2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Jeddah, April 18-20

[Chuckjr]

Oscar for the win.

In the headspace Lando is in currently I expect him 3rd or 4th.
King George is on fire. I see him 2nd or 3rd.
Max could pull it off for 2nd if RB can find a good set up and fix their pit lighting problem. I see Max as the dark horse this race -- the only other driver who has it in him to steal this from Oscar on pure pace. I see Max as that good.
Chuck will be somewhere around 5th me thinks.
Then Kimi, Lewis, Yuki picking up the scraps.

[LM10]

Why would McLaren not enjoy a sizable advantage here? Because Ferrari can run lower? I don’t see it. The McLaren has been stellar in medium-high speed

Ferrari has shown some exceptional high-speed performance too this season. And it will only get better once they solve the little gremlins.
The upgrade package they brought to Bahrain worked, but it’s full potential could not be exploited at that track. Jeddah is where more out of it will be extracted.

[bananapeel23]

Why would McLaren not enjoy a sizable advantage here? Because Ferrari can run lower? I don’t see it. The McLaren has been stellar in medium-high speed

Ferrari has shown some exceptional high-speed performance too this season. And it will only get better once they solve the little gremlins.
The upgrade package they brought to Bahrain worked, but it’s full potential could not be exploited at that track. Jeddah is where more out of it will be extracted.

Ferrari was really good in the high speed at Bahrain, but we must not forget that McLaren were much faster in turns 11-12 in Bahrain, which are the real high speed turns there.

For Ferrari to win, they need to be able to get the floor to run lower without excessive plank wear. Luckily Saudi is probably the flattest, least bumpy track on the calendar, which means they can probably get away with running the floor a little lower than usual.

[Wouter]

Translated:

From the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra), Spanish driver Fernando Alonso unveils his helmet,
specially designed for the 2025 #Formula1 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix at the #JeddahCornicheCircuit

#Alonso in #SaudiArabia
#F1

[Seanspeed]

Ferrari was really good in the high speed at Bahrain, but we must not forget that McLaren were much faster in turns 11-12 in Bahrain, which are the real high speed turns there.

For Ferrari to win, they need to be able to get the floor to run lower without excessive plank wear. Luckily Saudi is probably the flattest, least bumpy track on the calendar, which means they can probably get away with running the floor a little lower than usual.

Ferrari has great peak high speed downforce, but they dont have that amazingly immediate turn-in that Mclaren has. Ferrari will never catch up so long as their front end lacks that same kind of responsiveness, as it's ultimately a bigger time-winner over the course of the majority of tracks on the calendar.

[Seanspeed]

Their rear wing from Monza was banned due to mini DRS, that is why they struggled so much in Vegas. McLaren even last year had 0 issue getting temps into the tyre.

The impact of mini DRS is greatly exaggerated!

https://sun9-37.userapi.com/impg/FCKCaS ... type=album

Much like with flexi-front wing, the advantage isn't necessarily that it inherently gives you monster straight line speed, it's that it helps you make less compromise on your aero setup, so you can run a relatively higher downforce than you might otherwise opt to.

[bananapeel23]

Ferrari was really good in the high speed at Bahrain, but we must not forget that McLaren were much faster in turns 11-12 in Bahrain, which are the real high speed turns there.

For Ferrari to win, they need to be able to get the floor to run lower without excessive plank wear. Luckily Saudi is probably the flattest, least bumpy track on the calendar, which means they can probably get away with running the floor a little lower than usual.

Ferrari has great peak high speed downforce, but they dont have that amazingly immediate turn-in that Mclaren has. Ferrari will never catch up so long as their front end lacks that same kind of responsiveness, as it's ultimately a bigger time-winner over the course of the majority of tracks on the calendar.

I would imagine that being able to drop the floor to get more rear downforce would allow them to add a lot more front wing, which would greatly improve responsiveness.

[Seanspeed]

Ferrari was really good in the high speed at Bahrain, but we must not forget that McLaren were much faster in turns 11-12 in Bahrain, which are the real high speed turns there.

For Ferrari to win, they need to be able to get the floor to run lower without excessive plank wear. Luckily Saudi is probably the flattest, least bumpy track on the calendar, which means they can probably get away with running the floor a little lower than usual.

Ferrari has great peak high speed downforce, but they dont have that amazingly immediate turn-in that Mclaren has. Ferrari will never catch up so long as their front end lacks that same kind of responsiveness, as it's ultimately a bigger time-winner over the course of the majority of tracks on the calendar.

I would imagine that being able to drop the floor to get more rear downforce would allow them to add a lot more front wing, which would greatly improve responsiveness.

It's possible.

But I think we're having to buy into a lot of assumptions about what's actually going on with Ferrari and that they're facing some unique situation where they're running extra high. But they have hardly been the only ones who have been caught out with plank wear so far this year. Some analysis have suggested that basically every team is running on a dangerous limit here. It's not impossible that Ferrari aren't doing anything especially interesting, and simply reached over the limits in a bit of desperation to gain more performance that they knew they were lacking compared to the top cars.

It seems obvious that any team should want to find a way to lower their car further without wearing out the plank too much if at all possible. It depends on if Ferrari actually have this scope for improvement that others dont. Rumors rumors, but we know very little in reality.

[deadhead]

Why would McLaren not enjoy a sizable advantage here? Because Ferrari can run lower? I don’t see it. The McLaren has been stellar in medium-high speed

Ferrari has shown some exceptional high-speed performance too this season. And it will only get better once they solve the little gremlins.
The upgrade package they brought to Bahrain worked, but it’s full potential could not be exploited at that track. Jeddah is where more out of it will be extracted.

Hopefully it works that way.

Let’s not forget Mercedes and their lovely mega flexible wings! I’m guessing they will help them on a fast track like that.

[Wouter]

Sebastian Vettel spoke at The Track to promote his 2021 campaign, "Race for Women," or #Race4Women.
He said he was excited to be here and that he would work to empower women's motorsports in Saudi Arabia.

- Translated
#Formula1
#F1

.

[stephen]

My top 3 prediction for the race:

1. Lando
2. Max
3. Oscar

[bluechris]

Oscar

[organic]

Oscar is 2-0 in quali and 2-0 in races against Lando here. I'll go for another Oscar win

[De Wet]

McLaren 1-2. Oscar for win.

[Wouter]

SEB!!