Well it’s safe to say Formula 1 didn’t fail to entertain this weekend.
One of the most dramatic races from start to finish, Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Corniche Circuit certainly lived up to the hype of being an insanely fast track.
On the weekend Formula 1 paid homage to one of it’s greatest ever icons, Sir Frank Williams, who had sadly passed away at the age of 79 just a few days prior, its newest track produced one of the sport’s most dramatic storylines.
Indeed, the late Mr Williams would have absolutely loved seeing cars whizz around the track, taking some ‘corners’ at nearly 200 miles per hour.
While the weekend has ultimately been overshadowed by the incidents involving the two championship leaders Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, it is important that we analyse what the race as a whole was like and whether we should expect repeat performances like this every time F1 comes here.
The short answer is probably not. More than likely it’s a race that will be determined by what’s at stake for the drivers. With the Championship on the line during this year’s race, it was all to play for, so of course drivers had to push to their uppermost limit.
While Jeddah entertained, it only did so because of the battle between the front two. The circuit is insanely tough, absolutely no question, and it probably even borders on dangerous at times. But then again what great F1 circuit doesn’t at one point or another.
For Belgian (Spa-Francorchamps) it’s the uphill climb at Eau Rogue. For Great Britain (Silverstone) it’s the high G-force corner combination of Maggotts, Beckett’s and Chapel. For Monaco it could be Sainte Devote or La Rascasse. Either way Jeddah will now have its name in those records with the intense cornering at turn 21 set to take its place in the hall of F1’s most dangerous turns.
That turn saw two crashes over the weekend, with the one involving Mick Schumacher during the race the one that started a chain-reaction of controversy when the red flag was waved for the first time.
SAFETY CAR (LAP 10/50)
Mick Schumacher crashes heavily and the Safety Car comes out
He reports he is okay over the radio 👍#SaudiArabianGP 🇸🇦 #F1 pic.twitter.com/H4mZXyZjMs
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 5, 2021
However, while that turn will remain, Jeddah has some fundamental weaknesses as an F1 circuit with the main one being that there are not enough overtaking areas, with just one or two genuine zones where an overtake is viable.
On the contrary, some tracks have similar problems and are always very entertaining. Singapore, the track with the most turns on the entire calendar copes just fine with the same issue, but its selling point is the difficulty of how many turns there are, which makes it difficult in its own right.
Similarly, Azerbaijan’s race has just two real zones of overtaking. But those overtaking zones will almost certainly lead to an overtake, with it playing host to the longest straight on the F1 calendar.
Jeddah, certainly has its place now in F1. And with the calendar expanding to 23 races next year in the new era, F1 will create a brand new image for itself, with new cars, new drivers and new champions.
Don’t expect this to entertain every year like it did this year. This track will probably be more of a 50/50 track in that sense – but my word did it do a good job this year.
