Formula 1 ®
MAX WINS BUT, IT’S ALL ABOUT OLIVER BEARMAN
Oliver Bearman, who is considered one of the most exciting prospects in Formula 2, became the first Englishman to drive for Ferrari in 25 years and the youngest British driver ever to start a grand prix.
Sainz was announced out of the Saudi Arabia race weekend after he was diagnosed with appendicitis and heading into immediate surgery for removal. Bearman has been a Ferrari Academy driver since racing F3 in 2021 and is currently in his second year in the F2 series racing for Prema.
Bearman was announced as Sainz’s replacement hours before the final practice of the weekend. The 18-year-old driver had less than an hour in an F1 car on one of the most physical tracks on the F1 schedule to prepare for Friday’s qualifying and Saturday’s race.
At 18 years old, Bearman is four years younger than Oscar Piastri, the youngest F1 driver on the grid for 2o24.
It showed maturity and composure beyond his years for Bearman to pull off his weekend performance.
Bearman maintained race pace in Free Practice 3, the only practice he participated in, and missed Qualifying 3 by only .003 seconds, behind Hamilton.
This set the scene for Bearman to start just one spot behind a point-paying position in his first F1 start. Bearman kept his cool at the start of the race and on lap 14 he passed Zhou Guanyu for 10th, and moved up to ninth, seven laps later.
Early in the race, Lance Stroll hit the wall and the grid was forced to run a safety car lap. Most drivers headed to the pits for their first stop, Norris and Hamilton were two of the few to stay out. As the laps winded down the two drivers who were running in the top five at the time had to perform their pit stop. The duo came out of pit lane with Norris in eighth and Hamilton in ninth and Bearman inherited seventh position
Bearman was able to hold seventh for the final 14 laps to cement his amazing debut weekend.
Max completely dominates
Max Verstappen continued his flying start to the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix with a second consecutive race victory as team-mate Sergio Pérez was again runner-up to secure Oracle Red Bull Racing back-to-back 1–2 finishes in the perfect start to their campaign.
Starting from pole for the first time at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Verstappen was in complete control of the race from the start, despite an early Safety Car deployment on Lap 7 that caused a flurry of unscheduled pit stops. The Dutchman dominated and cruised home to his second victory of 2024 by as sizeable 13.643s over Pérez.
The Mexican driver started the race from third and made his way past Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on Lap 4 to comfortably hold the position to the finis, even after receiving a five-second penalty for an unsafe pit release.
MAX: It has been a great start to the year and we don’t know the full potential of the car yet so now we want to keep the momentum going
“It was great to get my 100th podium today and it was another great race for us this weekend. I am very happy to win here in Jeddah: it has been a great start to the year and we don’t know the full potential of the car yet so now we want to keep the momentum going. Because of the early pit stop with the safety car, I knew we had to work on managing the pace. Every time that I pushed I tried to extend the gap as you don’t want to be driving on the limit constantly and be taking too many risks in this circuit. It was a very long stint on the hard tyre during the race but the pace of the car was very good and I was good at managing my tyres. In the last stint, the tyres were getting cold and it was easy to lose the grip at the end, but we pushed through and I think we did everything well today. The ultimate goal is to fight for the championship so we are off to a great start.”
Checo
I really feel like we have done the two steps forward that I was looking for this weekend, so we are getting closer to where we need to be
“I think the early safety car compromised our race quite a lot unfortunately, I lost quite a lot going into traffic with Lando and Lewis, around seven to eight seconds. We needed to get through that quicker than we did to challenge for the win but other than that it was a strong drive and performance. I really feel like we have done the two steps forward that I was looking for this weekend, so we are getting closer to where we need to be. The Ferrari has the pace and I think there are tracks where they will be a lot closer to us, they probably didn’t maximise their full potential today and we did. Max is driving at a super high level and I think he is the only driver who has maximised qualifying and the race so far this season. It is great though because I have the best possible challenge in him. I must keep evolving weekend after weekend. Now, my full focus is on Melbourne and getting on top of what we have done here in Jeddah.”
Aston Martin
RACE P5
“I’m very happy with finishing fifth in today’s race. I think finishing in front of one McLaren, one Ferrari and both Mercedes is a great result for the team and probably around the maximum we can achieve at the moment. It was intense from start to finish and I had George [Russell] so close behind for most of the race. We went into the unknown a little bit with over 40 laps on the Hard set of tyres but we managed it all well and were able to make the one-stop strategy work. We will keep chasing for more performance and focus on the long term as it’s a very long season ahead.”
Formula 2
Fittipaldi fights for the win. Verschoor loses victory. Championship leader remains Maloney.
Round 2 of the 2024 Formula 2 season took place over the weekend in the streets of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Sprint Race
The man who took the pole position for Saturday’s feature race was missing from the grid. 18-year-old Oliver Bearman got the call of a lifetime all drivers dream of; “Sunday, you are making your Formula 1 debut.”
At the start Argentine Franco Colapinto and Briton Zak O’Sullivan, in different teams but both members of Williams Driver Academy, were left stranded on the grid.
Misery loves company, and within two corners of the start pre-season favorite Victor Martins was out after hitting the wall of vodoo.
Racing resumed on lap five.
Top five, Paul Aron, Richard Verschoor, Isack Hadjar, Dennis Hauger and Kush Maini, all F2 veterans
Zane Maloney, double winner from opening round in Bahrain, was eighth.
Lap 8 Verschoor makes his move to the top by passing Aron going into T1.
At half distance, lap 10 of 20, yellow flag and safety car came out after Belgian Amaury Cordeel stopped on the track after a spin.
Verschoor led the race from Aron, followed by Hauger and Hadjar.
Enzo Fittipaldi completed the top five.
Green means go on lap 12.
Verschoor immediately pulled himself out of the DRS zone from Aron.
Lap 15 Jak Crawford passes Maloney for sixth, but a lap later the Boy from Barbados returned the favor and reclaimed sixth from the American driver from Dallas.
Lap 18 Hauger took second from Aron.
Antonelli passed Indian Kush Maini for eighth and final point available in the Sprint Race.
On penultimate lap Maloney got into the top five from Hadjar, his pace dropped, promoting Antonelli and Maini to seventh and eighth respectively. The Indian was pushed out of the points in the run up to the chequered flag by Josep “Pepe” Marti.
In 77 starts, victory was number four of Verschoor’s extensive time in the official feeder series of Formula1.
This is how the race finished on the track. Then came the law.
Both Verschoor and his Trident teammate were disqualified for an incorrect throttle pedal progressivity map installed prior to the race and not in compliance with Techies Regulations. Verschoor’s disqualification allowed Hauger to hop on top of the podium, with Aron second and Fittipaldi the third man on the podium.
Feature Race
Emotional win for Enzo Fittipaldi as he takes his first of the season. Indian driver Kush Maini, who started from pole position, was second with Jak Crawford third.
Maini led the when the lights went out in Jeddah. He was followed by fellow front row starter Crawford. An opening lap collision between Josep Maria Marti and Roman Stanek brought out the safety car. On lap three safety car was in and Maini maintained his lead.
Crawford was the first driver in the pits for tyre change at the end of Lap 6. Fittipaldi came in two laps later.
Argentine Franco Colapinto had moved up to 11th. before crashing into the barriers and that brought out the Safety Car again.
The Safety Car was in at the end of Lap 18.
Fittipaldi was on the charge and grabbed third from Taylor Barnard. The US-based Brazilian, grandson of two-time world champion Emerson, made the move of the race by passing two drivers, race leader Amaury Cordeel and Juan Manuel Correa, to take the lead. The pass on the outside would make grandpa Emmo very proud.
Pole-sitter Maini was able to hang on to finish second. Fight for the final step of the podium saw a mad dash to the chequered flag which saw Hauger edge out Crawford by .03s.
Cordeel finished fifth.
Toto Wolff’s “Star of the Future” Andrea “Kimi” Antonelli did shine brighter than the opening round in Bahrain last week, and finished sixth.
Pre-season favorite Victor Martins finally earned his first point of the season from his tenth place finish.
Maloney, seventh on Saturday, maintains his lead in the championship with 47 points.
Fittipaldi’s victory and fastest lap has vaulted him into second in the standings with 32 points. Only a point behind in third is Hauger.
Round 3 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship will be in Albert Park on the Australian Grand Prix weekend.
– – Nasir Hameed