly85

Interesting P1. Red Bull looks to have more pace to spare so if they can have an issue free weekend Max could take it.

Leclerc got it together by the end. Started poorly but they did look better with a few laps under their belt.

Great lap at the end by Bottas! I love the idea that he’s actually traded up from last year, long may it last! :D

McFly85

Just seeing there’s been an apparent missile attack on the Aramco facility near the track?

Mitch Connor

So is Bottas back to being a good driver now or is he still a rubbish driver stealing a living and only getting any points cause his car is so much better than every other teams?

Charlie-Bravo

F2 qualy on at the moment and already two red flags for a car a hitting wall and one car on fire.

quokula

https://twitter.com/Amena__Bakr/status/1507377385267765261?s=20&t=l01RVnrp5FNzGmBthT0ljA

Suspected missile attack on a refinery in Jeddah while the free practice has been going on. As if the race wasn't dangerous enough.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118834861#Comment_118834861

Ferrari engines have made huge strides, the Alfa is clearly a very strong car and Bottas is being flattered by a rookie pay driver team mate. Bottas did finish behind Magnussen in the Haas to finish 4th out of 6 Ferrari powered cars. Zhou finished well ahead of Schumacher in the other Haas which is a pretty strong indicator that the Alfa is the better car of those two.

MadYaker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118834861#Comment_118834861

He was always ok, but he underperformed a lot in the Merc. All the Ferrari powered cars are fast this year. He's a solid mid field driver.

bennyx_o

Drivers appeared to be briefed about the attack just before FP2 with the session pushed back 15 mins (TBC)

Charlie-Bravo

I'd be pretty concerned that one of the F1 sponsors (Aramco) having a oil facility near the track is getting attacked by a missile. What's to stop terrorists sending one to the track?! :| Each and every turn of events shows F1 shouldn't be going there.

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118835100#Comment_118835100

What's are you on about. Bottas finished Fp1 in 3rd

No sign of the Haas of Magnussen as he had a hydronic issue. Maybe you are on about last week's race. I only remember the two red Bulls failing Lewis getting lucky and the Ferrari 1-2 and Kevin Magnussen in 5th fir Haas. I do not remember anymore than that.

blade1

Another honda gone.

Yuki this time 😮

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118835500#Comment_118835500

Yes I was talking about the last race and responding to another poster who implied that this season so far is showing that Bottas is a better driver than he is. I talked about the last race because trying to rate a driver based on the position they happen to come in in a single free practice session where the times are meaningless is a bit of a pointless exercise.

We've had years to see how good a driver Bottas is. He's not suddenly a different driver because of one free practice session. If you look at the last race he finished 8 seconds ahead of his teammate. Alex Albon also finished the race 8 seconds ahead of his teammate. I'd rate Albon and Bottas fairly similarly. They both beat teammates who wouldn't be on the grid without financial backing. Zhou will probably be better than Latifi in the long run, but it was also his first ever F1 race where he's getting to grips with things. The fact that Bottas was a bit faster than him is hardly surprising and hardly indicative of anything.

As far as the Haas comparison goes, Alfa clearly had a fast car. Bottas was a little bit behind Magnussen while Zhou was a good bit ahead of Schumacher. I'd rate Schumacher a lot more highly than Zhou so to me that means the Alfa was clearly faster than the Haas, and Magnussen made the difference as a faster driver than Bottas. Which is exactly what I'd expect from what I've seen of those drivers in their careers to date.

It's just one race, there's a development race and Alfa may race ahead of Haas or vice versa in the coming races, but if they are evenly matched I'd put money on a driver like Magnussen getting the best out of their machinery ahead of a driver like Bottas.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118835394#Comment_118835394

Agree with this. They were correct to drop the Russian GP, and the Saudi GP really ought to be dropped for much the same reasons. Domenicali has been talking recently about how many promoters are interested in hosting new races and how they may have to drop some historic tracks to make room. Surely this should be the first one they drop. Does the Saudi money make up for the reputational hit and the risks of going there?

This is it

Missed FP2, how's LeClerc's car? Hit a barrier or something I heard

blade1

Jesus explosion at oil depot earlier and believed to be a missile attack.

Teams having meetings at the moment. 😮

Burkie1203

Unanimously decided to carry on.

Bonkers stuff

MadYaker

"Bono my missile defences are gone"

Burkie1203

https://twitter.com/MotorsportWeek/status/1507466429389770753?t=zodEZCYo0AxIp29_mDbq8g&s=19

Larbre34

That it was a missile attack and not a truck bomb or a suicide bomber, is a game changer.

They need to get the principals out tonight and provide a military security and ground based anti-missile defence cover while the team members pack up and ship out.

It's probably a blessing in disguise anyway. They should never be racing in Saudi and hopefully won't ever go there again.

SCOOP 64

Will be disappointing not to see a race this weekend but they should cancel and get out.

MadYaker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118836452#Comment_118836452

They are going ahead with the race by the looks of things, the FIA president came out and basically said it's ok, they're not aiming at us, so apparently it's grand? Sounds like insanity to me.

bennyx_o

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118836478#Comment_118836478

The drivers have been meeting for over 2 hours now with both Domenicali and Brawn being called into the meeting so no guarantee it'll go ahead yet. While it'll be disappointing to have no race this weekend, the right thing to do is to cancel given they've already set a precedence in cancelling the Russian Grand Prix.

Sky did say at the end of the F1 Show that some drivers weren't at the meeting (No Ferrari Drivers or Hamilton and Tsunoda left)

Larbre34

Madness.

And I'd bet any money that all their insurers will be on the blower by tomorrow morning saying that 'we're not covering ye for any of this nonsense', and so they'll have to walk away in any case.