Race Report: Difficult Evening in Jeddah

George Russell finished fifth and Kimi Antonelli sixth in Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

George started P3 with Kimi P5, and both ran the favoured Medium, Hard one-stop strategy.

Both drivers held position on the opening lap and through the majority of the first stint, although it soon became clear that both were struggling with overheating tyres.

Lando Norris, running the offset Hard, Medium strategy passed Kimi shortly before our first stops with Kimi boxing on lap 19 and George following one lap later.

Whilst George had covered off the undercut from Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari extended his stint on the Medium tyre to build a significant tyre age delta.

He used that to full effect once he pitted for the Hard tyre. There was nothing George could do to resist either Leclerc or Norris as he came home in P5.

Kimi meanwhile managed his second and final stint well to hold off the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton for P6.

Kimi Antonelli

It was a tough race but overall, I’m satisfied to come home P6. I struggled with understeer on the Medium tyre in the first stint. The front tyres started to degrade early on, so our pace wasn’t strong in the early stages. I felt better on the Hard compound after our pit stop though and our speed in the final 10 laps was competitive. I still had to manage though as we were suffering from overheating on the tyres throughout the race.

Today’s race was still good learning for me. It has been an intense triple-header; there’s lots for me to look at and work on, but I’m also looking forward to some recovery time and to coming back stronger in Miami. We will keep pushing as a team to improve and build on our start to the season.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

That was our toughest race of the year so far. Starting P3 and P5, we were hopeful of being in the fight for the podium. Ultimately though, our pace was limited by overheating on both the Medium and Hard compounds. Both drivers managed early on in each stint but, when required to push the tyre harder, both axles suffered, and we couldn't extract the pace of our competitors. George was powerless to hold off Leclerc and Norris in the closing stages, who used their fresher tyres to good effect. Kimi meanwhile did a good job to stave off Lewis (Hamilton) but P5 and P6 are not results we are ever going to be satisfied with. We know that managing the tyres is an area we need to improve in, and the factory is focused on doing that.

Despite the tough evening, we have done well so far at collecting solid points over the first five races of the season. That is encouraging, but we need to build on that and do more. We have several hot races coming up and we need to get on top of our tyre management issues if we want to compete consistently at the front. We have the opportunity to do so starting in Miami in two weeks' time.