THE second round of the 2023 season has arrived, along with a perilous tour through the dizzying Jeddah street circuit.
As the second night race of the season, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix doesn’t come without its fair share of controversy. After all, it was here last year when a rather troubling terrorist bombing threatened the Grand Prix weekend.
As it was, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) employed the “nothing-to-see-here” tactic and the show went on. And it was a quite a show.
The duel between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen electrified the entire race as the pair swopped positions for several laps.
It may be the second chapter between Leclerc and Verstappen but Ferrari, at least in Bahrain, appeared to be slightly further behind Red Bull. To say Red Bull have hit the ground running is somewhat of an understatement. Yes, there’s only been one race, but the pace in that one race – and in pre-season testing, was ominous.
It probably feels like a lot of vindication too, for Red Bull. They were ridiculed and accused of cheating in 2022 for breaching the cost cap, the inference being that they wouldn’t have won either title had they kept within the spending limit. They would’ve taken it personally and will unquestionably want to showcase their considerable prowess, all while rubbing it in their rivals’ faces, of course.
One of the most vociferous critics of Red Bull’s spending cap breach was Mercedes’s Toto Wolff. It’ll be painful for him and the team then to realise that the car they built for 2023 doesn’t look a championship contender. And that’s not just the word of pundits either, but of Wolff himself. The team boss has admitted the design concept simply isn’t working.
It would be easy to say that Merc should’ve changed course, but not as easy to implement. There would have been a lot of pride in the design philosophy, and many who wouldn’t have wanted to admit defeat and surrender the concept. What’s more, there was undoubtedly a serious amount of money, time, and effort invested into the research and design of the concept. This makes it all the more difficult to abandon.
The solution is for Mercedes thought is pointing towards accepting that a new design philosophy will have to be adopted at some point.
While the teams try to sort themselves, the show will go on. On its merits, the Jeddah circuit is a cracking rollercoaster ride of extreme risk. Prodigiously fast, the circuit will favour the most aero-efficient cars. And who would ever rule out someone like Fernando Alonso.
The truth is there are most likely a bunch of F1 fans who just want to see a different team at the sharp end. If it happens to bring along Alonso and his highly entertaining radio messages, there’s unlikely to be too many complaints.
It is difficult to look too far beyond Red Bull for the win though.
Verstappen’s form is imperious, and with Checo Perez not far off, the rest of the pack will have quite a task on their hands to unseat the reigning champions.
