From the pre-race simulations, the new Jeddah circuit seems to favour Mercedes in their fight against Red Bull for the world title, but at the same time the track characteristics could very well set to blow wide open the fight for a place behind the duo of Mercedes and Red Bull.
Scuderia Ferrari’s SF21 car was better this season on higher downforce circuits, while closest rival McLaren has excelled at lower downforce venues. In the last few races AlphaTauri seems to gave improved significantly appears to have unlocked more pace from its car recently, and Alpine is on a high after Fernando Alonso’s P3 finish in the previous Grand Prix.
That is why Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz believes this weekend’s fight at the Jeddah circuit could be incredibly close, as the midfield teams all still jostle for positions in the constructors’ standings:
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“The last few tracks, it’s a bit unknown. Obviously Jeddah we have no idea what we are going to find there. It looks like a very high-speed circuit, and we have seen in a high-speed circuit that with cars like Alpine, McLaren, and AlphaTauri, all of a sudden the field compresses a lot when it’s a high speed circuit. So it could be a very tight battle in Jeddah. Then in Abu Dhabi, with the new changes they’ve done to the track also, it looks like a higher speed track than what it used to be. There are less chicanes, and more high speed nature, and this could also bring the whole midfield back together. So it will be a very, very tough couple of races. But if we continue working as we are, working as a team, I think we can be confident that we keep bringing points back and delivering like we are trying to.” – the Ferrari driver explained, ahead of the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Scuderia Ferrari have to manage a solid 39.5-point advantage over McLaren in its fight for third place in the constructors’ championship. However, despite the fact that the Maranello team is in a very strong position to beat McLaren, team boss Mattia Binotto remaind cautious about the situation.
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