The 2nd round of the Formula 1 World Championship happened in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This night race is a street circuit and is the fastest street circuit out of all the tracks that F1 races on. Formula 1 only started racing on this track in 2021 and Max Verstappan has been the race winner two out of the four times they have raced at Jeddah. It is a beloved track and almost all of the drivers love to race on the track because of how fast it is. 

Free Practice 1 and 2 took place on March 7th, 2024. Max Verstappan had the fastest time in Free Practice 1 and Ferando Alonso had the fastest time in Free Practice 2. Nothing to crazy happened during these two Free Practices. 

The biggest shock came the morning of March 8th when Free Practice 3 and Qualifying took place. The news was that Ollie Bearman would replace Carlos Saniz for the remainder of the Jeddah Grand Prix due to Saniz having appendicitis. 

Ferrari and F1 all posted on their Instagram that Saniz would be going in for emergency surgery to remove his appendix. Many people were sad to see Saniz not being able to finish the Grand Prix, but also very excited to see what Bearman would do with the remainder of the weekend. 

Ollie Bearman is an 18 year old British driver who is currently Ferrari and Hass’ reserve driver. He is driving in F2 this season. He was starting at pole position for the F2 race at Jeddah but had to be taken out in order to drive for Ferrari in F1. This was his F1 debut and not many new drivers get to make their F1 debut in the famous red car. 

At Qualifying, Bearman placed 11th on the Grid and almost got into Q3 but was 10th of a second off. The starting grid for the race Verstappan (1st), Leclerc (2nd), Perez (3rd), Alonso (4th), Piastri (5th), Norris (6th), Russell (7th), Hamilton (8th), Tsunoda (9th), Stroll (10th), Bearman (11th), Albon (12th), Magnussen (13th), Ricciardo (14th), Hulkenberg (15th), Bottas (16th), Ocon (17th), Gasly (18th), Sargeant (19th),  and Guanyu (20th). 

The Jeddah Grand Prix is 50 laps long. During the formation lap on race day, Pierre Gasly who races for Alpine had to retire early due to problems with the car. Then, Lance Stroll clipped the wall and then crashed into the barrier on lap 6. He had to retire his car and a safety car was out for multiple laps before it went in. 

All of the cars on the grid only had one pit stop except for Bottas who had 2 pit stops. Most of the cars pitted during the safety car and changed their tyres to Hard tyres. Norris was one of the drivers who did not pit during the safety car and led the Grand Prix for multiple laps until reigning champion Max Verstappen took 1st place from him. 

Multiple penalties were given to drivers. The most shocking one was given to Kevin Magnussen. He received two 10 second penalties. The first penalty was an illegal overtake and the second penalty was from causing a collision with Albon. Although he got two penalties he drove amazingly. He fought Tsunoda off from overtaking him, allowing his teammate to pit and come out in the point range. 

The Jeddah Grand Prix was a very entertaining race. It had drama, new drivers, and some crazy things you don’t usually see happen. The next race is the Australian Grand Prix and I am so excited to see what comes out of it!