Formula 1 returns to Saudi Arabia this weekend with the world championship circus in a frenzy – and there is a race to run, too.
Christian Horner’s alleged misconduct is still a hot topic, seemingly being a story that refuses to go away. Several senior Red Bull team members are thought to be unhappy with the situation, and it remains to be seen if more developments will occur throughout the weekend – is Horner’s team boss position still tenable?
All the while revelations are emerging about FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s conduct too, with others calling his presence in motor sport into question.
Furthermore there’s tumult at Alpine, with two senior design members leaving after the disastrous debut of its 2024 car.
Then there is the on-track action to consider. Though Max Verstappen was ultimately imperious in Bahrain, he could easily have lost out on pole and found his opposition much closer in the race than last year. His rivals will be keen to attack again in Saudi.
On a track which represents a top-speed blast down the Jeddah coastline, action is usually supplied aplenty. Here’s what to watch for this weekend.
Will Red Bull come out fighting?
Christian Horner and Jos Verstappen appear to be at loggerheads
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Red Bull is a team currently engulfed in controversy – can it put all this aside and continue its good on-track form in Saudi Arabia?
Rather than fading away, the situation regarding Christian Horner and his alleged inappropriate behaviour within the team appears to become more inflamed by the day.
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After he was cleared by an independent investigation, a drive purporting to contain text messages between the team boss and Red Bull employee in question was then forwarded to a wide number of journalists, with Horner refusing to deny they were legitimate.
Following these events, Max Verstappen’s father Jos has since apparently decided he’d had enough – telling a number of outlets it was time for Horner to go, otherwise the team would “explode”.
The plot thickened when it emerged FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem had asked Max to back his team boss after saying prior he supported him on the “performance side”.
Red Bull still has a strong chance of dominating the grand prix though. Verstappen fought furiously for the win with Lewis Hamilton in a thrilling 2021 battle before losing out, while the Dutchman prevailed after doing the same with Charles Leclerc the following season.
Sergio Perez took advantage of his car’s superior performance and a grid penalty for Verstappen to win last year, and it still looks like Red Bull could do the same this weekend with its lead driver in imperious form and a car which is the class of the field.
Unprecedented behaviour from Mohammed Ben Sulayem
As if the F1 world couldn’t get controversial enough, it has now emerged that FIA president Ben Sulayem is under investigation for allegedly interfering in multiple race events.
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The head of international motor racing’s governing body was firstly reported to have intervened in last year’s Saudi Arabian GP, asking for a penalty for Fernando Alonso – awarded when his mechanics apparently began working on his car too early when serving an earlier penalty – to be rescinded.
Ben Sulayem is thought to have contacted Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the FIA’s vice-president for sport for the Middle East and North Africa, and leant on him to withdraw the second penalty given to the Aston Martin driver – which then subsequently did happen, allowing Alonso to secure a podium place.
Now news has emerged that the president tried to withhold the FIA licence approving the Las Vegas circuit to be used last season, for reasons which are currently unclear.
It’s the latest difficult situation in a whole series of contentious moments for the FIA president, from alleged misogynistic remarks found on his now-defunct website, to blocking an arrangement between the teams and commercial rights holder to double the number of sprint weekends for 2023, wading into the debate over Andretti’s attempted championship entry and receiving a ‘cease-and-desist’ letter from F1’s lawyers after he posted on social media about a story reporting that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had attempted to buy F1 for $20bn.
Can Ferrari challenge?
The closest Leclerc got Verstappen in Bahrain – at the race start
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If Charles Leclerc’s Bahrain Q2 qualifying lap had been set in Q3, the Ferrari driver would have been on pole by a hundredth of a second from Verstappen.
Come the race though, a brake temperature issue meant the Monegasque fell to fourth from his second place starting point, while team-mate Carlos Sainz finished third.
Can Leclerc try and take the fight to Red Bull again in Saudi Arabia? The signs aren’t promising.
The windy conditions in Bahrain didn’t suit Verstappen’s RB20, but he still took pole. If it’s a calm and still night in Jeddah, things could well be easier for the Dutchman in qualifying, while his race pace looks far superior to anyone else.
The Red Bull looks after its tyres by taking a longer time to warm them up, hence it being slower in qualifying, while the Ferrari – which turns on its Pirellis quickly – soon runs out of rubber.
Leclerc could well try and take on Verstappen on Friday night in Saudi though – whether he can last in the race is a different question.
Alpine’s technical revamp
Famin: ringing the changes
Following Alpine’s disastrous Bahrain GP, where its two cars propped up the back of the grid and then were last of the finishers that didn’t have issues in the race, it was announced technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer were leaving the team.
Apparently this was decided even before the GP weekend – Enstone knew the situation was that bad. It has since announced that a new ‘three-pillared’ technical structure will replace its two previous departments, aping that of McLaren’s following the departure of technical director James Key at the start of last season.
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The team will now have a trio of technical directors, with Joe Burnell heading up the engineering section, David Wheater overseeing the aerodynamics department and Ciaron Pilbeam leading the performance area.
These three will work below team principal Bruno Famin, however Alpine has previous with unusual management structures – and it hasn’t gone too well before.
In 2021 the team disposed of principal Cyril Abiteboul and replaced him with former Suzuki MotoGP boss Davide Brivio as ‘racing director’ and Marcin Budkowski in an executive director role on the technical, with both reporting to Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi.
It ultimately ended in acrimony, with all three now having left the team following uninspiring results.
This was even before Otmar Szafnauer was put through the wringer and ejected mid-season last year. Will the three-headed beast work this time?
Will Jeddah track deliver again?
Max vs Lewis delivered fireworks in 2021
Lars Baron/Getty Images
There is some racing going on as well, after all.
Since its introduction in 2021, the high-speed Jeddah circuit has served up more than its fair share of thrills and spills.
A 157mph average lap makes Jeddah is F1’s fastest street track, with 27 corners – many flat out – resulting for a formidable driving challenge.
The inaugural race saw pure carnage throughout, with Mick Schumacher’s heavy crash early on forcing the race to be stopped for barrier repairs.
Hamilton and Verstappen’s squabble at the inaugural race saw the latter push off the Mercedes driver off-track, then when instructed to give the place back found himself inadvertently rear-ended by the seven-time champ as both tried to reach the DRS line behind the other.
While Hamilton ultimately prevailed in 2021 with a broken wing, at the next Saudi race a similar situation played out between Leclerc and Verstappen, with slightly less wheel-banging.
Another thrilling fight went to the Red Bull driver that time, but Perez’s 2023 win last season was a more muted affair.
Will we see more crashes and coming-togethers this weekend?
