Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Grand Prix Round Up- Saudi Arabia

Race 2 of the season is Saudi Arabia and for once in 2024 so far the drama is on track! After completing Practice 1 & 2 very unwell, Carlos Sainz was forced to withdraw from the weekend when he was rushed to hospital Friday morning with Appendicitis and straight into surgery. His absence promoted 18 year old, British Formula 2 driver Ollie Bearman to the Ferrari seat. Making him the first  driver to make their debut for Ferrari since 1972. When Olli woke up Friday morning he was excited to convert his Pole in F2 Qualifying into a reverse top 10 Sprint race win, instead he ended Friday Qualifying 11th in a Ferrari for a Formula 1 Grand Prix, only missing out on Q3 by 0.034 of a second. SPOILER ALERT- He had a F*&%ing brilliant race!!!

Pre Race Information- 
Gasly reported problems with his Alpine gear box on the way to the grid but he line up with the others to take the start. All the cars started on the Medium tyre except Bottas and notably Bearman who ran the Softs for their 1st stint to try and gain an advantage off the start with the softer rubber getting up to optimum temperature quicker but in the long run falling off faster. ​

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix -

It was a clean start for all with Verstappen retaining the lead through turn 1, Leclerc held onto 2nd despite Perez having a look around the outside in to turn 1 and 4. Norris looked to have jump started but after an investigation it was announced later in the race he had escaped with out a penalty.  Piastri was straight on the back of Alonso trying to capitalize on his strong start while his team mate was being closely pursued by the 2 Mercedes of Russell and Hamilton. Turn 13 of the first lap Bearman made his 1st attempt at an over take on Yuki Tsunoda only just missing out on getting past. Gasly's race ended around the same time as he was told to retire the car after less than a lap. 
Lap 2(DRS enabled) Piastri got a brilliant run on Alonso up the start finish straight and passed him into turn 1 promoting him to 4th, Bearman tried a move up the inside of Tsunoda at the same corner but was forced to bail when the 2 almost touched in turn 2. 
Vertsappen was already 1.140 ahead of Leclerc and out of DRS range. 

Lap 3 Perez came front nowhere to make a move up the inside of turn 1 and was ahead of Leclerc by turn 2. Verstappen 2.204 ahead of his team mate in 2nd. Piastri now needed to close the gap to Leclerc in 3rd while Alonso was still managing to stay in the DRS of the Mclaren. 
Tsunoda had caught Lance Stroll and was beginning to get close enough to pass the Aston Martin until Stroll hit the wall on the inside wall of turn 22 breaking his front left suspension and putting him into the wall hard bringing out the Safety car on lap 7 
All the cars dived into the pits with Redbull and Ferrari did a great job of double stacking their drivers, Mclaren, Mercedes, HAAS & Sauber chose to only pit their lead cars, leaving Norris, Hamilton, Hulkenberg and Zhou to carry on without stopping. Perez was released into the path of Alonso leaving his pit box which quickly under investigation for an unsafe release and Bearman did a brilliant job in his first pitstop in formula 1. 

Lap 10 Norris lead the pack across the line as the track went green again, they all made it through the first corner safe and with no changes, Norris 1st, Verstappen 2nd, Hamilton 3rd, Perez 4th, Leclerc 5th & Piastri 6th. Piastri has a look at Leclerc on the restart but couldn't make a move which allowed Alonso to close on them both going up towards turn 4. Norris stretched a hap from Vertsappen in 2nd managing to break the DRS before it was enabled on lap 11. Russell needed to pass Hulkenberg for 8th as quickly as possible as Albon passed Magnussen in to turn 1 but in true Maggie style to came back at him into 4 out braked himself causing him to hit the front of Albon's Williams and go off the track in what was a pretty dangerous move at a track like Jeddah.
Bearman got passed Tsunoda in to turn 1 completing his first over take in an F1 car and on a driver who has proved really tough to pass even for experienced drivers. 
​

After Staying out Norris and Hamilton were praying for another Safety car to make their strategy work, without it they would need to do some major overtaking in the last 20 or less laps of the race. 
Lap 13 Vertsappen passed Norris for the lead, the Mclaren driver not putting up a fight against the Redbull, knowing that it would only lose him time to the cars behind who he was really racing against once he had made his stop. Perez made the same move on Hamilton (also had not stopped yet) just behind the lead pair for 3rd. 
Lap 14 saw Bearman pass Zhou showing real skill in his debut in F1 and Penalties being handed out to Perez(5secs) for the unsafe release for the incident with Alonso during the pitstops and Magnussen was given a 10 second penalty for causing a collision with Albon.   

The action was none stop with passes or strong attempts being made every lap of the race, lap 14 Leclerc passed Hamilton for 4th, lap 16 Piastri had a good go at passing Hamilton into turn 1 but out braked himself and took to the run off. Piastri was so close to the back of Hamilton lap after lap but was just unable to pass, blaming the under preforming DRS on the Mclaren for struggling to pass down the straight. Perez passed Norris on lap 18 to take 2nd but was 5.514 behind team mate Verstappen in 1st. 
Lap 22 Bearman was on the move again passing Hulkenberg in the HAAS to take 9th(net 7th after Hamilton and Norris stop) the young brit showing real skill and a cool confident head in his first race. In the sister HAAS Magnussen had earned his 2nd 10 second penalty of the day for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in his battle with Tsunoda who he passed off the track without taking the opportunity to giving the place back and avoid a penalty. 

Lap 27 Leclerc is the next man to pass Lando Norris on his very old Medium tyres, but again without a Safety car Norris wont be fighting  Leclerc at the end of the race and so putting up any meaningful fight against Leclerc would only hurt his race down the line. 
Bearman was holding the gap to Russell in front 6 seconds finally in some clear air to settle into his 2nd and final stint. 
Lap 28 Piastri so close to passing Hamilton but the Mclaren just couldn't get close enough to the Mercedes even with DRS to pass into turn 1. A real DRS train had formed behind the HAAS of Magnussen, despite multiple attempts Tsunoda just couldn't get pass him, and was also under threat from Ocon and Albon behind him, the frustration visible from outside the car.  

By keeping the 2 Williams, Tsunoda and Ocon behind Magnussen was doing his team mate Hulkenberg(yet to stop) a huge favor, allowing him to run in clean air in 10th almost 8 seconds behind Bearman and 14 seconds clear of his team mate and the following pack in 12th, with the hopes of pulling out a large enough gap back to Magnussen to pit and come out ahead. 
Lap 29 Yuki had his best chance yet to pass magnussen into turn 1 after he locked up in the hair pin of turn 27 but again Magnussen fought back pushing Tsunoda off at turn 2 and allowing Ocon past the RB and dropping Tsunoda to 14th. 
Magnussen had a harder time keeping Ocon behind than Tsunoda having to weave down the straight to keep the Alpine behind. 
Lap 33 Albon made a mega lunge up the inside of Tsunoda into turn 1 coming fromnowhere to take the place and drop Yuki another pace to 15th. Hulkenberg was the first of the long runners to pit on lap 34 coming back out into 11th and making all Magnussens tough defending worth it, with Zhou ahead yet pit. Piastri was the closest yet to Hamilton again into turn 1 but again ended up going deep and into the run off and having to give the place back on the exit of turn 2. 

Lap 37 Hamilton pits, releasing Piastri to chase down Leclerc in 3rd. Mercedes fitted the car with fresh Soft tyres and sent Hamilton back out into 9th and to try and pass as many cars as possible in the last 14 laps of the race. Norris pit the next lap choosing the Soft tyres like Hamilton but having a slow change on the rear left tyre but still managed to come back out into 8th ahead of Hamilton and 6 seconds behind Rookie Ollie Bearman who was dong a stella job in his newly acquired Ferrari well within the points in 7th. But how would he handle 2 of the most talented drivers in F1 chasing him down on newer softer rubber.  Alonso had in his words 'a little kiss to the wall' but carried on in 6th with out damage. ​

Lap 41 Bearman was matching the times of Russell and Alonso ahead with the gaining Mclaren and Mercedes doing their best to catch and pass him before the end of the race, but helping Bearman was the squabble between the 2 soft tyre runners, Hamilton did everything he could to pass Norris but the Mclaren's pace through the high speed sector 1 kept the Mclaren ahead of the 7 time world champion. 
Lap 44 Albon passed Ocon for 12th but Magnussen had managed to escape down the road and had made a gap of +3 seconds back to the Williams. 
Lap 48, 3 laps to go and while Norris and Hamilton were catching Bearman, it wasn't fast enough and the Ferrari rookie was lapping fast enough to hold them off and as he crossed the line to start the last lap he was 2 seconds ahead of Norris and 3 ahead of Hamilton! He had done it, he held off Lando Norris and 7 time World Champion  Lewis Hamilton in his first Grand Prix!

Russell ended the race in the DRS of Fernando but couldnt get the job done and he finished 6th behind the Spaniard in 5th. Piastri couldn't get with in 13 seconds of 3rd place Leclerc who himself was just under 5 second behind Perez in 2nd. Max took victory finishing 13 seconds clear of his team mate and taking another lights to flag victory in Saudi Arabia. 
What a race from Bearman, he didn't just turn up and take part, he came, he passed, defended, managed the gap to the cars in front and kept 2 of the best drivers in F1, behind him on tyres that were 29 laps older than his (he actually ended the race closer to Russell than Norris was to him)! A really really impressive performance and the best way to showcase that it would be a lose to F1 not to see him in an F1 seat in 2025. 

Grand Prix Result

              Gap             Int
1 VER 
2 PER +13.643 
3 LEC +18.639       +4.996
4 PIA +32.007        + 13.368
5 ALO +35.759       +3.752
6 RUS +39.936      + 4.177
7 BEA +42.679       + 2.743
​8 NOR +45.708      + 3.029 
9 HAM +47.391      + 1.683
10 HUL +76.996     + 29.605
11 ALB +88.354      + 11.358
12 MAG +105.737  + 17.383
13 OCO +1 lap       + 8.767
14 SAR + 1 lap       + 2.784
15 TSU + 1 lap        + 3.748
16 RIC + 1 lap         + 10.182
17 BOT + 1 lap        + 2.400
18 ZHO + 1 lap        + 6.438   

On to Australia in 2 weeks time, hopefully we will see Sainz back but i dont think anyone would complain about seeing Olli Bearman back in the Ferrari for 1 more race. 

Joanna Blackmore
Writer @f1journal.co.uk