What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
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Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.
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Rate the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix out of 10
- 10 (1%)
- 9 (1%)
- 8 (5%)
- 7 (11%)
- 6 (17%)
- 5 (13%)
- 4 (14%)
- 3 (19%)
- 2 (8%)
- 1 (11%)
Total Voters: 144
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2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
- Vowles being patient with Sargeant but expects to see “progress”
- “So I’ve got nothing to worry about?” – The best unheard team radio from Jeddah
- “Shock” of poor start to season showed need for change at Alpine – Famin
- “My tyres are dying”: Stroll’s short-lived struggle until he hit the wall
- Bearman calls Ferrari debut a “dream” but admits “I made a lot of mistakes”
Debates and polls
- Will Alonso win a world championship title with Aston Martin?
- How long should Red Bull give Ricciardo to prove he’s not lost his touch?
- Were stewards right to penalise Alonso over his driving before Russell’s crash?
- Are Williams right to bench Sargeant so Albon can race after crash?
- Is the FIA right to make ten seconds the new standard for penalties?
Yellow Baron
9th March 2024, 18:26
3/10
Much of the same as last weekend really. Slightly more interesting, only artificially, due to the two cars on worse tyres after the safety car.
Barely any racing other than that.
This may actually be worse than last season!
Ps well done Oliver, brought it home kept it clean and scored a nice bunch of point in his short notice debut for Ferrari on a crazy track.
bosyber (@bosyber)
9th March 2024, 18:31
It felt better because there seemed to be more potential for overtakes and fights, but in the end it remains hard to overtake. Though HAM and MAG (yes, with his penalties, which bother me they still are worth it, see also Perez useless 5s penalty, but even so) show that defending mattered, compare some of the pretty fine moves by Albon. It found it a lot more intersting to watch, behind the top two for most of it.
Yellow Baron
9th March 2024, 19:13
Fair, true.
jackal40 (@jackal40)
10th March 2024, 11:21
Rating – 1.
When the TV coverage seems to spend most of the time following the fight for 13th, 14th, and 15th then the race is a snooze fest.
Jere (@jerejj)
9th March 2024, 18:27
An ok race even if not as good as possible for circuit standards, but at least better than the Bahrain GP.
MadMax (@madmax)
9th March 2024, 18:28
boring RBR procession
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
9th March 2024, 18:59
yeah, some good holding on by Lewis, Bearman had a good grab of points, Mercedes though, pretty mediocre looking to finish 4th this year in the constructors, if they are lucky and Lewis keeps having issues with his differential or what ever is destroying his corner exits. Doesn’t seem to be affecting his teammate though.
miciek (@micio)
9th March 2024, 18:29
Another sad race with some highlights in Norris/Hamilton and Bearman.
Yellow Baron
9th March 2024, 19:30
I’d like to stress that bearmans performance this weekend shows why F1 needs a few more teams. So at least a few young drivers get opportunities like these but for longer. He did well given the circumstances and he’s only 18 as was Lance, verstappen etc.
Most of the grid is pretty young and also good enough at least to be on the grid for 10 more years minimum. So where are the opportunities for the younger ones other than a free sheet every 2 or 3 years in Williams and maybe Sauber but they will be soon Audi who may. Ot take on young rookies like Williams does. VCARB is only for redbull juniors and alpine look set too.
miciek (@micio)
9th March 2024, 19:35
More teams is expensive and politically difficult.
We have 20 spots and F1 should seize some of the control of these spots from the teams. We need a rule that forces team to sack underperforming drivers and make room for fresh blood.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
9th March 2024, 18:29
I mean I’d say I’m a Red Bull fan but that was pretty dull lol.
Simf1
9th March 2024, 18:31
A big fat 0
Riccard
9th March 2024, 18:32
In the words of Charles in the post-race interview: “it was a bit of a boring race”.
Surprisingly hard to think of standout performers.
Coventry Climax
9th March 2024, 18:32
You’d almost wish for the next drain cover incident, so at least something happens.
Bearman did a great job though.
Yellow Baron
9th March 2024, 19:36
Masi might’ve called a red instead of the safety car lol. Only 1.5 laps after initially calling for the sc though lol. Might’ve made for an entertaining race, especially if he’d have made offers for change of position.
Again though Norris put no fight to max. Could have played the drs game to stay ahead at least a lap longer.
You do either what you should just to finish 8th and get 3 points, a forgettable occurrence. Or you do what you can just because you CAN, because you’re a racer and you give it all. Yes you may ruin the rest of your race but everyone will remember your name and what you did, not because you did what you should but you dared to be great and showed what you CAN do.
Most drivers don’t think like that anymore
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th March 2024, 22:09
Yes, good point about drivers giving up too soon to stronger cars.
mystic one (@mysticus)
9th March 2024, 18:32
2/10, ground effect era is terrible, and whoever brought it back needs sacking big time. redbull/adrian always been the ground effect car design master and to make redbull win again dominantly, they went back to ground effects… these commercial holders are bunch of morons seriously. they move from one dominant era to another knowing well. they are destroying fun. not only that, they are doing all the shaddy deals be it on track, on f1 app, off track…
Rs
9th March 2024, 18:33
As much as purists may love this F1 dna, I don’t it’s sustainable in the market going forward.
Something has to be thought of.
mystic one (@mysticus)
9th March 2024, 18:33
2/10, ground effect era is terrible, and whoever brought it back needs sacking big time. redbull/adrian always been the ground effect car design master and to make redbull win again dominantly, they went back to ground effects. these commercial holders are bunch of m0r0ns seriously. they move from one dominant era to another knowing well. they are destroying fun. not only that, they are doing all the shaddy deals be it on track, on f1 app, off track…
Renee (@renee)
9th March 2024, 21:21
The move to ground effect regulations were not justified IMO. The performance just started to converge at the end of 2020 and especially in 2021. Would’ve loved to see a few more years of Hamilton Verstappen battles. The new regs just nulled any excitement that would’ve been.
The ground effect aerodynamics seem to be too complicated for most of the teams to highly develop as well. So teams seem to be more locked in to the pecking order that emerges at the beginning of the season, without a real chance of doing anything about it. The cost cap doesn’t help catching up either.
But still could be worse apparently. Look up the probable regs for 2026.
AlanD
10th March 2024, 1:23
Yes, I agree, some more years of the 2021 regs would have been mouth-watering. Ground effect is something that will never have relevance to road cars.
zsim (@zakfsim)
10th March 2024, 1:40
Whist i agree it hasn’t lived up to what they expected with these rules, I think you have the remember when the ground effect rules were agreed upon, was long before we saw any convergence in performance.
I can’t exactly remember when but it would have been around 2017/2018 when the Merc was as dominant as ever and it was suppose to be introduced in 2021 but covid pushed the plans back a year.
zsim (@zakfsim)
10th March 2024, 1:52
It’s bizarre to think, but if it wasn’t for the pandemic, we would have never gotten that 2021 season haha
Asd
9th March 2024, 18:33
I can’t wait for tomorrows IndyCar season starter!
F1 races these days should be called “points allocation sessions”. They drive and drive, nobody is fighting for the win as if there was no race, and then it’s end and we get to see the points distribution.
Yellow Baron
9th March 2024, 19:42
It seems to be worse this season they drive and drive and theres barely any fighting for any position. Norris Lewis and Kevin were slow and holding up cars, artificially. Other than that just driving. Like I say just an exhibition. An art gallery on a racing track lol.
Lorna (@motorsportlifer)
9th March 2024, 18:34
4/10
Decent tussle between McLaren & Hamilton and the Magnussen train was mildly entertaining, but yet again 0 challenge for the top 3 spots. What a strange place F1 is in with all time highs in popularity yet all time lows in product.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
9th March 2024, 18:38
One of the dullest Saturday evenings of my life.
Fractionally better than last weekend’s race, but still dull apart from the battle for 12th down and Bearmans debut.
It was nice of Lance to sacrifice himself in an effort to inject some entertainment ….
Yellow Baron
9th March 2024, 19:44
Again Norris put no fight to max. Could have played the drs game to stay ahead at least a lap longer.
You do either what you should just to finish 8th and get 3 points, a forgettable occurrence. Or you do what you can just because you CAN, because you’re a racer and you give it all. Yes you may ruin the rest of your race but everyone will remember your name and what you did, not because you did what you should but you dared to be great and showed what you CAN do.
Most drivers don’t think like that anymore
They don’t race Max hard, they can never know what might happen if they just TRY. Damage or wear out his tyres or something. Where is Montoya.
MichaelN
9th March 2024, 21:00
Yep, they’re not even trying. It’s blindingly obvious that they just jump out of Verstappen’s way. It’s really disappointing to see such a lack of spirit and ambition. To what… finish 8th? Behind a dude who wasn’t even an F1 driver 36 hours ago?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th March 2024, 22:16
Yes, was nice of him to throw the car away to try and make the race fun, but that didn’t work either.
Moshambles (@moshambles)
9th March 2024, 18:38
Bit of a stinker, but that’s how she goes sometimes.
Lorna (@motorsportlifer)
9th March 2024, 18:40
SOMETIMES! I can’t help but laugh, sorry
Edvaldo
9th March 2024, 18:39
Really, it’s a red alert situation for Formula One.
What was this race? The only piece of racing this stinker provided was Norris and Hamilton not changing tyres.
If they race 10 laps they’ll be saving us a lot of time.
miciek (@micio)
9th March 2024, 18:49
Well said! What’s even worse is that when they changed to softs, it didn’t make any difference against 40-lap hards…
Exciting!!!!
Yellow Baron
9th March 2024, 19:46
That was one of the crazier parts. The fact the safety car stoppers didn’t even need to put again was terrible. 40 lap old hard are a match for new softs. Absolutely garbage tyres. Impossible to be the pinnacle without good racing tyres.
Tricky (@tricky)
11th March 2024, 11:21
I think we saw that used softs (used in qualifying) had a lot of life taken out of them from that one qualy run, at most HAM and NOR were only 0.6s per lap faster the BEA at the end, it would have been just enough to catch him in free air (but maybe not pass).
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
9th March 2024, 18:40
Another dull race, another nail in the coffin for F1, the races get worse every year unfortunately.
Proteus Maximus (@proteus-maximus)
9th March 2024, 18:45
8/10. I enjoyed that. Great drive by young Ollie.
miciek (@micio)
9th March 2024, 18:51
I enjoy sarcasm. Well said.
Proteus Maximus (@proteus-maximus)
9th March 2024, 18:57
It wasn’t sarcasm. I really did enjoy it. I’ve been watching F1 for 30 years, I like racing throughout the field.
miciek (@micio)
9th March 2024, 19:08
Yeah, I have been following since Hill.
So tell me what was your favorite move today?
Proteus Maximus (@proteus-maximus)
9th March 2024, 19:25
I pressed the wrong button, ignore the report I just sent. Apologies.
My favourite move? Dunno. Alex did a few good overtakes, Kevin holding the back markers so Nico could score a point, the battle between Lando and Lewis. Dan spinning at the back- he really should retire, he’s embarrassing. Olive’s great drive throughout the whole race. Lance throwing it in the wall.
Does that answer your question?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th March 2024, 22:21
I’m sorry, I saw those moves between albon and the back markers, but when I’m aiming to see a fight for the win I’m not ready to settle for watching battles between cars that aren’t even in the points!
I watched hamilton and norris ofc, still wasn’t enough to get any higher than 1\10 imo.
RedEaredRabbit (@redearedrabbit)
9th March 2024, 18:46
3/10
It’s probably fair to say that after two years, these regulations have not achieved anything close to what was hoped. The last season of the previous regulations gave us a close battle between two great teams and two great drivers. I’d far rather of continued that than go to this.
I gave some extra points for the Bearman debut.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
9th March 2024, 18:47
The rugby was great! Stupid time to have a Grand Prix.
Snake Plisken
9th March 2024, 18:58
F1 is garbage now.
Tristan
9th March 2024, 19:01
It had promise with Norris and Ham on alternate strategy but let down by completely useless tyres.
Around 4 I think.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
9th March 2024, 19:13
yeah, im not really seeing any difference between the tires except how long they last maybe. If they had a few tires manufacturers with a few options per race, that might actually be better, and they might actually help some teams who load their tires differently.
3.5/10
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
9th March 2024, 23:32
Yeah, that should have paid off but clearly it didn’t.
wilkof1 (@wilkof1)
9th March 2024, 19:16
3/10 another dull “race”. nothing really happened apart from lando and lewis switching to softs which in theory could have provided some excitement at the end, but in practice achieved absolutely nothing. its almost like the difference in the tyres this year is just the colour of the sidewall. I feel by the end of this season f1 may start to regret the current regulations. on the plus side ollie drove really well and deserved driver of the day.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
9th March 2024, 19:21
While it was fun to watch the Magnussen train, the race left a sour taste in my mouth. I got flashbacks to 2002 and the good ol’ Ferrari domination days. The Red Bull is so good that even Perez manages to easily blitz the rest of the field, and it seems that the dirty air issues is becoming much worse.
I’m not shouting this is the worst F1 has ever been, but something needs to change rule-wise or we need a few abnormal races to make it interesting again.
miciek (@micio)
9th March 2024, 19:26
iIt definitely has some 2002 vibes but there are two differences, both in favor of 2002:
– one of the Ferraris didn’t finish three first races, making the competition for constructors more exciting
– the second driver in the dominating 2002 Ferrari was much closer to the first driver (heck, he even one some races in the second half of the season which won’t ever happen in 2024)
So, while I hated 2002 as much as I hate 2024, it was really far better!
MichaelN
9th March 2024, 20:38
He really wasn’t. I mean, I’ve noted before that people are unfair on Barrichello as he won some great races on his own, something that the likes of Pérez and Bottas never have, but in 2002 the results aren’t the full story.
Schumacher ‘only’ won 11 out of 17 races, but there’s a bit more to it than that.
– In Malaysia he tangled with Montoya, dropped to 21st and still climbed to third.
– He qualified third in Monaco and followed Coulthard home to 2nd.
These were genuine losses. But the others:
– Barrichello had a great first lap at the Nürburgring where he took the lead from the Williams, and once Schumacher got to 2nd he then followed him home, finishing just two tenths behind.
– Barrichello took pole in Hungary, and Schumacher followed him home to 2nd, again just four tenths behind.
– Another scuffle with Montoya in Italy dropped Schumacher behind Barrichello, and once the pair got to first and second he followed him home, once again just finishing two tenths behind.
– In Indianapolis, Ferrari engineered a nice photo finish but both drivers likely misjudged the finish line which meant Barrichello “won” by less than a tenth of second.
I have little doubt he could have easily won those four had he wanted to.
Now there is a third race that Schumacher lost, and that’s the infamous Austrian race. Barrichello was genuinely quicker, probably the only time all season. Barrichello was ordered to let Schumacher win, which he did, in a bit of an obnoxious way, but nevertheless – he was the best on the day. So those three races were Schumacher followed Barrichello home were very much considered payback for that help.
Edvaldo
9th March 2024, 21:16
And remember that Schumacher spun to the run off area on that Nurburgring race and lost a lot of time. Still, he clawed back to Ruben’s gearbox in just some laps.
Rubens could put very good qualy laps every once in a while, but his race pace was ok at best. He was never the guy to pull away and win a race, none of his wins were like that. The closest one was Suzuka ’03 in which he was being followed close by Alonso halfway through then the Renault broke down and he had quite the confortable lead to Raikkonen after that.
miciek (@micio)
9th March 2024, 21:26
You see how much we can say and discuss about the 2022? That just proves it was ant least an bit entertaining. Now let’s see what kind of entertainment can the Red Bull pair give us in 2024 ;)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th March 2024, 22:35
I don’t mind saying it’s the worst f1 has ever been if it’s the truth, and I think it is.
MXMXD (@mxmxd)
9th March 2024, 20:10
3. Thank you Kevin for spicing it up.
Pete
9th March 2024, 20:22
As the warm-up act to the main event on Sunday, it was ok I guess. 4/10
MichaelN
9th March 2024, 20:26
I checked the runtime on the highlights because I was bored halfway through it… poor, poor F1.
The DRS passes are so silly, the speed difference is like watching multi-class racing. Give an Emmy to the commentators for pretending its cool, but oh my… I feel bad for the kids watching this and thinking it’s normal.
Anyway, with each race it’s more obvious that the 2022 cars are a disaster. Ross Brawn and his friends at Liberty should never be anywhere near the regulations again. Oh, and stop the engine freeze!
And can someone at the FIA please stop drivers like Magnussen and Pérez just running others off?! That’s not racing.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th March 2024, 22:59
Yes, as I thought already after I watched qualifying, as I watch on racereplay.net, I had to keep sending forward by 5 seconds with the right arrow, cause nothing was happening ever, I only really watched the norris vs hamilton battle.
This way if something interesting happens that isn’t shown in the highlights (which happened in past interesting races) I don’t miss it, but at least I’m not stuck there 1,5h watching a procession and more importantly a non-competitive session.
As soon as you see perez has no issue being 2nd it’s bad!
S
10th March 2024, 5:36
The problem is that this is normal in F1.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
9th March 2024, 20:55
Gave it a 5. Race was a 3 but +2 for the great stewarding in this race. Thought all decisions were correct.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
9th March 2024, 21:48
Gave it a 2, but only because I’m in a generous mood.
Another warning shot for the sport, I certainly won’t be up at 4am to watch Aus that’s for sure!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th March 2024, 23:05
10 (1%)
9 (1%)
8 (5%)
7 (14%)
6 (18%)
5 (10%)
4 (9%)
3 (21%)
2 (8%)
1 (13%)
Total Voters: 96
Let’s see how this compares with the first race (I gave 1 to both): we have just over half the voters who gave it 4 or less, over 60% of voters who gave it a failing grade, 80% of voters who thought this was sufficient or worse and around 20% who thought this was worth 7 or 8, with some outliers with 9 and 10.
I have to admit some people who said this was slightly better than the first race was right: in the first race at the moment I checked, with already 150 voters, 60% voted 1-4, so as many as those who voted 1-5 here and 80% voted 1-5 there, as many as those voting 1-6 here, so indeed the first race was considered a bit worse.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
10th March 2024, 1:12
@esploratore1
I am amazed you are following the statistics when you admit to claiming that there could not possibly be any races worse than the two we have had so far.
I realize you are not alone in that assessment, and are of course entitled to vote as you see fit, but despite there obviously being significant scope for the race to be better, there are also obvious ways in which it could have been worse, even if those ways are fewer.
it just seems a futile exercise when the one’s are often akin to protest votes (as per the frequent one’s provided for the sprints).
I honestly believe if I got to the point where I thought 2 races in a row were deserving of a one, I’d stop watching.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
9th March 2024, 23:31
Horrible – the soft strategy was useless. Norris and Hamilton switched to the Soft and couldn’t catch Bearman.
Mercedes blocking a McLaren and vice versa. The same points are handed on Sunday – not so much anymore. Qualifying is essentially the real race.
David BR (@david-br)
9th March 2024, 23:50
1. Terrible. Seems deciding not to watch the race was the right call.
The 1 is for a race being held in Saudi Arabia. If Formula 1 teams can’t ‘make a difference’ even in their own backyard in terms of gender equality and providing safe and equal spaces for women to work in, maybe we can ditch the ridiculous pretence that competing in Saudi Arabia will ‘make a difference’ to what is an atrocious authoritarian regime sustained by oil money and geopolitics. As for the racing, Verstappen will more than likely win every single race this season unless his car has some mechanical issue.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
10th March 2024, 0:14
6/10. No race for the win. Leclerc got the best result he could. A bit of interest as a result of the safety car and drivers not stopping for tyres.
Bearman debut and performance probably added one point on the score. He did very well. Ferrari definitely look the clear second best at the moment.
melanos
10th March 2024, 16:31
First time I actually dozed my way for most of the race, and I have watched a few hundred of them
Neil (@neilosjames)
10th March 2024, 17:55
Poor, gave it a 3/10.
I liked the Piastri/Hamilton fight and appreciated the Magnussen train, but that’s about it.
Dan
10th March 2024, 22:17
“Keith set up RaceFans in 2005” Wow! I never even noticed this bit. Big celebration next year??? :-)