In Jeddah, the fight for victory could be more exciting than we expected ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend. The qualifying session on Saturday started with a clear favourite: unfortunately not Ferrari, as was the case last season, but Max Verstappen. However, the reliability of his RB19 let him down this time, with the Dutchman having to start the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix only from fifteenth place today.
In fact, during the second part of qualifying the right driveshaft broke on the Red Bull RB19 of the world champion: “It’s very annoying what happened, because we had a good weekend. All the sessions had gone quite well because every time we took to the track the car worked very well.” explained the world champion at the end of qualifying. A problem that occurred without any sign and for this reason “it’s super frustrating” added Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, because his lap in Q1 would have put him fourth in Q3. A problem related to the Jeddah track or something more worrying for Red Bull? The analyzes have already begun.
“We will never know Max’s true potential in today’s qualifying, but tomorrow will be a great race.” explained the English manager. “He have to avoid getting involved in any accident during the first lap, then we’ll have to be good at taking advantage of a Safety Car, which is always possible here in Jeddah. But certainly it is better to have had the problem today than tomorrow.” he concluded. If Max Verstappen were to win, it would be victory from his worst starting position. The previous record was the victory in the 2022 Belgian GP where he started from fourteenth position. Apart from the problem experienced by the Dutch world champion, the performance of the RB19 remains impressive. A car that has corrected the (few) problems of the RB18, maintaining its strengths, including aerodynamic efficiency if one considers that the gap between Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc is what the Anglo-Austrian car gained in the second part of the straights, not losing on average nothing when cornering compared to a more loaded Ferrari SF-23 single-seater, as explained by F1 expert Piergiuseppe Donadoni for formu1a.uno.
Charles Leclerc satisfied with his lap but the Monegasque expected more from qualifying before the Jeddah weekend
Charles Leclerc was asked if he was satisfied with his qualifying session. His answer (“Yes and no.”) shows the state of mind of the Monegasque. That of a driver who is doing his best but who doesn’t find the support he would like from the current car. Charles finished just over a tenth from Sergio Perez but is aware of the fact that the gap could have been much more important if Max Verstappen had also participated in Q3. Comparing the second drivers, we are talking about a gap between RB19 and SF-23 of over half a second on a ‘friendly’ track for the SF-23, as also admitted by the various men in red during the Saudi weekend.
Charles Leclerc will start from twelfth position on the grid, because the third control unit was mounted on his Ferrari SF-23, in addition to the second internal combustion engine and the second MGU-H. The Monegasque is very happy with his fastest lap, “there was nothing more beyond that because I was really at the limit” he admitted.
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However, what Charles can’t be happy with the fact that “Red Bull is well ahead, on another planet, and we have to work hard“. How can we explain a SF-23 car so far away even in qualifying? Partly this is due to the fact that the Italian team worked a lot on race pace in this second weekend of the 2023 Formula One season. Even the aerodynamic setup chosen, even more loaded than the one used in Bahrain, is oriented towards better tire management. As already mentioned, the SF-23 seen in Sahkir, more than efficient, was very low, hence the better speeds compared to Red Bull. In Jeddah, in fact, the values in the field of last season were restored, even if Ferrari has in any case taken a step forward in terms of the overall efficiency with its 2023 single-seater. But that’s still not enough. “We are simply too far away and have a lot of work to do if we are to beat Red Bull.” – in fact, Charles Leclerc explained.
Today there will be a race within a race, with Charles Leclerc in twelfth position and Max Verstappen in fifteenth. “Carlos can aim for the podium while for me it should be a little more difficult.” admitted the Monegasque driver, who is aware that the biggest obstacle will be once he arrives behind the best cars. “At that point I may have some problems because the race pace seems to be very similar for everyone and if you enter a DRS train it will be practically impossible to overtake”. From a strategic point of view, according to Pirelli it will be a single stop race. The simulations show that the Medium-Hard strategy is slightly faster than the other two available options, which are Soft-Hard and Medium-Soft, although the differences are quite small.
Ferrari with less benefit from new tyres while Carlos Sainz had problems warming up the tyres
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will be able to count on a SF-23 that is certainly more competitive in the race than the one seen on the track two weeks ago in Bahrain. “The set-up looks quite good, so I’m more confident than in Bahrain but still it won’t be easy.” Charles Leclerc underlined. The SF-23 seen in Jeddah, with the updates on the front wing and floor that worked and were confirmed, is a less aggressive car on tires with the consequence that the advantages in exploiting the new tyre were certainly less than those in Sakhir. It is no coincidence that Charles Leclerc said that qualifying went “better than expected because we thought we would have been a little further back”. In fact, according to the Monegasque, Ferrari had a really difficult weekend in terms of exploiting one lap of the softer compound.
These issues were even worse for a disappointing Carlos Sainz, who finished more than half a second behind his teammate and only in fifth position (he will start fourth due to Charles Leclerc’s penalty). What was the problem? “For some reason, the first sector was my biggest weakness today.”, said the Spanish driver.
Carlos Sainz made things difficult for himself in Q2 with a first lap that wasn’t great and that forced him to get back on track using a second set of Softs, remaining with only one new set for Q3. However, looking at the best first sectors of the top ten drivers, Carlos Sainz was actually the worst with a time of 32.552, 4-5 tenths away from the two Aston Martin cars, his teammate and Checo Perez’s RB19. While in the next two intermediates he scored the fourth and third best performance, very close to Charles Leclerc’s times. “I was unable to prepare the tires in such a way that I could push into turns 1 and 2,” admitted Carlos.
The Spaniard lost 2 tenths of a second in just a few meters of the track while the further you go on the lap, the more his performances converge with those of his teammate. A question… of front tyres. “Between turns 1-2 and 9-10 I lost three or four tenths, which is a lot for just one sector, so there’s definitely something I could have done better.”, he admitted, thinking that if he had had a clean lap, he could have started alongside Sergio Perez in second place: “However, I think we can aim for a podium result,” said Carlos Sainz, who will be able to count on a set of new Softs today, as well as his Maranello teammate Charles Leclerc.
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