F1 Report Cards: Saudi Arabia 2021

The Saudi Arabia Grand Prix certainly was… something?!? The first ever race in Jeddah was as jampacked with action and exciting as the rest of the entire 2021 season, and that’s really saying something, since the 2021 season is unlike anything we’ve seen in quite a while!

The weekend will remain on the forefront of people’s minds for quite a while, not only due to the multiple (virtual) safety cars and red flags we saw, but also due to the heated battle between the two main championship contenders and the last podium position being decided just mere seconds before crossing the finish line. Jeddah as a track won’t be forgotten anytime soon either, but perhaps not for the reasons they hoped.

Here are the top of the class contenders and struggle bus riders from the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: 

Top of the class:

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton – Qualifying: 1^st | Race: 1^st

Valtteri Bottas – Qualifying: 2^nd | Race: 3^rd

The Silver Arrows had frightening pace on the straights as they unleashed their fresh new engine, but things weren’t plain sailing for the team despite a front-row lockout.

I usually start compiling this list whilst watching the race, and I must admit that Lewis found himself with the top-class contenders and with the struggle bus riders at different points of the race – but he eventually quite firmly put himself back on top of the list. By taking the win and the point for fastest lap, he managed to make up a 14-point deficit to Max Verstappen and they head to Abu Dhabi as equals.

It’s commendable that Hamilton has still come out on top after everything which was thrown at him, something which truly speaks of his talent. What does grate me the wrong way, however, is the talk of sportsmanship, more so from Mercedes than from Lewis himself. Some of his actions were questionable at best, which definitely isn’t me saying he shouldn’t do them! I’m a fan of hard racing and I’m certainly not opposed to having your elbows out in a battle like this, all is fair in love and war, but to then constantly point fingers at other parties to try and highlight their missteps whilst claiming you would never… that’s getting old real fast.

Sir Lewis Hamilton is enough of a legend in his own right, having Mercedes try and paint a halo above his head only causes friction among fanbases and discredits his achievements. I love Lewis for the GOAT he is and can’t wait to see him give his everything in the trilling climax of what must be one of the greatest title fights of all times, as he will be keen to take home a historic 8^th title.

After the spectacle of the race we saw, it’s really quite funny that we still ended up with an almost ‘traditional’ Ham-Ver-Bot podium. If you were to judge the race by results alone, you might be inclined to think that nothing much happened, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Up until the very last lap, it was looking quite unlikely that Bottas would still be on the podium, but Valtteri was able to repeat the stunt he pulled at the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, snatching third place just before the finish line which earned him the honour of gracing the last podium step with his presence. This 1-3 finish makes Mercedes favourites for winning their eighth consecutive constructors’ world championship.

We’ve seen Bottas fade plenty of times when he gets stuck in the pack, but I have to give extra credit for recovering from the setbacks outside of his control to take some very important points for the team. In addition, the achievement of 100 consecutive Q3 appearances for Mercedes definitely solidifies Bottas’ place on this list.

Esteban Ocon – Qualifying: 9^th | Race: 4^th

If you’d ask Ocon himself, I doubt that he’d put his drive on the Top-Class contenders list – but this is just like Norris in Russia. Just because you lost out on the good result in the end doesn’t make it any less of a bloody good drive.

Esteban took advantage of the chaos in the first and second restart, due to Verstappen’s penalty he was actually even allowed to start from pole for the second, which must have felt quite special.

The Frenchman then gave it everything in the run to the chequered flag, valiantly defending from Bottas and actually repassing him into turn 1 on lap 49, unfortunately he would miss out on his third F1 podium by just 0.104 seconds. This was probably Ocon’s most dominant weekend over teammate Fernando Alonso this season.

The fans

If you are a new fan, you simultaneously chose the best and worst race to start watching the sport.

The best, because this truly has been one of the most action-packed races in recent memory, and that’s quite something considering the season we’ve had! You’ve also got to enjoy the sassy Masi hotline and the catfight between team bosses. 

But equally the worst, as you most likely got to experience how the rulebook can get in the way of racing and can result in very slow (and sometimes incomprehensible) decision making from the stewards. If you’ve ventured out on twitter during the race, you’ve most likely also found the Verstappen and Hamilton fans at each other’s throats, which is never a good look for the sport.

Honourable Mentions:

Then for Honourable mentions… first up is Antonio Giovinazzi. You might not have seen a lot from him, as the chaos of the race and the battles in front prevented the camera from turning his way too often, but the Italian did a lot of things right – not only during the race, but also through Friday and Saturday. Gio got into Q3 on the medium tyres and qualified 10^th, he even drove as high as 7^th at one point, but ultimately the Ferrari’s were too quick to keep behind. Still, P9 in this year’s Alfa Romeo deserves an honourable mention.

The second honourable mention goes to Daniel Ricciardo. I haven’t yet met an F1 fan who doesn’t like the Aussie, but we all have to admit that we thought his 2021 would be going differently (read: better), so it’s a delight to be able to put him back on the top-end of this list. He masterfully picked his way through the chaos in the early stages of the race, elevating himself to 5^th from 11^th. He even found himself running fourth after the second restart, but whilst he defended quite spectacularly, he couldn’t quite keep a hold of this position against Bottas’ quicker Mercedes, which certainly is no shame considering the McLaren looked significantly weaker than the two Ferrari’s who ended up finishing behind Ricciardo.

The struggle bus:

Jeddah Corniche Circuit

We have seen a spectacular race, I do have to admit that, but that doesn’t necessarily make the newest circuit on the calendar a safe or good track to drive. Several drivers have called it out for being unsafe. Mainly for the blind corners which are taken at high speed. It is nothing short of a miracle that no truly serious accidents have happened after the number of close calls across the weekend (excluding the F2 incident between Enzo and Théo, as that arguably could have happened at any track).

Pérez, Hamilton, Leclerc, Russell and Norris have all highlighted their concerns, some more serious than others, but the general consensus seems to be that revisions will be needed. When even Max Verstappen speaks up about the dangers of the track, you know that you’ve messed up. “I wonder who signs off these kinds of tracks,” pondered Verstappen. “I guess they have $90million reasons why.”

It very much has the feel of what my friend Jack has issues with in covering Formula E, taking races to particular destinations and forcing it to happen rather than creating a quality product that sells a certain track’s inclusion to the calendar. It’s starting to become a theme, and we don’t like it.

We’ll be back to the track in March 2022 as Saudi Arabia switches ends of the calendar, so any changes will have to be quite quick.

Red Bull

Max Verstappen – Qualifying: 3^rd | Race: 2^nd

Sergio Pérez – Qualifying: 5^th | Race: DNF

Red Bull had a pretty testing time in Jeddah despite being far more competitive than what was expected from the team. Whilst on paper, an upwards trajectory from 3^rd to 2^nd might be a good-enough result for our resident Dutchie, we can be sure of the fact of 1 thing, Max Verstappen is not pleased with the outcome of Sunday’s race. A part of this is due to the fact that Verstappen never seems satisfied with anything less than a win, but a far bigger factor of his obvious disappointed is focussed around how things turned ugly both on and off track.

He didn’t drive a clean race, which even I as a Dutchie can admit. There were quite a few things I’d liked to have seen him do differently, and there are comments and penalties which I think are delivered at the right address, but I have to say that I think the ‘main’ incident was unfairly and harshly penalised. Now, you might need to call me out on wearing orange tinted glasses here, but first hear me out! Do I think that it was somewhat of a silly place for Max to try and let Lewis by? Yes, definitely. Do I think Verstappen intentionally ‘brake-tested’ Hamilton there? No.

Now, I’m not claiming to be an expert, and it certainly doesn’t help that I don’t have access to all the information – but from what I can compile from on-board videos and radio messaging between the FIA, Red Bull and Max, I can conclude this: The team was told to let Lewis by at the first possible opportunity, the team relayed this information to Max with the advice to do this in a strategic manner (meaning just before a DRS detection point just so he could overtake again soon after) and the Dutchman immediately complied. So if we would like to point a finger for a penalty to be handed out, at least a little of the blame should be shifted the team’s way.

That Lewis wasn’t aware that this was about to happen is mostly on Mercedes, as we understood from the sassy Masi hotline that they tried to inform the silver arrows in a timely manner, but the team were blocking their channels with a discussion of their own which left them unable of informing Hamilton in time.

Again, I think that it was an unfortunate place to try and let his title rival by, Max should have known better – Red Bull should have known better too, considering they’ve had Max driving for them since 2016… I don’t think that it was actual dangerous driving though, as I want you to cast your mind back once more to Azerbaijan 2017, where Vettel and Hamilton came to blows during a safety car period. Here a downshift in gears was similarly perceived to be a brake test and Sebastian infamously turned into Lewis to communicate his displeasure.

Could I be wrong here? Yes. People who claim to be more knowledgeable on cars in the Twitter spheres suggest that they can hear him braking. The fact that I don’t can perhaps be blamed on my hearing impairment or my bias towards Max, but it could equally be another case of keyboard engineering from their side. I’d just like to light all sides of the argument, as acknowledging your bias should make you less biased, or at least that’s what my Psychology Degree taught me.

So, in conclusion: Should Max have been better, perhaps driven more cleanly, or tackled several aspects of the race in a different manner? Yes. Do I think the blame lies entirely with him? No. So, I think he was punished rather harshly, even though it had no effect on the end result. Then again, I repeat, feel free to call me out on my orange tinted glasses.

Whilst Verstappen’s race wasn’t quite what Red Bull wanted or wished for, the collision between Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc is what did real damage to their haul of points. The Mexican and the Monegasque coming to blows between turns 3 and 4 on the second restart. Then again, Checo shouldn’t (or wouldn’t) have been there in the first place, if only he qualified closer to the front.

It’s melted Red Bull’s hopes for a Constructors’ title like snow in the sun and it put a firm end to Sergio’s run of five races in the top four. Not only that, but Sergio could have played a vital role in stopping Hamilton from taking fastest lap point and consequently entering Abu Dhabi level on points with Max.

At least Red Bull’s media and communication department can take some comfort in having some iconic pictures for their content, right?

Haas

Mick Schumacher – Qualifying: 19^th | Race: DNF

Nikita Mazepin – Qualifying: 20^th | Race: DNF

Sunday was not a good day for Haas, and I’ve got some concerns regarding Guenther Steiner’s blood pressure.

Mick tried and failed to keep up with the Williams ahead, causing him to lose control and end in the barrier at turn 22 on lap 10, eventually bringing out the first of the red flags. It’s undeniable that the young German absolutely annihilated his teammate, but it’s also becoming quite clear that Mick and street circuits don’t mesh well. Monaco, Baku and now Jeddah, which is an area he can work on developing whilst Haas can work on getting him a more competitive car.

Mick does get a pat on the back for getting within a tenth of Lance Stroll in qualifying despite forgetting to use DRS on one of the straights.

Nikita too had a big smash, unable to avoid Russell at the first restart as the pack slowed to avoid the carnage in front.

This outing was a frustrating and expensive experience for Haas. Whilst they always said they would be focusing on 2022 rather than 2021, they are seriously start counting down the hours to the 2022 season after being faced with this extortionate repair bill.

Yuki Tsunoda – Qualifying: 8^th | Race: 14^th

Yuki seemed to be on a roll in recent races, something he looked to be continuing into Jeddah, making it into Q3 without a soft tyre for the first time this year, lining up on the grid in 8^th position. He lost four places at the start, dropping out of the top 10, only to elbow his way back into contention to run 9^th once more.

This result was thrown away as he tried to overtake Sebastian Vettel but ended up colliding with him instead, dropping him to the back of the grid and ending all hopes of points. He received a 10-second time penalty and yet more penalty points.

Granted, Tsunoda is in his rookie season, but with teammate Pierre Gasly outscoring him by a whopping 82 points so far, these mistakes are only adding to some mounting pressure heading into 2022.

Dishonourable mentions:

The first dishonourable mention goes to Aston Martin. The race was already looking like it would be an uphill battle, with both cars going out in Q1, but with Vettel not pitting before the first red flag, a top 10 finish looked possible. To then first collide with Tsunoda and later with Räikkönen firmly shattered that dream, as he ended up retiring – but to be quite frank the car never looked competitive. As teammate Lance Stroll finished 11th, both cars finished out of the points and Aston Martin failed to score for the second time in three races.

The second dishonourable mention goes to Lando Norris. Whilst there were more drivers who pitted before the red flag, Lando dropped way down the order. This is not a comment on Lando’s skills as a driver, but more so a wrong strategy call. A top-five finish would have been in the cards, especially if you consider where some of their competitors and Lando’s teammate has finished.

Next up is Abu Dhabi, the last race of this rollercoaster of the season. With the two contenders for the championship tied for points, it’s bound to be a spectacular last weekend, although it is unlikely to rival the madness of Jeddah. The race is scheduled to start at 1 pm on Sunday 12^th December, so definitely make sure that you’re sat down with popcorn within reach.