2024 Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Highlights

 

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

 

George Russell finished sixth, and Lewis Hamilton ninth in the 2024 Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

George and Lewis held their initial starting positions of seventh and eighth on the opening laps. The Safety Car was deployed on lap seven after Lance Stroll hit the barrier, and the team opted to split strategies. George pitted for the Hard tyre whilst Lewis stayed out, cycling through to run P3. As the race progressed, those on fresher tyres could move ahead, and without any other interruptions, Lewis pitted for the Soft tyre on lap 36. He emerged in P9 and pressured the McLaren of Lando Norris as they chased down the Ferrari of Ollie Bearman. Unfortunately, despite closing quickly, he ran out of time to make up more positions. It was a similar story for George, who closed on the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso in the closing stages but couldn’t attempt an overtake and had to settle for P6.

The team will now be hard at work in the gap ahead of the Australian Grand Prix to try and make improvements with the W15.

George Russell

It was a long evening out there. I spent nearly 40 laps within 1.5 seconds of Fernando Alonso but couldn’t get past. I had a slippery car on the straights, but I couldn’t get close enough at high speed to give him any real pressure. P6 was likely a fair result in the end, and it’s clear that we haven’t found the sweet spot with this car yet.

Overall, though, we need to find a bit more performance. We’ve seen potential and pace in the car but haven’t shown it when it matters. We need to understand why that is and improve ahead of Melbourne. As we’ve seen, the pecking order behind the Red Bulls is very close, so we need to get on top of it. There’s much work to do, but I believe in the team.

Lewis Hamilton

We tried our best to go long today and hoped we might benefit from a safety car or a VSC. Unfortunately, it never came to us, and we ended up finishing slightly further back than we started. It was worth trying something different, though. Given how the race played out, we gave it everything, which was likely the best result we could get today.

There is potential within this car, but we still need to add a good amount of performance. Today’s car was pretty good in the medium and low-speed corners, but we were losing out in the high-speed. These next few races will be tricky, but we will put as much effort into improving as possible. I know everyone at the factory will get their heads down and work as hard as possible.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

Today was not a good day for us. We are struggling with the car in the high-speed corners. We are competitive elsewhere but lost about half a second in three corners here. It was, therefore, challenging for the drivers to attack. We tried something different with the strategy, but unfortunately, with the low levels of degradation we saw across the field, it didn’t work out for us. Congratulations must go to Ollie Bearman; he jumped in the car quickly and drove a great race, particularly in that final stint. It shows just how high the level is in Formula 2.

There is so much we can learn from these first two race weekends. We must get our heads down to analyse, understand, and improve. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but these tough days make you better. Everyone is committed to enhancing the car, and we look forward to returning stronger in Australia.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We’ve not performed well this weekend. Our high-speed performance has been weak, and the car bounces in those corners. That contributed to our poor qualifying but meant we couldn’t challenge Aston Martin and the McLarens in the race. We lost so much time in sector one that we spent the rest of the lap clawing it back.

Overall, it has been a very frustrating weekend but ultimately one of our own making. We’ve seen glimpses of solid performance, but it’s not been easy to land the set-up in the right place, and we’ve identified some weaknesses that still need ironing out. We will have to work hard between now and Melbourne to improve. The tracks are similar, and we don’t want another weekend like this one.




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