General overview
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix crowned Oscar Piastri in a McLaren for the third time this year, accompanied by Verstappen and Leclerc on the podium. The Australian driver is now the leader of the World Championship, having overtaken his teammate, author of a problematic weekend complicated by the mistake in Q3 that relegated him to start from 10th position. Very consistent race for Leclerc, who has extracted some performance on the Ferrari, taking advantage of the low degradation he had. All in all, good race for Verstappen, who started from pole, but had a bad start at the start, plus a penalty for cutting the first corner during the tussle with Piastri.
The race was marked by low degradation, and as evidenced by the violin plot, most of the drivers had a fairly robust race pace on both hard and medium compound, given the width of the violin plots, indicative of a large number of laps with the same pace. Piastri and Verstappen had very similar pace during both the first and second stints, and given the delay at the finish, it is clear that the penalty, if not decisively, definitely contributed to the Australian driver’s victory. Very good pace on Leclerc in both the first and second stints, with which he then attacked the third position of Russell, the latter quite struggling on this occasion in terms of pace. Race according to expectations for Norris, called to recover several positions after starting on the fifth row. Also of note was the good performance of the Williams, both in points, and of Antonelli, once again in the top ten. More in trouble than the teammate, instead of Hamilton, who struggles to understand the Ferrari.
In the analysis of the lap times clustered by team, sorted by increasing median, Verstappen’s Red Bull emerges, the Austrian team’s lone bearer after Tsunoda’s accident at the start, followed by McLaren and more detached Ferrari and Mercedes. Excellent Williams in fifth position, followed by Racing Bulls. The ranking is greatly influenced by the very different performances between teammates, as in the case of Ferrari, Hamilton having finished within half a minute of Leclerc and Norris’ comeback. It becomes clear, however, that Verstappen, without penalties, could have been fighting for the victory.
Race strategy
Fairly obvious strategy, unlike the last GP, with everyone on a single stint, except Doohan, who changed both on the first lap, after SC entry, and around the second half of the race. All mounted the medium and hard tires, preferring the former in the course of the first stint, apart from Norris, who engaged in a comeback, and Hadjar, at least among the top ten. It is worth noting the excellent strategy for Leclerc, who managed to extend the first stint on medium tires, managing to change to hard tires much further than their respective opponents, being able to overtake Russell on the track and resist Norris’ comeback.
Focus on drivers’ lap times
A clear summary of the race is offered thanks to the fuel-corrected lap times of the top four. In the first stint, it was a very similar pace from Piastri and Verstappen, while Leclerc had very low degradation, favoring a longer first stint to then get on a fresher tire at the end. Norris also had a longer first stint facilitated by the use of the hard tire. In the second stint, once again Piastri and Verstappen had the same pace, while much faster, especially in the first part of the stint, Leclerc, who mounted the new tires several laps later, was for much of the race the fastest on the track. Slightly faster Norris, aided by the tire mismatch, having used the medium tires, for fewer laps.
Conclusions
Now, a one-week stop before the overseas trip to Miami, on another street circuit, very different from the atypical one in Jeddah. It is a much more twisty and less fast track than the Saudi one, where thermal degradation will be higher.