F1. Saudi Arabia 2024 Review

By Gavin Huet, Chelsea Wintle and Aiden McLaughlin

Driver of the day

Chelsea – Oliver Bearman was called on to fill the racing shoes of Carlos Sainz at particularly short notice, and he was more than ready. Thinking back to the successes of Nyck de Vries and Liam Lawson in similar circumstances, the succession planning of these teams is top notch. Bearman drove an excellent race, bringing home six points for Ferrari, and showed a willingness to take risks and push the car.

Aiden – It can only be Oliver Bearman can’t it? At 18, he’s the youngest British driver in F1 history and the third youngest ever (behind Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll). On Thursday night he went to bed, expecting, as normal, to be racing in Formula 2. Then, Carlos Sainz was diagnosed with appendicitis and he was out, meaning Bearman was in. He qualified in 11th and finished the race in seventh, surrounded by fellow Brits; Russell finished sixth, Norris eighth and Hamilton ninth. Whether we see him take Sainz’s seat in Melbourne in a fortnight is unknown, but if he does, it will be interesting to see how much improvement he can make.

Gavin – Oliver Bearman (now if only I could stop calling him Beerman that would be great). There is no other candidate. He has taken the opportunity with both hands and has placed himself in the best possible position for a career in F1. And that picture of him hugging his father after the race would make even Jos Verstappen’s heart melt.

 

Moment of the weekend

Chelsea – All eyes were on the Haas twins, with Nico Hülkenberg holding on to 10th by the skin of his teeth, while teammate Kevin Magnussen sat further back. Magnussen, sporting 20 seconds’ worth of penalties and zero chance of scoring points, valiantly held off a group of drivers to aid Hülkenberg in defending his position. Some have called it unsporting, I call it great defensive driving and all part of the game.

Aiden – Bearman aside, I found this a bit of a struggle this week. Lance Stroll’s crash into the wall on lap seven brought out a safety car and at least that mixed things up for a while and saw some alternative strategies take place. There were some close calls in a packed pit lane as teams tried to get their drivers in and out during the yellow flag; Alonso and Perez nearly collided with Perez later collecting a five-second penalty for the incident. Norris and Hamilton were among those that stayed out, meaning they stayed out on their medium tyres until the last third of the race. Told you it was a bit of a struggle this week…

Gavin – Lance Stroll clipping the wall and sending his Aston Martin into the barriers. His engineer then asked if he could get the car back into the pits, his response “No, I am in the fucking wall”. It made me laugh out loud and was about as entertaining as the race would get.

 

Hot take of the weekend

Chelsea – My favourite part of the weekend was watching David Bearman (that’s bare-man, not beer-man) in the garage, brow furrowed, willing his son to not mess this up, all the while clearly stunned that he’s standing there at all. Proper human stuff and I loved to see it.

Aiden – As impressive as Bearman was, I’m not anointing him as the next full time driver in the paddock just yet. What are the recent comparisons? Well, Liam Lawson is the most obvious, and what a great job he did when he deputised for Daniel Ricciardo last year. But Lawson had five Grand Prix and maintained good form. Before that, Nyck de Vries jumped in a Williams at similarly short notice at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix when Alex Albon had (checks notes) appendicitis. He qualified 13th, before being bumped up to eighth as other drivers had grid penalties applied. He finished the race in an impressive ninth place. From there, he took an AlphaTauri seat in 2023, but was replaced by Ricciardo after just 10 races. Hey, I’m not trying to be Bearman’s party pooper, I’m just saying, it’s not a guarantee.

Gavin – Haas are looking like a team on the up (as per my 2024 prediction https://www.sportsfreak.co.nz/f1-2024-season-preview/). Nico Hulkenberg qualified P8 and Kevin Magnusson qualified P17. Magnusson then got two penalties totalling 20 seconds during the race which effectively ruled him out of contention for anything but he held the cars behind him whilst sitting in P12 which allowed Nico to secure P10 and some valuable points for the team. Two races in and the team are looking more competitive than they have over the last few seasons, aided by the issues plaguing Williams and Alpine. I am not sure the driver line up will be the same come next season (hello Ferrari Academy and a certain Oliver Bearman) but Gene Haas must be happier man right now as it looks like his shock decision to remove Guenther Steiner is starting to pay off.

 

Cold take of the weekend

Chelsea – The suspension of Christian Horner’s accuser this week, coupled with Helmut Marko’s announcement that he will remain with the team, should quiet the dramatics around Red Bull Racing for now. But should it? Horner will be thanking his lucky stars for the Mystery of the Missing Photoshop Amateur drawing attention away from himself. His direct involvement in Kate’s disappearance is unconfirmed.

Aiden – After two races, the stark reality of the 2024 season is already becoming clear. A Verstappen/Perez 1-2 in both races. Leclerc is already 23 points behind Verstappen in third in the drivers championship and Ferrari are already 38 points behind Red Bull in the constructors championship. It is literally the longest season in F1 history with 24 races; by the end it could feel even longer for Red Bull’s competitors.

Gavin – A couple of drivers are not really performing and with the likes of Liam Lawson and now Oliver Bearman waiting in the wings I think the driver musical chairs will be in full swing well before the end of this season.

Lance Stroll – he has had a go and is just not consistent enough. I think everyone would agree that if he was any other driver he would be gone already but when your father owns the team I guess the rules are a bit different.

Daniel Ricciardo – we have seen the very good driver version, we have seen the very bad driver version, we have seen the good again driver version. Now it looks like we have the bad driver version back. His team mate Yuki Tsunoda out-qualified him, P6 versus P15, and ended the race ahead too, P8 versus P11. Disappointing start to the season when his sights are on that Red Bull seat.

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