Any one of four different drivers could lead the championship by the end of the weekend.
Will Lando Norris rebound from his latest disappointment in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix? Could we see a repeat of Haas’s unorthodox 2024 tactics at this race?
Here are the talking points for this weekend.
Norris’s fragile lead
Lando Norris has led the world championship since he won the opening round of the season in Australia. Following on from his emphatic win in the final race of last year, Norris looked set to take control of the championship, but it hasn’t worked out that way, and anyone of three drivers could take the lead from him this weekend.
His team mate Oscar Piastri, who scored his second win of the year in Bahrain last weekend, is the obvious favourite. Now just three points behind Norris, Piastri also comfortably beat his team mate at this race last year.
Max Verstappen is of course not to be discounted. The performance of his RB21 may be highly variable – he’s taken a win and a sixth place in the last two rounds – but the lower degradation nature of the Jeddah circuit should suit it.
Mercedes haven’t looked quite capable of winning a race on merit yet but George Russell has made a superb start to the season. Separating the McLarens in Bahrain despite myriad technical problems in his W16 was a notable high. But as he’s 14 points adrift of Norris he’ll need a lot to go right for him in order to leave Jeddah at the top of the standings.
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Alonso on zero
How times have changed at Aston Martin. Two years ago Fernando Alonso was on the podium at this race. But last weekend the team’s car was slower than all of its rivals bar Sauber and Alonso finished well out of the points.
None of that is likely to deflect the team from its stated intention of prioritising its preparations for next year. It brought Adrian Newey in to design a car for the 2026 regulations, he wasn’t able to start until March and diverting him to work on this year’s car would make little sense.
For Alonso and Lance Stroll, that is likely to mean dealing with the AMR25 as best as they can in the meantime. Stroll is already on the scoreboard, but how long will it take Alonso to join him as their midfield rivals increasingly seem to have the upper hand?
Bearman back again
Oliver Bearman returns to the scene of his remarkably successful short-notice debut for Ferrari last year, now as a full-time driver. Given that he’s started every race since then for Haas, his scoring rate has been downright impressive: Last weekend Bearman produced his fifth points finish from seven grand prix appearances.
This weekend will be the first time in his career he can benefit from prior grand prix experience. Haas have made impressive progress with sorting out the early problems with their VF-25, so another top 10 finish has to be the target.
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Sacrificial strategies
Haas took a novel and somewhat controversial approach to ensure they claimed a point in this race last year. The team was on course for a no-score at the end of lap one, with their drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg running 12th and 14th respectively.
When the Safety Car appeared early on, Haas pitted Magnussen but left Hulkenberg out, inheriting eighth place. Magnussen was then told to delay the drivers behind him, which he did, even picking up penalties as he thwarted their attempts to pass him.
With a queue of around half-a-dozen cars backed up behind him, Magnussen slowed down by almost two seconds per lap compared to his team mate, allowing Hulkenberg to build up enough of a gap to pit into and claim the final point.
Could we see similar ‘sacrificial strategies’ this weekend? That will depend on what shape the field is in during the first stint, potentially whether the Safety Car deployed – and how hard it proves to pass.
Softly does it
In the fourth year since F1 overhauled its technical regulations in the name of improving the quality of racing, the latest cars seem no more able to race closely together than the last generation was. They are certainly no less reliant on DRS to generate changes of position, as the rules governing it have been relaxed since then.
This weekend’s race is the first of three in a row where F1’s official tyre supplier has chosen to bring softer rubber than last year. Will this increase variability in strategies and encourage more exchanges of position? Or are we just going to see even more extreme tyre saving?
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DRS problems
Last weekend’s race was affected by a rare fault in the timing system which governs how DRS is used. Race control reacted to this by giving some drivers full manual control of their DRS, but this meant they were able to operate them even when they shouldn’t have been allowed to under the rules.
George Russell was investigated and not penalised for one such infringement. Charles Leclerc also used his DRS when he shouldn’t have, and judging by his reaction he clearly did not intend to open it briefly in between two high-speed corners.
Did race control take the right action? Were drivers given sufficient warning that they might activate DRS at the wrong point on the circuit? The consequences of a crash in which a driver accidentally opens their DRS open heading into one of Jeddah’s ultra-fast corners with minimal run-off could be extremely serious.
Are you going to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix?
If you’re heading to Saudi Arabia for this weekend’s race, we want to hear from you:
Who do you think will be the team to beat in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix? Have your say below.
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