The Saudi Arabian GP has become the second stop of the Formula 1 Championship. It is an urban night circuit located in the city of Jeddah with 6.175 kilometers, it has 27 turns, and so far, no driver has conquered it on more than one occasion.
When and Where?
Saturday, March 9, noon ET at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Saudi Arabian
Where Can I Watch?
ESPN
2024 Saudi Arabian GP Top Contenders
Undoubtedly, there is a candidate above all, the Dutch Max Verstappen from the Red Bull team. In the first race of the year, the three-time world champion won easily at the Bahrain circuit, leaving his teammate Sergio “Checo” Pérez and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz in second and third place.
With 19 victories, the Red Bull competitor had one of the most dominant seasons in F1 in 2023, only failing to win in three races. Precisely, one of those he could not celebrate was the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, when he finished second behind Checo Pérez.
With his Honda RBTH002 engine, Verstappen wants to win for the second time at the night circuit of Jeddah, a track that will host for the fourth time the most important racing league in the world. To prevent the Dutchman from continuing to dominate F1, his teammate Sergio Perez will try to replicate what he did last year, especially because he has the same engine as the current three-time world champion.
The Mexican has shown flashes of talent, but now it is time to give his team’s leader more competition. Last year, he completed nine podiums.
Ferrari puts on the table another candidate to celebrate in Saudi territory, Charles Leclerc, who comes from a presentation where the feeling was that he could have aspired higher than the fourth place he achieved. The pressure on the Monegasque is enormous, since the Italian team, the most historic of the competition, decided that next year his teammate will be Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time world champion. So far, the duo of Leclerc and Spaniard Carlos Sainz has not been more than a cheerleader and has not been able to compete with Red Bull.
That’s why the pressure on his shoulders is at its highest if he wants to remain the team leader by 2025. Moreover, Jeddah could mean revenge for the Ferrari driver, as he starred in a spectacular battle in 2022 against Verstappen.
Finally, we must talk about Hamilton. He is living his last year at Mercedes, and expectations are high for him to say goodbye with a new world title. However, in the first test last week, he did not leave the feeling that the bolide gives him to aspire to more than a podium at the end of the year. However, in a race anything can happen, and the experience of the Briton is not something to despise.
2024 Saudi Arabian GP Outside picks
Spaniard Carlos Sainz is a born performer. In Bahrain, he pulled off an incredible overtake and took third place from his teammate, Charles Leclerc. Undoubtedly, he is on a mission to make Ferrari see that it was wrong to discard him to get Hamilton next season.
Sainz has already podiumed once in Arabia, taking third in the 2022 edition, in what was his second year at Ferrari.
Lando Norris has to make the leap that has been expected for several years with McLaren. In the first race of 2024, he was sixth, but podiums are expected to be the common denominator this year, the same story for Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate George Russell, who is having bad luck with crashes.
2024 Saudi Arabian GP Podium Betting Picks
- Max Verstappen
- Sergio Pérez
- Lewis Hamilton
2024 Saudi Arabian GP Odds
Max Verstappen 1.285
Sergio Pérez 10.2
Charles Leclerc 13.2
Carlos Sainz Jr. 15.5
Lewis Hamilton 21
Lando Norris 24
George Russell 30
Fernando Alonso 35
Oscar Piastri 50
Kevin Magnussen 100
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