It’s getting lonely for Red Bull at the top, Ferrari has crashed and Fernando Alonso is laughing at his late luck. Formula 1 is making headlines after the second race of the season.
As in the first race of the season in Bahrain, the Spaniard ended up on the podium again. His 100th in his career overall. And that with an Aston Martin, a car that regularly had to follow the competition without a chance in the past season.
In the end, Fernando Alonso was able to laugh again. The 41-year-old old master was initially denied his grandiosely experienced third place in Jeddah – after hours of discussions he got it back.
Aston Martin – suddenly in the middle of it all
Aston Martin of all places, right now, one would say from a German perspective. For two years, Sebastian Vettel did development work for the nouveau riche and ambitious Brits, top results were the absolute exception. Now he has ended his career and his successor Alonso is suddenly sitting in a fast car that looks amazingly similar to the Red Bull in many details.
For experts, Aston Martin’s leap is no accident. With the consortium led by Lawrence Stroll, the hoped-for monetary resources have increasingly come to the team since 2019. Aston Martin is one of the financially strongest teams in the field today.
In addition to a new factory, which is to be occupied soon, numerous new employees also came. Aggressive poaching attempts by Aston Martin forced the top teams to bloodletting.
High-ranking engineers changed sides. Red Bull’s former aerodynamics boss Dan Fallows is now technical director at Aston Martin. His deputy Eric Blandin was previously chief aerodynamicist at Mercedes.
Red Bull lonely in front – Perez grumbles
The double victory of the world champion team in Jeddah brings two insights. Red Bull are in a league of their own at the moment and even if the balance of power should change later in the year, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are likely to be quite a distance away by then.
Sergio Perez celebrates his victory in Saudi Arabia after the end of the race.
Regarding the first finding, Aston Martin’s team boss Mike Krack says: “The season is long. I don’t think Red Bull will keep the gap. We still have two big teams behind us who will do everything to catch up. The viewer should be patient and keep watching Formula 1.”
The second insight could at least bring back a little drama: The two pilots have a very tense relationship, and Perez is now starting his seemingly hopeless fight against the exceptional pilot Verstappen with early success. The Mexican doesn’t want to play the role of helper just yet.
Ferrari crashed and sobered up
Ferrari is considered the previous loser of the season after two races. Still aspiring to win last year, the Italians have apparently missed the connection to the top. Behind the significantly faster Red Bull and surprise team Aston Martin, they are suddenly only a third force – maybe even just on a par or behind the Mercedes, who are also currently lagging behind. Sixth place for the Spaniard Carlos Sainz and seventh place for Charles Leclerc are sobering.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc
Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur is self-critical after Ferrari’s sobering performance in Saudi Arabia: “In an analysis you always look at what is positive and what is negative. Our speed on Saturday is certainly positive, we increased the gap to Mercedes. The first part of the race was okay too. Charles was able to start from twelfth place with soft tyres We drove six. But afterwards we struggled. We have to understand what exactly the problem was in the second part of the race on the hard tyres.”
The French thinks: “The basic package is okay, but we don’t get enough out of the car.”
Mercedes – waiting for a new car
The Silver Arrows made far-reaching decisions before this weekend. The weak start to the season means that the car “look quite different in six or seven races” should, said motorsport boss Toto Wolff. Because the “design philosophy” now chosen deviates from the original plan for the W14.
Mercedes and driver Lewis Hamilton switch to crisis mode.
On the other hand, fourth place for George Russell in Jeddah was a nice transitional success, at least Mercedes had their old rival Ferrari under control. Meanwhile, the relationship within the team remains interesting: Russell copes better with the current car than record world champion Lewis Hamilton.