2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Jeddah, March 07 - 09

[falonso81]

This surely must be the year where Max wins all races.

Think so. I personally am ignoring his existence so i can focus on the battles from p2 and back. I think the tv coverage and commentators will very soon start to do the same, if he continues to just stroll around the track in every race, half a minute in front of everyone else.

[Formula 1 fan]

Now i am 100 percent sure, I have not the slightest doubt, now I know and understand exactly why Lewis decided to drive for Ferrari in 2025, it was certainly a very difficult decision for him to switch to Ferrari, but after today's qualifying I think that even Lewis no longer has any doubts whether it was a good decision to switch to Ferrari.i'm not saying it's a good or bad decision, i'm just saying i understand why Hamilton made such a difficult decision.

[pantherxxx]

Ferrari is barely better than Mercedes. If Russell doesn't screw up his last lap, he would have been very close to Leclerc. It's the drivers making the difference. Leclerc is a qualy monster and he is still young, much faster now than a 39 years old Lewis.

[KimiRai]

alonso was only 1 tenth after S2... did he make a mistake in the final corners or he reached the limit of his car?

He was typically slow in S3, but this was more than i expected.

Nope no mistake in s3. You see the onboard yourself. Very good lap and close to the walls especially turn 16

[Artur Craft]

Bearman > Hamilton

Yeah, doesn´t look good at all that Ferrari´s star British driver almost got beaten by their junior British driver

Its getting a bit much I agree. That main dude on f1tv is obnoxious.

Well, with LH´s career fading into irrelevance, they need to manufacture a new fresh British genious.

[cplchanb]

Ferrari is barely better than Mercedes. If Russell doesn't screw up his last lap, he would have been very close to Leclerc. It's the drivers making the difference. Leclerc is a qualy monster and he is still young, much faster now than a 39 years old Lewis.

we shall see if mr saturday lives up to his name or not...

[venkyhere]

My takeaways after watching the quali :

1. So Mercedes were gaslighting when they hid behind "oh cooling issues" in Bahrain ; W15 isn't a "performer" (for a top5 car that is) really - it may be just has better drivability than W14. They ran almost no downforce wing in the practice sessions, were big hitters in the timing charts, but drivers complained of being on a knife edge running a crash risk. Added some wing for quali (still not as much as the other teams) and duly suffered. Long way to go before W15 is a podium contender.

2. Feel disappointed for Hulkenberg. He would've easily got into Q3. Haas doesn't look like a bottom team this year.

3. The only cars who were 'nailed on' in T22-T23 (the real technical part of this track) were the Redbulls and the McLarens.

4. LeClerc is the man to choose, if there is an organ transport to be done on short notice. A truly 'last gasp putting everything right' sort of person. Again and again.

5. The Q3 lap from Max - simply wow. And Redbull don't even aim their car setup for quali, it's always race-tuned. Man and machine in absolute harmony, would have been the 2021 lap, because it's indeed faster than Hamilton's 2021 pole time. Considering that 2024 cars are almost 50kg heavier than 2021, and T22-T23 is tighter than 2021, with an engine freeze in place, that's quite an achievement.

[TFSA]

Bearman to score points tomorrow? I see even less chance of that happening now unless dnfs happen.

I think it's possible. Driving a car you have pretty much no experience with on the edge in qualifying is a bigger challenge than driving it in race pace (where he isn't pushing). And the Ferrari is a fast enough race car, so I can see him scoring points tomorrow.

[sport777]

in fact, Russell could have gotten into the top 4 today, his second lap in Q3 started quite well, he was 0.2-0.3 ahead of his schedule until turn 9, then lost the rear, and knowing that the Mercedes S2 and S3 were driving at a level close to the RB we can assume a time of 27.8, which could very well be cool for this raw car!

[GrizzleBoy]

Given how merc would have finished 6th or something in the constructors last year if both drivers drove like George did in 2023, I have to wonder if their performance this year will be closer linked to the fact that they 100% will not be working with Lewis on how to Learn how to get the most out of the car (for him to go sing about it at Ferrari) than it will be about how good the car actually is.

They probably never expected him to be in the 2022 car and it was poop. They didn't listen to him for the 2023 until mid season and when they did he ran away with things in terms of performance vs George.

I can easily see merc sacrificing all out performance and points in order to keep the secrets of their car secret by locking Lewis out of important info, and I don't think I'd blame them either, given that Ferrari are their main rivals and that's exactly where Lewis is going.

[Hammerfist]

Bearman to score points tomorrow? I see even less chance of that happening now unless dnfs happen.

I think it's possible. Driving a car you have pretty much no experience with on the edge in qualifying is a bigger challenge than driving it in race pace (where he isn't pushing). And the Ferrari is a fast enough race car, so I can see him scoring points tomorrow.

That is not what history says. It is usually easier in quali. Hulkenberg came out of retirement and put the 2020 Racing Point p3 on the grid but he fell back miserably in the race. And thats an experienced driver. Seems you underestimate the workload a driver has to go through during a race. Knowing how to use all the tools at your dusposal is the most challenging part. Then the tire management takes a lot of experience to get right. Imo you cant expect this kid to go forward tomorrow. But hey maybe he gets lucky.

[dialtone]

It seems very optimistic to me to say that RUS was gonna be close or Ferrari is marginally better than Mercedes.

RUS (good lap) v LEC


RUS (aborted lap) v LEC


* Russell goes through 7-8-9-10 with something like 10kph less speed than LEC through 3 different apexes, 0.4s lost in just that set of corners.
* T4 for Russell was 22kph slower speed on average through the corner.

The 2nd attempt from Russell went bust because he tried to bridge that gap in 7-8-9-10 from 10 to just 6 and he lost control of the rear of the car.

To top it all off, that Mercedes that gnawed on those tires in Bahrain, has less downforce than the Ferrari packed in, so to keep up in those corners they will burn through tires during the race as the car gets lighter and everyone else will be able to push the car a bit more in S1.

These 2 cars are not the same.

EDIT: and all of this lesser downforce for what? 3kph more speed? Good luck.

[organic]

Yeah Merc will probably fall back from Ferrari in race trim

[Vanja #66]

EDIT: and all of this lesser downforce for what? 3kph more speed? Good luck.

Savage

[Cs98]

EDIT: and all of this lesser downforce for what? 3kph more speed? Good luck.

That's DRS for you. You can clearly see it in the traces, Merc is faster in the middle of the straight, before DRS has had full effect on the Ferrari. With DRS closed in the race their SL-speed advantage will be much more pronounced.