How to watch the 2024 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: start time, live stream and TV schedule
F1
- Last updated: March 5th 2024
The second Saturday race of the F1 season is fast approaching: full details on how to watch the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, plus live stream, TV schedule and highlights
Will Red Bull's dominance continue in Saudi Arabia?
The 2024 F1 season continues this week in Saudi Arabia, where the race weekend will once again be shifted forward by a day to accommodate the start of Ramadan, with racing action taking place at 5pm on Saturday evening instead of Sunday.
The first two practice sessions of the weekend will take place on Thursday followed by final practice and qualifying on Friday.
As ever, F1’s fourth trip to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit can watch or streamed live via subscription, while Channel 4 will broadcast highlights on free-to-view TV.
While the headlines in Bahrain were dominated by off-track happenings around Christian Horner, Max Verstappen put on an ominous display of dominance, with team-mate Sergio Perez finishing a distant second behind the Dutchman. The Milton Keynes outfit will be hoping for a repeat in Jeddah — a circuit on which it has had plenty of success — while Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes may either continue to squabble for second place or start to mount a more convincing challenge.
Further back, the midfield looks to be separated only by narrow margins, with the likes of Aston Martin, Williams and Visa Cash App RB all in contention for the final points places. Alpine must try to recover from a weekend to forget.
F1 live stream and TV schedule
All times in GMT
F1 Qualifying
Friday 8 March
Bahrain Grand Prix
Saturday 9 March
Session start time
5pm
5pm
Live coverage Sky Sports, Sky Go, NowTV
4.10pm
3.30pm
Highlights Channel 4
7.30pm
7.50pm
How to watch F1: live stream and TV details for 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Each minute of every F1 session will be broadcast live in the UK, but for paying subscribers only.
Live TV: All on-track sessions will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 starting with Free Practice 1 on Friday at 1pm. Subscribers also have access to onboard streams from each of the 20 cars, including radio messages, allowing them to follow a favourite driver on their phone while watching the main feed on TV. The onboard streams are also available on TV, as is a ‘Battle Channel’ offering split-screen coverage of the best fights for position.
Live stream: Sky Sports F1 subscribers in the UK can watch all the running live on the Sky Go app. Now TV subscribers can also see live coverage of every session via Sky Sports F1. It also offers onboard views of each driver through in-app bonus streams for monthly subscribers. These can be viewed concurrently with the main stream on a separate screen.
Live timings are available through the F1 app.
Highlights: Channel 4 will show highlights of the weekend, with action from Friday’s qualifying session and Saturday’s Grand Prix available to watch later on the respective days of each event.
Jeddah circuit and details
Blending the narrow streets of Monaco with the speed and endurance of Spa, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is renowned as one of the toughest challenges the 2024 F1 race calendar has to offer.
The 27 turns and three DRS zones of the 3.83 mile circuit force drivers to stretch their own ability as well as the performance of their car to extract the greatest lap times. Not only does this result in some memorable moments during qualifying but also on race day, where overtaking opportunities are rare and risky.
In 2021 and while pushing his Red Bull to the absolute limit, Max Verstappen crashed at the final hairpin during qualifying — forfeiting pole position to Lewis Hamilton. The following day, and in the dying stages of the grand prix, the title rivals came together in controversial fashion ahead of the same corner — Verstappen slowing up suddenly while Hamilton was in his slipstream, forcing the Mercedes to collide with the back of the Red Bull. Even despite a broken front wing, Hamilton went on to claim victory.
Max and Lewis collide…again
Lars Baron/Getty Images
A year later, Jeddah’s Turn 27 hairpin took centre stage once again, as Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc squabbled over who would lead into the final DRS detection zone, which was previously located within the braking zone for the final corner.
Full F1 schedule for 2024, including next year's calendar and circuit guides for the biggest-ever grand prix season
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Motor Sport
As a result, one driver would try and force the other to brake latest, before gaining a DRS-assist down the main straight and then overtaking into Turn 1.
The racing was considered dangerous — as on one occasion both Leclerc and Verstappen almost came to a full stop — and the DRS zone was moved to the exit of the hairpin from 2022 onwards.
Red Bull has been a front-running contender on the Jeddah circuit ever since its debut on the F1 calendar, and after such a strong showing in Bahrain, it doesn’t look as if that factor will change. But with so many opportunities for mistakes — either during qualifying or the race itself — safety cars and even red flags could shake up the running order.
No rain is expected throughout the race weekend and temperatures during qualifying and race day are set to be an average of 22°C. But, due to its seaside location, some strong winds could be expected to blow across the circuit (in excess of 16mph), causing possible downforce issues for some teams whose cars are wind-sensitive.
F2 — Round 2
Formula 2 will once again race on the same weekend as its senior series, with Barbadian Zane Maloney hoping to build upon a near-perfect start to the season.
The Rodin driver became the first since the inception of the GP2 series in 2005 to win both the opening feature and sprint races of the season — a result which has given him a healthy 12 point advantage at the top of the driver standings.
After a difficult first weekend, both Prema stars Oliver Bearman and Kimi Antonelli will be hoping to make their first impressions on the front of the grid, but will have to contend with the likes of Gabriel Bortoleto, Josep María Martí and Jak Crawford who all showed exceptional pace over the course of the weekend.
