An intense day, that of the first free practice sessions in Jeddah. The attack on the Aramco oil plant near the circuit in the late afternoon brought teams, drivers and the entire entourage of the Federation and F1 to a meeting which ended with the decision to proceed with the regular course of events.
But going back to the track, the forces in the field that stood out in Jeddah are always two: Red Bull and Ferrari. Ferrari showed that it arrived prepared in this first back-to-back of the season. Although it hasn't tested the race pace yet, the F1-75 has collected interesting data on the balance, and on the flying lap, showing just a few insecurity and being imprecise when entering fast corners, as shown by the "kisses" on the walls given by Sainz and Leclerc. In Jeddah, the slightest mistake costs a lot, too much aggressiveness can be the watershed between a triumph and a disaster, especially in qualifying where you look for the perfect lap. From this point of view, Red Bull seems to be the most suitable car for this type of circuit, even if the gap with Ferrari is always minimal.
Recommended: the top drivers
Max Verstappen: last year, or rather, just 4 months ago, he had to say goodbye to pole position due to a minor mistake. He knows where and how to look for the perfect lap, and he learned his lesson from last season. His RB18 seems to be flying to Jeddah and also proves to be competitive in terms of race pace. Once the problem of reliability has been cleared, excluded from the out in Bahrain which would instead concern a problem of calculating the petrol to be inserted in the single-seater, Max is called to conquer as many points as possible to get back into the game.
Charles Leclerc: Charles undoubtedly deserves your consideration after a great weekend in Bahrain. The F1-75 is friendly with the Monegasque who, unlike his teammate, demonstrated, even today, that he has a great feeling with the single-seater of the "new era". Ferrari arrived prepared for this back-to-back appointment and after the one-two, they want to confirm their supremacy, because you know, a car that does well on different types of circuits can hardly be beaten. In qualifying, however, a good dose of aggressiveness and rigor will be needed, given the dangerous proximity of the walls. Will Charles be able to keep his nerve?
Recommended: the low-cost choices
Valtteri Bottas: we could see a rather varied center table in Jeddah and in this the name of Bottas. Valtteri seems to fit well with Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo. Valtteri was the only one in the group of drivers he was part of who responded positively to the pre-weekend press conference, reiterating the hard work by Ferrari and Alfa to get to the results that are coming.
Nicholas Latifi: Last place bonus, need I say more? Nicholas of the Williams duo appears the least on the ball. The single-seater has not yet expressed its potential, should it have it, also due to the low power of the Mercedes engine.
Esteban Ocon: We expected a worse start to the season from Alpine, however once again Ocon showed that he can follow the group, almost always positioning himself ahead of his teammate.
Not recommended: those who have not given encouraging signs
Aston Martin and Haas: Magnussen's Haas had all sorts of problems imaginable in Jeddah. At first a loss, then the Power Unit left the Danish driver stranded. Did he push too hard in Bahrain? Mick doesn't seem to suffer much, but it will be an uphill weekend for the American team. A weekend that doesn't look like the best even for Aston Martin, still orphaned by Sebastian Vettel, not yet ready to get back on track after the positivity of the swab for Covid-19 in recent days. Both drivers are struggling to get close to the points and this could weigh heavily in qualifying considering the difficulty of overtaking on such a narrow track.
