18/04/2025
NEWS STORY
The third and final race weekend of this triple-header got underway on Friday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The challenging, high-speed street circuit on the shores of the Red Sea is a tricky test and bared its teeth in a disrupted FP2.
Both drivers ran the Medium and the Soft tyre in both sessions, saving the Hard compound for the rest of the weekend. The team completed a mix of both single lap and long run work, accumulating data to analyse overnight.
In both sessions, neither George or Kimi was able to show their full potential on the C5 Soft tyre, due to a mix of traffic and tyre preparation. As most drivers were starting their long runs in FP2, Yuki Tsunoda found the wall in the Red Bull Racing car and brought out the red flags. That negated most of the final 10 minutes of running; Kimi had clipped the wall at a similar point on his final Soft tyre lap but emerged without a similar amount of damage.
George Russell: It was a slightly messy day from our side. We didn't manage to get too many clean laps in, owing to both traffic and a few efforts where we didn't quite the tyres in the right window. We tried some different things across both cars, which was definitely valuable learning for both Kimi and myself. I think we've found the direction we will move in now. We were probably stronger in FP1 than FP2 ultimately. We didn't quite take the step forward with the car that we were hoping too, but I don't think there's anything that we can't improve overnight to come back stronger for Qualifying tomorrow. It was a shame not to get the long run data in due to the red flag in FP2, but everyone else is in the same boat. It's not controversial to say that McLaren looked like they were clear in front but I'm hopeful we can be in the fight for best of the rest once again as we head into the weekend.
Kimi Antonelli: It was quite a tricky day out there today. It proved difficult to get too many clean laps in, but I'm pleased with what we were able to achieve. We worked on a lot of details, and I was able to build my confidence on the track. It is a circuit that demands a lot of confidence in the high-speed and you need to get the car close to the walls. Overall, it was positive even if I got slightly too close to the wall on the exit of the final corner on my last lap on the Soft tyre in FP2.
I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend now. It looks pretty close with many of our competitors behind McLaren. We don't know the relative fuel loads and Power Unit modes of others, so we just need to focus on ourselves. We will work hard analysing the data overnight and look to come back stronger tomorrow.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: We had a solid start to the weekend in FP1. The track was actually pretty clean from the start, although the higher track temperatures do cost a bit of grip. George was able to set some strong times in the early running and Kimi was a little back from there, but this is another track that he is learning in an F1 car and it was good to see him making progress with each lap. We were pretty happy with the single lap performance as the session came to a close, although we knew we had some work to do on the long run.
We made a few changes into FP2, partly to account for the cooling track and also in an attempt to further refine the balance. In the later session, the car was a bit tricker for both drivers so we'll pick through those changes on the simulator overnight and decide what to keep and what to discard. We didn't get a read on the long run due to a combination of the red flag and a few delays in our own programme. However, McLaren still look quick and we'll be working on the assumption overnight that they are the ones to beat.
Check out our Friday gallery from Jeddah here.