This is the place to discuss everything related to the 2nd round of the 2023 season taking place in Saudi Arabia between the 17th and the 19th of March.
The event timetable for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Friday
1st Practice 16:30 local time - 13:30 GMT
2nd Practice 20:00 local time - 17:00 GMT
Saturday
Practice 16:30 local time - 13:30 GMT
Qualifying 20:00 local time - 17:00 GMT
Sunday
Race 20:00 local time - 17:00 GMT
The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Thread
Moderators: cmlean, Ed, The Qualiflyer, The Heretic
Re: The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
It will be interesting to see just what Ferrari, Mercedes and even Aston Martin will bring to this event in Saudi Arabia.
Following a truly humbling experience in Bahrain, this next group of also rans will need to up their game to reel in the Red Bulls.
Maybe the track surface will be an advantage to the Ferrari and Mercedes duos.
Maybe Lance Stroll's wrist injuries will improve after having another 2 weeks of repair time and he will be near as competitive as Alonso.
We will wait and see.
I can't imagine that the other teams will be significantly closer given the short duration between events, but I may be pleasantly surprised.
Watch this space!
Following a truly humbling experience in Bahrain, this next group of also rans will need to up their game to reel in the Red Bulls.
Maybe the track surface will be an advantage to the Ferrari and Mercedes duos.
Maybe Lance Stroll's wrist injuries will improve after having another 2 weeks of repair time and he will be near as competitive as Alonso.
We will wait and see.
I can't imagine that the other teams will be significantly closer given the short duration between events, but I may be pleasantly surprised.
Watch this space!
Re: The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
FP1 Results
Code: Select all
Pos Time Driver Team
1 1:29.617 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing
2 1:30.100 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing
3 1:30.315 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin
4 1:30.577 Lance Stroll Aston Martin
5 1:30.771 George Russell Mercedes
6 1:30.787 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
7 1:30.924 Carlos Sainz Ferrari
8 1:30.949 Pierre Gasly Alpine
9 1:31.030 Alexander Albon Williams
10 1:31.110 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri
11 1:31.118 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
12 1:31.181 Esteban Ocon Alpine
13 1:31.450 Nyck De Vries AlphaTauri
14 1:31.491 Oscar Piastri McLaren
15 1:31.552 Nico Hulkenberg Haas
16 1:31.566 Kevin Magnussen Haas
17 1:31.922 Logan Sargeant Williams
18 1:31.970 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo
19 1:31.986 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo
20 1:32.149 Lando Norris McLaren
Re: The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
FP2 Results
Code: Select all
Pos Time Driver Team
1 1:29.603 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing
2 1:29.811 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin
3 1:29.902 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing
4 1:30.039 Esteban Ocon Alpine
5 1:30.070 George Russell Mercedes
6 1:30.100 Pierre Gasly Alpine
7 1:30.110 Lance Stroll Aston Martin
8 1:30.181 Nico Hulkenberg Haas
9 1:30.341 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
10 1:30.592 Carlos Sainz Ferrari
11 1:30.599 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
12 1:30.721 Lando Norris McLaren
13 1:30.776 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri
14 1:30.810 Alexander Albon Williams
15 1:30.820 Kevin Magnussen Haas
16 1:30.837 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo
17 1:30.921 Nyck De Vries AlphaTauri
18 1:30.959 Logan Sargeant Williams
19 1:30.964 Oscar Piastri McLaren
20 1:31.052 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo
Re: The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
So, what do we know after Friday's practices?
Red Bull are still the benchmark. Even though it's Friday and everyone is playing their cards close to their chest, it's hard to hide their speed. They will be the team to beat.
Aston Martin are still showing the pace they had at Bahrain. Fernando Alonso is definitely the team leader. Lance Stroll though is showing potential. The car is really that good. If only he learned how to communicate back to his team, his independent feedback could prove invaluable.
Ferrari will be fighting with one hand behind their back with Charles Leclerc taking a 10 place grid penalty into this event. Surprising that it is only the second event of the season and grid penalties are already occurring.
Mercedes are sort of there with both drivers extracting what they can from their entries.
To be honest, of the remaining teams, only Williams has grabbed my attention. They seem to be making inroads into the mid pack and, given a little time, will be continually fighting for points.
The only other point of interest is the mid field time spread being so small with a half a second separating 10th and 20th at the end of the day.
Bring on Saturday!
Red Bull are still the benchmark. Even though it's Friday and everyone is playing their cards close to their chest, it's hard to hide their speed. They will be the team to beat.
Aston Martin are still showing the pace they had at Bahrain. Fernando Alonso is definitely the team leader. Lance Stroll though is showing potential. The car is really that good. If only he learned how to communicate back to his team, his independent feedback could prove invaluable.
Ferrari will be fighting with one hand behind their back with Charles Leclerc taking a 10 place grid penalty into this event. Surprising that it is only the second event of the season and grid penalties are already occurring.
Mercedes are sort of there with both drivers extracting what they can from their entries.
To be honest, of the remaining teams, only Williams has grabbed my attention. They seem to be making inroads into the mid pack and, given a little time, will be continually fighting for points.
The only other point of interest is the mid field time spread being so small with a half a second separating 10th and 20th at the end of the day.
Bring on Saturday!
Re: The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
FP3 Results
Code: Select all
Pos Time Driver Team
1 1:28.485 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing
2 1:29.098 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing
3 1:29.483 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin
4 1:29.509 Lance Stroll Aston Martin
5 1:29.568 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
6 1:29.588 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
7 1:29.690 Lando Norris McLaren
8 1:29.698 Oscar Piastri McLaren
9 1:29.701 Pierre Gasly Alpine
10 1:29.761 Carlos Sainz Ferrari
11 1:29.811 George Russell Mercedes
12 1:29.917 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo
13 1:29.933 Nico Hulkenberg Haas
14 1:29.953 Esteban Ocon Alpine
15 1:29.983 Alexander Albon Williams
16 1:30.035 Logan Sargeant Williams
17 1:30.131 Kevin Magnussen Haas
18 1:30.317 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo
19 1:30.797 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri
Re: The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Qualifying
Charles Leclerc carries in a 10 place penalty into this event and will start in grid position 12.
Code: Select all
Pos Time Driver Team
1 1:28.265 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing
2 1:28.420 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
3 1:28.730 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin
4 1:28.857 George Russell Mercedes
5 1:28.931 Carlos Sainz Ferrari
6 1:28.945 Lance Stroll Aston Martin
7 1:29.078 Esteban Ocon Alpine
8 1:29.223 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
9 1:29.243 Oscar Piastri McLaren
10 1:29.357 Pierre Gasly Alpine
__________________________________________________________________
11 1:29.451 Nico Hulkenberg Haas
12 1:29.461 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo
13 1:29.634 Kevin Magnussen Haas
14 1:29.668 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo
15 1:49.953 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing
__________________________________________________________________
16 1:29.939 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri
17 1:29.994 Alexander Albon Williams
18 1:30.244 Nyck De Vries AlphaTauri
19 1:30.447 Lando Norris McLaren
20 2:08.510 Logan Sargeant Williams
Re: The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
After what had been fairly quiet practice sessions, qualifying was turned on it's head.
Q1
Lando Norris brushed the inside wall damaging his left front ending his qualifying session.
Logan Sargeant had a session to forget. His time for his initial run was deleted for exceeding track limits. The pressure was on and he then had a spin ruining his second attempt. His third run again had big errors spoiling what could have been a good day.
Q2
Max Verstappen had what seemed a driveshaft problem and was out for the session. He will start from position 15 without a representative time on the board.
Haas were unlucky with both cars so close to making it into the next session.
Q3
Sergio Perez did what was required and put his Red Bull on pole after an initial scare from Fernando Alonso and then, what could have been a hollow victory, from Charles Leclerc.
Biggest surprise was Oscar Piastri getting through into Q3 in a McLaren that is nowhere near as good as it needs to be.
Both Alpines also made it through which was also impressive.
Q1
Lando Norris brushed the inside wall damaging his left front ending his qualifying session.
Logan Sargeant had a session to forget. His time for his initial run was deleted for exceeding track limits. The pressure was on and he then had a spin ruining his second attempt. His third run again had big errors spoiling what could have been a good day.
Q2
Max Verstappen had what seemed a driveshaft problem and was out for the session. He will start from position 15 without a representative time on the board.
Haas were unlucky with both cars so close to making it into the next session.
Q3
Sergio Perez did what was required and put his Red Bull on pole after an initial scare from Fernando Alonso and then, what could have been a hollow victory, from Charles Leclerc.
Biggest surprise was Oscar Piastri getting through into Q3 in a McLaren that is nowhere near as good as it needs to be.
Both Alpines also made it through which was also impressive.
Re: The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Race day will be interesting.
Max Verstappen will be starting from grid position 15, Charles Leclerc will be starting from grid position 12.
The first corners will be so interesting as both will be trying to make up as many positions as possible before race strategy kicks in.
I think Lando Norris will also be in for a long day starting basically from the real of the grid.
This circuit is so fast so the activation of DRS will be at a premium.
It will be interesting to see the re-positioning of the DRS activation point and what effect it will have on the driver's approach to positioning to allow them to trigger it. Last years fiasco of crawling into turn 27 to be second to the DRS line has been fixed by the moving of the activation line to the exit of the turn.
Max Verstappen will be starting from grid position 15, Charles Leclerc will be starting from grid position 12.
The first corners will be so interesting as both will be trying to make up as many positions as possible before race strategy kicks in.
I think Lando Norris will also be in for a long day starting basically from the real of the grid.
This circuit is so fast so the activation of DRS will be at a premium.
It will be interesting to see the re-positioning of the DRS activation point and what effect it will have on the driver's approach to positioning to allow them to trigger it. Last years fiasco of crawling into turn 27 to be second to the DRS line has been fixed by the moving of the activation line to the exit of the turn.
Re: The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Race
Next: Round of Australia '23
Date: March 31 - April 2 2023
Code: Select all
Pos Driver Team
1 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing
3 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin
4 George Russell Mercedes
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas
11 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri
12 Nico Hulkenberg Haas
13 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo
14 Nyck De Vries AlphaTauri
15 Oscar Piastri McLaren
16 Logan Sargeant Williams
17 Lando Norris McLaren
18 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo
DNF Alexander Albon Williams
DNF Lance Stroll Aston Martin
Date: March 31 - April 2 2023
Re: The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
That was an interesting race. It was always going to be if Max Verstappen would come through and win the race given his dominance through practice.
Kudos to Sergio Perez.
He did what he had to do and, after passing Fernando Alonso, controlled the race from the front.
Fernando tried to keep close but, after losing the DRS, it was all over bar the shouting. The time penalty he incurred for incorrect positioning in his grid box and the full course yellow ensured that the damage mas kept top a minimum. Post race, the stewards handed a 10 second penalty for the jack touching the car before the penalty was served however this was rescinded following an appeal by Aston Martin.
The safety car was also a bonus to Max Verstappen as it compressed the field bring all those who had scampered off into the distance back into his gun sights. All were reeled in other than his team mate Perez.
George Russell drove a controlled race and almost snatched a podium from Fernando Alonso but it was not to be.
The balance of the top 10 was filled out by Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly and Kevin Magnussen.
Kudos to Sergio Perez.
He did what he had to do and, after passing Fernando Alonso, controlled the race from the front.
Fernando tried to keep close but, after losing the DRS, it was all over bar the shouting. The time penalty he incurred for incorrect positioning in his grid box and the full course yellow ensured that the damage mas kept top a minimum. Post race, the stewards handed a 10 second penalty for the jack touching the car before the penalty was served however this was rescinded following an appeal by Aston Martin.
The safety car was also a bonus to Max Verstappen as it compressed the field bring all those who had scampered off into the distance back into his gun sights. All were reeled in other than his team mate Perez.
George Russell drove a controlled race and almost snatched a podium from Fernando Alonso but it was not to be.
The balance of the top 10 was filled out by Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly and Kevin Magnussen.
Re: The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
What this race showed is the true pace of the Red Bull. For once, Perez put up a fight and managed to keep the gap to Verstappen who didn't give up the chase until near the end forcing both cars to drive near the limit. I suspect Red Bull allowed this and didn't order Perez to give position due to their superiority over the rest of the field but with the reliability being a concern, I don't expect the two to be allowed to fight next time which would be a shame.
Behind them Alonso in the Aston Martin was once again perfect (except for his not so perfect starting position) and I think it is farcical that being off by a few centimetres results in a 5 second penalty same as forcing a driver off the track or repeatedly exceeding track limits or jumping the start. And then the more farcical 10 second penalty for a mechanic touching the car. It is good that it will be clarified.
What was impressive by Alonso is that he was able to stay a bit with the Red Bulls but then I think he wanted to control the race behind him as he had no chance in passing the Red Bulls but was easily ahead of both Mercedes and Ferrari, both teams very disappointing so far.
Alpine looked strong in practice but in the races didn't really feature, most disappointing though was McLaren, they are racing with Williams, sad to see, lets hope both teams can bounce back.
Australia will be a different track again, looking forward to that
Behind them Alonso in the Aston Martin was once again perfect (except for his not so perfect starting position) and I think it is farcical that being off by a few centimetres results in a 5 second penalty same as forcing a driver off the track or repeatedly exceeding track limits or jumping the start. And then the more farcical 10 second penalty for a mechanic touching the car. It is good that it will be clarified.
What was impressive by Alonso is that he was able to stay a bit with the Red Bulls but then I think he wanted to control the race behind him as he had no chance in passing the Red Bulls but was easily ahead of both Mercedes and Ferrari, both teams very disappointing so far.
Alpine looked strong in practice but in the races didn't really feature, most disappointing though was McLaren, they are racing with Williams, sad to see, lets hope both teams can bounce back.
Australia will be a different track again, looking forward to that