F1: 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Preview
25th March 2022The Formula 1 grid will return to the Saudi Arabian Jeddah Corniche Circuit this weekend to embark on the second round of the 2022 championship.
Ferrari currently lead the world championship with their Monegasque star driver Charles Leclerc at the top of the drivers standings.
Red Bull will hope they’ve fixed their reliability issues this weekend, after they left Bahrain empty handed when both cars retired out of the race.
Hopefully, the second round in Jeddah this weekend will be more behaved than last season.
Ferrari back on top
Ferrari have finally returned back to the top of the Constructors championship. Their 1-2 finish, led by Leclerc, in the season opener showcased the iconic Italian team is back to fight for wins and silverware.
The Prancing Horse team look to have one of the most competitive packages on the grid, seemingly level in performance to the Red Bull.
In the first qualifying session of the year, Leclerc only managed to pip the reigning world champion, Max Verstappen, by only 0.123 seconds. In the tight perilous conditions of the Jeddah circuit, could we see a similar difference?
Red Bull Reliability
Red Bull Powertrains will have some work to do ahead of the Saudi Arabian race, as both their cars and Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly retired out of the season opener.
With a suspected fuel pump issue, the reliability fix should be relatively easy. However, that will give the Milton Keynes team no comfort as they head into Saudi Arabia after a pointless season opener.
It’s no doubt, after the Bahrain Grand Prix, Red Bull will be a foe to be reckoned with this weekend as they hunt for their lost points.
On the other hand, they should be able to take some positives from the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, last year, when the defending world champion Max Verstappen almost put his race car on pole position.
New changes, new race?
The Jeddah Corniche Circuit has undergone some changes over the last few months, since the last time F1 was there. The track is the second fastest on the calender, behind Monza, with drivers racing at around 250km/h on average.
Some of the corners have been slightly widened to allow better visibility into the following turns such as 2, 3, 14, 21 and (the exit of) 27.
The Circuit has now smoothed out some of their concrete barriers at turns 4, 16, 22 and 24.
With a fresh new championship, in addition to the changes made, it will hopefully mean we will see more cleaner racing compared to last year, when there was a championship on the line.
That’s it for the article: ‘F1: 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Preview.’ What do you think, will the changes to the track help with racing? Let us know in the comments!
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