SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX 2021

Original race date: Sunday December 5, 2021

This was the second to last race of the 2021 season, a season so incredibly tense that I couldn't even bear to write about this race until now. The championship was hanging in the balance of these last two races and they came in back to back weekends. Even now, the stress gets to me and I already know what happened.

My memories of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at Jeddah in November was that it was unbelievable and I'd never seen anything like it. But during the last few months, my brain conveniently repressed many of the traumatic events I'd witnessed. Jeddah is the second race of the year of the 2022 season, the start of which is coming up quickly, so I decided to rewatch it and remind myself why I was so afraid of Jeddah.

2021 was the first time F1 went to the Jeddah Street Circuit and we'd been hearing about it all year.

It was going to be one of the fastest circuits, the longest circuit (with 27 corners), and it was just constructed, so no one had any data about how to approach it. Plus, it was a night race (gulp) and any time we arrive at a street circuit, my stress levels rise.

It was especially stressful because this was the second to last race and the whole championship battle between Hamilton and Max was hanging in the balance, partially relying on a track that no one had any information about and which quickly proved to be ridiculously dangerous, nigh unraceable.

So what were the highlights of the weekend? I would say my main memories are when Charles Leclerc crashed horribly into that notorious corner in Free Practice 2, the same corner which Mick Schumacher later crashed into at near 155 mph during the race. That corner was described as being high speed and Martin Brundle said that if a single thing didn't go as planned as a driver went into it, there was no avoiding a crash.

The race itself was truly unlike anything I'd ever seen. If I had to choose one word to describe this race, it would be "chaos". I've never seen this kind of confusion and utter mayhem during a race, both on track and off. The drama included 2 red flags, parts littered all over the track, the FIA giving Red Bull an offer to change the lineup after the red flag, and God knows how many virtual safety cars. The biggest moment of drama was when MAX FOLLOWED TEAM ORDERS TO LET HAMILTON BY ON THE MAIN STRAIGHT BUT HAMILTON DIDN'T PASS HIM AND RAN INTO THE BACK OF HIM. Somehow, they both finished the race. Oh yeah, and Bottas broke Ocon's heart passing him for the podium 3rd place on the finish line.

Words fail to describe this race. One of the reasons why I didn't originally write about this one was because I simply could not keep up. There was so much going on and such confusion about all of it that I've never seen anything like it.

Here are my notes:

Free Practice 1

• this practice is in daylight so not much help for a night race like this

• There’s freaking 27 corners or something in this track, that’s so many

• This looks way more like a paved track than a street circuit

• Lots of comparisons to Monaco and Singapore because of the lack of runoff space

• Extremely high speeds

• A haas got in the way of Lance Stroll and they never say who it was but it just had to be Mazepin

Free Practice 2

• all is going fine until the last 3 minutes when CHARLES HAS A HUGE HIGH SPEED CRASH and they cut over to the wrecked car and it’s soooo much damage but fortunately he hops out just fine. I was so terrified because the damage was so much for what was actually not that bad of a hit, though it was at a bad place and very high speed so thank God he’s fine

Practice 3

• they showed Charles walking into his garage and Mattia gave him a hug in the way cause he was so glad he was okay

• Hamilton super impeded Gasly and then Mazepin on the same lap and it was super scary and ridiculous

• Everyone is sure we are going to see a high speed crash if nothing changes

Qualifying

• Hamilton went to the stewards about impeding Mazepin and ignoring double waves yellows and they haven’t made a decision yet

• Stewards decide no further action in ignoring double yellows BUT they did give Mercedes and Hamilton a reprimand and fined him 25,000 euros. So they just fined him and did nothing for the race of course and say it wasn’t his fault

• At the very end of Q1 Bottas reports misfiring from his new engine and has to stop right at the end of the pit lane

• HUGE traffic at the end of the lap

• Out in Q1: Latifi, Vettel, Stroll, Lil Schu, Mazepin

• Sainz randomly gets a time deleted which is the first time someone’s had a time deleted this weekend so it’s out of the blue

• Sainz has a spin and damages his wing and has to have it changed and it’s amazing he didn’t hit a wall

• Lando reports he was held up by Perez

• They’re going to be investigating Sainz and Gasly impeding incident after the race

• Gio had heavy contact with the wall

• Kimi shoved into Bottas and they had contact but kept going

• Sainz goes again at the end of Q2 and nearly goes into the wall AGAIN and then says the car is undriveable

• Out in Q2: Daniel, Kimi, Alonso, Russell and Sainz

• Hamilton tried to go out early and get a good lap and has pure oversteer and slides real far and lap ruined

• MAXY WAS ON THE FASTEST LAP OF THEM ALL IN THE LAST MINUTE AND WAS GOING TO BEAT HAMILTON FOR POLE BUT THEN THE CAR WOBBLED JUST A TINY BIT AND HE TOOK TOO MUCH SPEED INTO THE CORNER AND THE LAP WAS RUINED AND HE BRUSHED THE WALL AND HAD TO STOP

• IT WAS A CRUSHING END TO QUALIFYING

• THE RACE TOMORROW IS GOING TO BE UNBEARABLE

• Fortunately Max still starts 3rd but it’s horrible knowing he was that close to pole

Race

• this is one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had before a race and I just feel like praying and throwing up

• First corner Hamilton and Bottas stay in front and Max stays in third, Sergio locks up and nearly runs into Max but doesn’t and Charles keeps fourth with Perez behind

• It’s a miracle that no one wiped out on corner 1 looking at the replays

• George Russell and Stroll have an incident noted but nothing too dramatic and no investigation necessary

• Oh no now they’re going on about Sainz passing a bunch of people in the back where he shouldn’t have qualified anyway

• Yuki and Ocon had contact but kept going at the start

• Alonso is like using the runoff areas to avoid being passed but knows he has to give it back

• MY POWER JUST WENT OUT oh my gosh I don’t believe it, didn’t get through six laps I don’t think. I’m just gonna pray til it comes back

• It was out for ten minutes and when the tv came back on, Little Schumacher was in the wall exactly where Charles was in the practice and it was high speed but he is okay thank God

• So looks like the 2 Mercedes pitted under safety car and Max is leading but hasn’t pitted yet

• RED FLAG TO REPAIR THE BARRIER SO THIS IS AMAZING BECAUSE MAX CAN CHANGE TIRES IN THE PIT AND HELPS RED BULL SO MUCH AND YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

• Hamilton is furious and thinks they’re doing the red flag to stop him from winning the championship Hahahahahahah

• Hamilton immediately yelling at his team and accuses them of taking a big gamble on putting them and losing the position and just so so typical

• This is exactly what happened in Imola and Hamilton benefited from the red flag like this it when it helps max then of course he has a fit

• Race will resume in not too long

• Standing restart and Hamilton plays games staying way behind on formation and max is mad

• Hamilton gets ahead because his tires are hotter from his games on the formation lap and then max overtakes him on the corner and gets ahead

• But then TWO SEPARATE CRAZY INCIDENTS HAPPEN IMMEDIATELY with 1) Charles being squeezed into the wall by Perez and then hitting Perez and Perez has to retire and is just standing out on the track for a super long time and why hasn’t anyone gotten him and 2) MAZEPIN runs RIGHT into the back of George Russell with no braking at all because he was looking at the Perez crash happening next to him, so then there’s so much carnage there’s a SECOND RED FLAG

• SO NOW the STEWARDS give Red Bull the option to start from second somehow and then it changes a bunch and it’s wild and no one has ever seen anything like it

• Okay at this point there’s absolutely no way I’m going to be able to keep up with these notes

Ok these are notes from a time I rewatched it

• after the second restart, there is carnage at the back and front

• Hamilton gets a way better start after playing games during the formation lap and then Maxy pushes back on the first lap and gets ahead again and now somehow Ocon is in second but then it doesn’t matter because behind them, Perez is in the wall because he was tagged by Charles who had absolutely nowhere to go, but the REAL scary thing was that in a completely separate incident, Mazepin PLOWS into the Back of George Russell at an incredible speed and takes them both out but it is SO SCARY

• Now Perez is waiting out on the track to be picked up and it’s like taking FOREVER and can someone please go get him please??

• Michael Masi offers them the opportunity to start Max from P2 and behind Ocon? No behind Hamilton, ok wait, since when do we give people an option of where they want to start, this is so fascinating. They give them the opportunity to swap the places around before the stewards have to award a penalty

• No one understands what the heck the start order will be re: Max, Hamilton and Ocon who is somehow involved again

• No one knows what’s going on and there’s just confusion

• Red Bull accepts the offer to start third behind Ocon and then Hamilton

• I can’t believe Ocon is leading this again

• They debate rolling or standing start and decide standing start

• MAXY GETS TO FIRST ON THE RESTART WOOOOOO and Ocon in second who had to yield after going off the track and now Hamilton is third

• Hamilton passes Ocon as quick as he can to try and catch Max

• The turn 3 incident at the start of Start 2 is going to be investigated after the race

• OH NO MAX REPORTS LACK OF POWER

• OH ok false alarm, Max’s battery is just topping up

• 23/59 YELLOW FLAG for Yuki Tsunoda runs into the back of Seb and then into the barrier and then runs over his front wing and his brakes are on fire and the whole thing is really embarrassing and he is going to try to limp back to the pits

• The two Ferraris trying to race wise by side and Charles stays ahead

• Alonso has a big slide but keeps it out of the wall

• Yuki given a 5 second time penalty for hitting Vettel

• Now Vettel’s car is shedding huge amounts of stuff all over the track from being hit by Yuki

• Ok just kidding, actually it was Kimi and Seb that collided shortly after the Seb and Yuki collided so that’s why Seb is shedding parts

• For some reason Aston Martin is keeping Seb out without a nose change even though he’s shedding debris everywhere

• Seb gets on the radio saying it’s not a good circuit if one thing happens and the whole car falls apart

• Another virtual safety car to clean up Seb’s debris

• Kimi is a back marker in front of Max with Hamilton behind during the virtual safety car but Kimi is driving really slow so now Hamilton is way too close to max to be in this vsc delta so this is really unfair

• 36/50 another huge chunk of debris comes off Seb and causes another virtual safety car but it’s really short and allows Hamilton to catch up to Max

• Hamilton desperately tries to get past Max into a corner and then they collide and Max has to go over the off area

• THE NEXT LAP, THEY TELL MAX TO GIVE THE PLACE BACK AND WHEN HE SLOWS ON THE STRAIGHT TO GIVE THE PLACE BACK, HAMILTON HITS HIM AND THEN ACCUSES MAX OF BRAKE CHECKING HIM

• Ron Meadows is like panicking on the radio and yelling at Michael Masi that he didn’t tell them in time and Michael Masi sasses him back saying he can only press as many buttons at a time

• It turned out Hamilton apparently didn’t know that Max was letting him by somehow??!? THIS IS TOTAL MADNESS

• SOOOO Max gives the place back to Hamilton AGAIN, then goes by AGAIN for the lead, and then suddenly NOW the stewards rule Max has a 5 second time penalty

• ACTUALLY now they say the whole Max and Hamilton thing is going to be investigated after the race but seemingly the Max penalty still applies??

• Someone tells Max that they didn’t need to do that but no one knows what he didn’t need to do, that’s not clear, was it that he didn’t need to give the place back or??

• See it’s this kind of complete and total chaos that makes you think hmmm maybe Michael Masi did need to be replaced

• Seb retires the car on lap 46/50

• They change Max’s tires since he has the penalty

• 47/50 Hamilton’s front wing end plate explodes on a curb so they tell him not to get on the curbs

• 48/50 Bot is catching up to Ocon in 3rd and I would love to see him get Ocon off the podium

• Charles gets past Sainz on the last lap!!

• Somehow Max and Hamilton are level on points going into the last race

• OK my favorite thing is that RIGHT ON THE LINE, Bottas gets past Ocon for third!!!!! WOWWW

• There’s like a hilarious thing where Hamilton sits behind the bleachers trying to get away from the media and just looks dramatic and cries into a towel but the best part is that there’s a moment where Bottas is there and you can see him ask someone what is Lewis so mad about and someone is like he hit max and Bottas just has this look of like surprise and delight and it’s great