2024 Jeddah GP: Post Race Analysis

2 races into the 2024 Formula 1 season and from my point of view, it two getting thumbs down. From virtual car launches to limited testing to completely boring races have meant the usual excitement to the start of a new season is replaced by a lack of interest and leaving thinking what's the point of even watching.

The TV director has been terrible. Missing the rare action on track, and when it does happen they cut away to a face shot of Mick Schumacher or Toto Wolff. Lack of replays for anything but major incidents.

Penalties are already controversial. Hamilton escapes penalty for an extremely dangerous impeding in FP2. Lando Norris escapes a clear cut penalty for jumping the start. How this wasn't investigated within 2 laps is beyond crazy. Hamilton misses an apex and pushes Piastri off track but it wasn't even looked at. Perez gets a slap on the wrist 5 second penalty for unsafe release where the one place safety needs to be paramount is in the pitlane where people are standing on the same surface as race cars. Meanwhile, Kmag gets 20 seconds worth of penalties for hard racing. I'm in favor of 10 second penalties especially when they affect another car, but there seems to be an even bigger disconnect in fairness than before. It seems you need to be a popular driver in a top team to get special treatment.

Red Bull Racing continue to dominate. The only time either driver pushed their cars was during an overtake where they were 30+ kph faster than the car they were passing.

Ferrari got the most they could have and arguably were the most impressive in the race. Leclerc had a fantastic drive. Great racing in the few laps it happened. Good tire management, though tire wear was not really an issue for anyone. Fastest lap on the final lap. Great job. Oliver Bearman did a brilliant job. Being thrown into a top team mid weekend, getting just one practice session and didn't really put a foot wrong. In fact he was aggressive and confident and really impressed.

McLaren opted for a high downforce setup which meant supreme high speed cornering but poor straightline speed. In the end it turned out as 4th was the best result possible. I like the call to stay out with Norris, it just didn't work out.

Aston Martin appear to have better qualifying pace than race pace. Fernando always gets the most out of the car and didn't have a chance to fight for any positions ahead. AMR still appears to clearly be behind McLaren and Mercedes. Lance Stroll did Lance Stroll things.

Mercedes opted for a low downforce setup which meant good straightline speed and poor high speed cornering. Nobody talked about George Russell but he had a solid race with another decent result. Hamilton also chose to stay out during the SC, did a great job holding onto the mediums. Given Lando should have received a penalty, Hamilton should have finished higher than 9th.

Haas gets points! They don't appear to be the worst car on the grid, at least not yet. Huge credit to Kmag for holding up everyone and securing Hulkenberg some points. Great teamwork. Is the official standings correct that after a 20 second penalty Kevin remains in 12th ahead of Ocon?

Williams likely had a better car than the results showed. Albon along with everyone was stuck behind Kmag. 12-17th was the most exciting racing on track which is sad. Albon seemed to be the only driver with real talent and actually made a pass stick, tried different lines without causing a mess, and once ahead could pull away a little bit.

Alpine don't have a good package but are trying their best to put up a fight. Tipped to be well off of the RB's even, yet Ocon finished ahead of both. No idea why Gasly was forced to retire so early.

Visa RB's have been a disappointment. Looked good in testing, show signs of a relatively quick car, yet can't get results. Yuki appeared to have the better pace over all the cars around him but could not make a pass. Easily passed the Haas and then threw it away by a poor choice to defend into T1 which ended up costing him a place to Ocon in the process. Ricciardo... he drove worse than Yuki. There is no hope for him to join the big team when he cant even beat Yuki.

Stake Sauber looked terrible. Zhou had a very solid race, but unfortunately his team can't change a wheel. Another costly pitstop though he didn't have any chance of points. Bottas perhaps the worst driver of the day.

Driver of the Day: Oliver Bearman. When you factor in the situation he was in and the job he did. That's a big ask for any driver, especially when you add the pressure of being in a Ferrari.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see Bearman get a seat in the near future. It does mean that Hulkenberg and Magnussen now have to worry about their seats. Maybe even the Sauber drivers too. If anyone is to get the boot, get rid of Bottas. So terribly overrated and has not impressed at all in the least 3 seasons.

We also need to be realistic. We have seen some great debuts before, De Vries being the most recent and he was a bust.