2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Jeddah, March 25 - 27

[Tzk]

Back on topic, someone asked for long run pace (below), interesting for this race, no representative Qualy laps from Red Bull and no representative long runs from Ferrari:

Look at how close Russell is to Ham. Sadly they're still lacking pace to the leaders... Also Lec and Ver are close. We'll see how got more performance left to actually take pole.

Also without any long runs by Ferrari we got no clue how fast they are... Is anything known from FP1?

[Wouter]

No one is talking about this being a very dangerous circuit anymore.
A few things have changed, but it remains a very, very dangerous track. You can wait for the first major accident to happen.

Mod edit

[erudite450]

It’s a conscious decision to discuss the political nature of the situation, I guess some can’t stop themselves from doing so, from the rules:

“To maintain focus on motorsport, discussions on politics, race or religion are highly discouraged, and subject to removal. Members are encouraged to take into account the international nature of the forum, and to be respectful to one another, no matter of their beliefs.”

Back on topic, someone asked for long run pace (below), interesting for this race, no representative Qualy laps from Red Bull and no representative long runs from Ferrari:

https://i.imgur.com/X3j2Sdf.png

Mod edit: just cleaning up & thank you!!

I think it's difficult to say how representative, or otherwise, the qualy were. The softs seemed to be graining even over a single lap. The Mercs improved on the softs probably because they didn't set any representative times on the harder compounds. I expect some teams to compromise their setups to get more performance out of the soft tyres.

[Magicsenna_41]

No one is talking about this being a very dangerous circuit anymore.
A few things have changed, but it remains a very, very dangerous track. You can wait for the first major accident to happen.

May be you are right. They will never come back here but to a new track which is under development...

[Bill_Kar]

Is there any chance they might even set Q laps on the mediums? Or is this too far?

[Bill_Kar]

No one is talking about this being a very dangerous circuit anymore.
A few things have changed, but it remains a very, very dangerous track. You can wait for the first major accident to happen.

May be you are right. They will never come back here but to a new track which is under development...

Uhm, originally they were going to race at Qiddiya in 3 years, but that will probably extend to in 5 years. So, we are staying in Jeddah for the foreseeable future.

[erudite450]

Is there any chance they might even set Q laps on the mediums? Or is this too far?

I would say that's probable actually. The softs seemed to grain even over a single lap.

[TNTHead]

No one is talking about this being a very dangerous circuit anymore.
A few things have changed, but it remains a very, very dangerous track. You can wait for the first major accident to happen.

I am thinking the same. I hope this will not be a disastrous weekend. For sure they will evaluate SA as a suitable place for a F1 race.
A driver meeting until 2.30am is also not what you want regarding safety.

[Big Tea]

I also believe, and have said previously, Merc have things on the car that are not ready. This way, they do not have to tell when something new is added as its not new, just 'sorted'

[Shrieker]

No one is talking about this being a very dangerous circuit anymore.
A few things have changed, but it remains a very, very dangerous track. You can wait for the first major accident to happen.

Cem Bölükbaşı is already out with a concussion from his F2 practice crash.

Not quite F1 but one could argue it could be worse with an f1 car since the speeds involved are higher.

[Magicsenna_41]

No one is talking about this being a very dangerous circuit anymore.
A few things have changed, but it remains a very, very dangerous track. You can wait for the first major accident to happen.

May be you are right. They will never come back here but to a new track which is under development...

Uhm, originally they were going to race at Qiddiya in 3 years, but that will probably extend to in 5 years. So, we are staying in Jeddah for the foreseeable future.

Uhm, in other countries outside Europe it's possible to make it happen earlier.
Under what circumstances its another story.

[LM10]

Is there any chance they might even set Q laps on the mediums? Or is this too far?

I would say that's probable actually. The softs seemed to grain even over a single lap.

I’m not sure about that. Leclerc just set the fastest lap in his second flyer on the same tyre set. Sainz did his fastest lap (just under 2 tenths shy of Leclerc) even in his 3 attempt on the same tyre set.
Also Norris went faster in his second try.

[dialtone]

Is there any chance they might even set Q laps on the mediums? Or is this too far?

I would say that's probable actually. The softs seemed to grain even over a single lap.

I’m not sure about that. Leclerc just set the fastest lap in his second flyer on the same tyre set. Sainz did his fastest lap (just under 2 tenths shy of Leclerc) even in his 3 attempt on the same tyre set.
Also Norris went faster in his second try.

I would wager in general cars have temperature issues rather than deg issues. May see more graining than blistering through the race.

[LM10]

RedBull turned it up already it seems. At least not really much left I assume. Top speed of 333 km/h and fastest in sectors 2 and 3.

[dialtone]

Pretty clear Ferrari really needs that new floor to fix porpoising, so far only RedBull has solved it. Very positive for future Ferrari performance.