Key numbers after the opening two rounds of the 2024 F1 season

Max Verstappen clinched his 56th victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but Ferrari's junior driver Oliver Bearman stole the show thanks to his eye-catching performance at his F1 debut. F1Technical's senior writer Balázs Szabó picks out some key numbers following the opening two rounds of the 2024 F1 season.

Domination – Reigning world champion Max Verstappen started the season just as he concluded the 2023 campaign by utterly dominating proceedings. Taking his 55th and 56th F1 victory, the Dutchman won the opening two rounds of the season which he has never done previously.

In Jeddah, the reigning champion secured his 100th F1 podium finish. His win at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was his 9th consecutive triumph which means that he only needs to add a single win to this streak to match his previous record of ten consecutive victories.

Impressive form – Red Bull secured their 115th F1 victory in Jeddah which means that they are fourth on the all-time list, only Mercedes (125), McLaren (183) and Ferrari (243) placed ahead.

Third youngest driver – After Carlos Sainz had been diagnosed by an appendicitis, Ferrari elected to replace him with their reserve driver Oliver Bearman. The Briton made his F1 debut at the age of 18 years and 304 days, becoming the sport’s third youngest driver after Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll.

The F2 driver became the 68th driver to score on his F1 debut, and the first British driver to do so since Paul Di Resta in 2011. Furthermore, he became the fourth driver to score points when making his Grand Prix debut for Ferrari, after Ignazio Giunti and Clay Regazzoni in 1970, and Arturo Merzario in 1972.

Six – Six teams have scored points so far this season. Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes collected points with both cars in both races. Aston Martin scored with Fernando Alonso both in Manama and Jeddah, but Lance Stroll only managed to finish in the top ten in the opening race as he retired from the action in Jeddah due to a heavy crash. The last point-scoring spot in Jeddah was occupied by Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg.

Fastest lap – The Bahrain Grand Prix saw Max Verstappan post the quickest race lap. His fastest race lap of 1:32.608 on the third and final stint was more than a second faster than the rest of the field.

Although he was unable to challenge the Red Bulls in Jeddah, Charles Leclerc displayed eye-catching performance both in qualifying trim and in the race. The icing on the cake was the bonus point for the fastest lap around the 6.175km Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Leclerc clinched it in a battle on the very last lap with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

Fastest pit stop - Ferrari have perfomed the quickest tyre change so far this season with the Scuderia servicing Charles Leclerc's car in Bahrain in just 2.23s. The second quickest tyre change also belongs to Ferrari with a time of 2.27s, achieved in Manama as well.

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix saw Red Bull change the tyres on Max Verstappen's car in just 2.44s, becoming the fastest team in the pit lane. Intestingly, Ferrari were less successful in the pits in Jeddah with their quickest stop only being a 3.48-second tyre change. However, it was down to the hectic pit stops during the safety car intervention which meant that both Oliver Bearman and Charles Leclerc were forced to wait for the rival cars to pass before they could rejoin the fast lane.

New record - Max Verstappen secured the pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with a time of 1m27.472s which became the fastest ever lap around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Similar performance - Interestingly, the same five drivers were knocked out in the opening qualifying session in Jeddah as in Bahrain. It included the two Kick Sauber drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, the two Alpine racers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly and Williams driver Logan Sargeant.

First time ever - It has happened for the first time that every driver finished the opening round of the season after the entire field managed to cross the finish line in Bahrain.

Two retirements - By contrast, the Jeddah round saw two drivers retire from the action. Pierre Gasly retired on lap one due to a gearbox problem, marking the first DNF for any driver of the season. Just five laps into the race, Lance Stroll clipped the wall in a high-speed corner, breaking his front suspension and crashing into the subsequent wall.

Track limits - Track limits have established themselves as a focal point in recent seasons. Although there were no real issues in the opening races, several drivers came close to earning a penalty for exceeding the track limits.

A total of 20 lap times were deleted in Bahrain with Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris and Lando Norris having collected three track limits infringements apiece, meaning that one more mistake would have seen them collect a time penalty.

Although the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is mostly confined by punishing walls, drivers are eager to find every chance to find some minor gains. It meant that a total of sixteen lap times were deleted during the 50-lap race in Jeddah. Kevin Magnussen exceeded the track limits on four occasions which meant that he was handed a ten-second time penalty.

Developments - Since teams have to submit their updates, it is much easier to follow each team's development path over thecourseoftheseason. In Jeddah, a total of 13 new parts were submitted with the Visa Cash App RB team bringing four new parts to the Saudi Arabian Grad Prix.

Ferrari, McLaren, Aston Martin, Williams have all brought two upgrades apiece while Red Bull tried out three new parts in Jeddah. Mercedes was one of the two teams to introduce a performance upgrade in Jeddah, bringing a modified rear lower deflector to their W15.