After occasions in Japan and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia completes the opening triple-header of the 2025 marketing campaign, with the street-style Jeddah Corniche Circuit welcoming Method 1 for a fifth time.
The 6.1km circuit stretches out alongside the Crimson Sea shoreline of Saudi Arabia’s second metropolis, and with 27 turns Jeddah has extra corners than another circuit on the present calendar. The vast majority of these are taken at excessive velocity, in sixth gear or larger, making Jeddah the quickest road monitor on the schedule.
The blind nature of a lot of these corners – a few of these mere kinks – provides to the problem for drivers. Jeddah normally has excessive monitor evolution by way of the course of the weekend, with qualifying and the race happening at night time, in cooler ambient circumstances than the daytime. Interruptions and delays are additionally doubtless, with all 4 Method 1 races held to date at Jeddah having featured the deployment of the Security Automotive on account of incidents and accidents.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Crew is striving to proceed its robust run of kind that sees the group coming into the fifth spherical of the season in fifth place within the Constructors’ Championship, on 20 factors. MoneyGram Haas F1 Crew pair Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman each have prior Method 1 expertise on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Ocon has contested all 4 grands prix in Saudi Arabia, ending a excessive of fourth in Jeddah’s inaugural race in 2021. Bearman memorably made his Method 1 debut in Jeddah in 2024, having been drafted in at late discover for Scuderia Ferrari, and labeled in seventh place, changing into the third-youngest Method 1 racer in historical past.
Ayao Komatsu, Crew Principal: “Jeddah presents the distinctive problem of a high-speed road circuit with little margin for driving error. We shall be usually working decrease drag settings in comparison with the circuits we have been to to date this 12 months, so how we stabilize the automobile and get the tires to work with such a low drag configuration shall be key. That is additionally the primary circuit we go to this 12 months the place Ollie has earlier Method 1 race expertise. It is troublesome to foretell precisely how the VF-25 will carry out in Jeddah, however we have been getting most out of it in latest races. We’re seeking to carry over this momentum and end the primary triple-header of the season – which could be very demanding for everybody each on the monitor and at our factories – on a excessive.”
Ollie Bearman: “I am very excited to return to Jeddah, it is the primary repeat race of my profession which is fairly cool. Having had the expertise of final 12 months was very good and useful and was a spotlight of my life to date, having my debut with Ferrari, that monitor will at all times maintain a particular place in my coronary heart. Even earlier than my Method 1 debut, I actually loved driving round Jeddah due to its high-speed nature, and the joys of driving at such speeds between the partitions so I am wanting ahead to returning and now having a full race weekend beneath my belt, not simply, FP3, quali, and the race – it ought to be one.”
Esteban Ocon: “Jeddah is an thrilling circuit. I feel this monitor is one which’s actually demanding on the driving force; it is so quick and there is a lot grip, that you must get so near the wall and that is how a lot time there may be to achieve – the nearer to the wall, you are going to be gaining over a lap. It is the kind of weekend a driver actually enjoys, and you are feeling the potential from a Method 1 automobile. It should be extraordinarily sizzling there, this 12 months we get there a lot later than earlier than – it should be round 40 levels – so it should be a problem for all of us and we should be prepared for the warmth. General, I look ahead to racing in Saudi.”
