F1 2022 - Round 2: Saudi Arabia

Hopefully we get some more of what we saw last week.

So far in the world of click bait F1 journalism I have seen only 2 acceptable theories for the Redbull issue , weight limits so they under fueled the cars with a miscalculation on how much they would need. Second one which I believe a little bit more as it would kinda cover Gasly as well . That they were using the battery side in a very aggressive setup and it basically went into a fail mode on the Redbulls and A fire mode for Gasly. Might also explain the absolute monstrous speed MaxV was getting down the Start Finish Straight .

Be interesting to see if will have any affect this weekend .

Jeddah is supposed to make Mercedes worse also , so more points for HAAS .

You'd have to expect it will be much the same running order as last week as nobodys gonna have any upgrades, I know max reckoned he could have passed leclerc with a more aggressive outlap but leclerc to me had him at arms length all race.

Big question of course will be did red bull figure out their double DNF fault and how will tyre deg be again here. Never too far from the wall here IIRC from last year so chances of a safety car are high so maybe soke drivers might luck out with a free pit stop etc...

I dont think many teams will push as hard here this weekend , The heavier cars which kinda makes them want to run wide

i can see some teams been conservative , the 2 week gap to the next race allows them to at least address some issues . Avoiding damage would be high on some teams list

Seems Mercedes and Aston are bring small upgrades to This GP now.

Not sure what exactly can only guess at Aero given the short time frame between races .

We should see some crazy speeds in the corners with the new aero as well.

Reckon it will be RB and Ferrari at the front again, probably another tough weekend for Merc along with Aston and McLaren.

I agree I think it's dangerous and I don't like it either. I said last season that an Antoine Hubert style smash is very possible here and I still think it is.

@Jordan 199 I am suprised you didn't call the thread F1 2022 - Round 2:Return of the Jeddah!

Thought they confirmed it as a vacuum issue which stopped fuel supply? Very quick fix apparently.

Vettel is still yet to produce a negative Covid test, so no decision until tomorrow on whether he will race but Hulk is on standby.

Quali might be better to watch than the race. Max’s quali lap last year was mental until he binned it.

Looks like sky have sent their B team to Saudi. No Brundle, no Ted, but we do have Paul di Resta and Johnny Herbert 😐

Was that confirmed today?

When super-sub takes it toll over the years....Moon GP :D

And LeClerc goes top by 1/10s

Just seeing there’s been an apparent missile attack on the Aramco facility near the track?

F2 qualy on at the moment and already two red flags for a car a hitting wall and one car on fire.

Ferrari engines have made huge strides, the Alfa is clearly a very strong car and Bottas is being flattered by a rookie pay driver team mate. Bottas did finish behind Magnussen in the Haas to finish 4th out of 6 Ferrari powered cars. Zhou finished well ahead of Schumacher in the other Haas which is a pretty strong indicator that the Alfa is the better car of those two.

Drivers appeared to be briefed about the attack just before FP2 with the session pushed back 15 mins (TBC)

What's are you on about. Bottas finished Fp1 in 3rd

No sign of the Haas of Magnussen as he had a hydronic issue. Maybe you are on about last week's race. I only remember the two red Bulls failing Lewis getting lucky and the Ferrari 1-2 and Kevin Magnussen in 5th fir Haas. I do not remember anymore than that.

Yes I was talking about the last race and responding to another poster who implied that this season so far is showing that Bottas is a better driver than he is. I talked about the last race because trying to rate a driver based on the position they happen to come in in a single free practice session where the times are meaningless is a bit of a pointless exercise.

We've had years to see how good a driver Bottas is. He's not suddenly a different driver because of one free practice session. If you look at the last race he finished 8 seconds ahead of his teammate. Alex Albon also finished the race 8 seconds ahead of his teammate. I'd rate Albon and Bottas fairly similarly. They both beat teammates who wouldn't be on the grid without financial backing. Zhou will probably be better than Latifi in the long run, but it was also his first ever F1 race where he's getting to grips with things. The fact that Bottas was a bit faster than him is hardly surprising and hardly indicative of anything.

As far as the Haas comparison goes, Alfa clearly had a fast car. Bottas was a little bit behind Magnussen while Zhou was a good bit ahead of Schumacher. I'd rate Schumacher a lot more highly than Zhou so to me that means the Alfa was clearly faster than the Haas, and Magnussen made the difference as a faster driver than Bottas. Which is exactly what I'd expect from what I've seen of those drivers in their careers to date.

It's just one race, there's a development race and Alfa may race ahead of Haas or vice versa in the coming races, but if they are evenly matched I'd put money on a driver like Magnussen getting the best out of their machinery ahead of a driver like Bottas.

Missed FP2, how's LeClerc's car? Hit a barrier or something I heard

Unanimously decided to carry on.

Bonkers stuff

Will be disappointing not to see a race this weekend but they should cancel and get out.

The drivers have been meeting for over 2 hours now with both Domenicali and Brawn being called into the meeting so no guarantee it'll go ahead yet. While it'll be disappointing to have no race this weekend, the right thing to do is to cancel given they've already set a precedence in cancelling the Russian Grand Prix.

Sky did say at the end of the F1 Show that some drivers weren't at the meeting (No Ferrari Drivers or Hamilton and Tsunoda left)