Oracle Red Bull Racing

Saudi Arabia Grand Prix
Race Schedule

My Time

Track Time

Round

5

takes

us

to

Saudi

Arabia

—

one

of

the

fastest,

most

unforgiving

street

circuits

on

the

calendar.

Dive

into

the

Jeddah

action.

Summary

01. The Latest from the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

02. Risky Business

03. Last Year at the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

04. Challenges and Key Factors

05. Bahrain International Circuit Guide: Track Layout & Key Features

06. Win a Mystery Box Prize with our Saudi Quick Quiz!

01

The Latest from the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

02

Risky Business

High-speed Jeddah has been good to the team in the past. We’ve won three of the four editions to date, with Checo victorious in 2023 and Max on the top step in 2022 and last year. The Champion goes in search of another hat-trick this weekend, while Yuki will look to double down on point finishes with another positive outing to back up his efforts in Bahrain.

Given the travails of last weekend, it won’t be easy, but at a circuit where big risks often earn big rewards, we’re going for broke.

03

Last Year at the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

The Best Of: The 2024 Saudi Grand Prix

Best of 2024 Saudi Grand Prix

04

Challenges and Key Factors

Safety Cars – Put simply, you’re going to get one. Jeddah has a 100% record of SC interventions and a 50% record of VSCs. All told, there were a whopping five all told in the inaugural race, three the following year, and while the last two editions have had just one Safety Car each, it still means that with speeds this high and walls this close, cautions are inevitable. The trick is to be prepared and not get caught out. To his cost, Checo found that out in 2022 when a Safety Car wrecked what was shaping up to be a strong charge from pole to what could have been victory.

Weather – Across its four editions to date, Jeddah’s weather hasn’t really been a factor. That could change this weekend. The current long-range forecast is for a high of 37/38°C on Sunday and a low of 27. On the narrow strip of track, with the barriers minimising any breeze, that’s likely to make FP1 and FP3 punishing and FP2, Quali and especially the 1-hour, 20-odd-minute race pretty uncomfortable.

Energy Management – After the 7 km-long Spa-Francorchamps, Jeddah is the second longest track on the calendar. The 6.174km layout has more corners than any other track, with 27 – 16 left and 11 right – and that means that energy management, how harvesting and deployment are done can be very important.

Maximum focus – Jeddah has a very smooth surface and low deg, so it does allow drivers to push hard for longer periods. All well and good, but on a track where speeds in last year’s race topped out at 341 km/h through the speed trap, it requires huge focus and commitment. Any tiny lapse in concentration is likely to be ruthlessly punished.

Softer options – The C2, C3 and C4 compounds offered at Jeddah since its arrival, allied to the low deg, have led to this being a one-stop race. Last year, Max won it with a medium/hard race, switching on lap 7 when a Safety Car for Lance Stroll’s crash sparked a rush to the pit lane. 14 of the 18 finishers matched Max’s choice.

It’s been a similar story since the race’s inauguration. In 2023, Checo won on the same medium/hard plan, pitting on lap 18, again under a Safety Car. In 2022, Max went from C3 to C2 on lap 16, and in ’21, Lewis Hamilton won on the same C3/C2 strategy, pitting on lap 10. This year, however, Pirelli are changing the game. In a bid to provoke more strategic variation, Pirelli have moved a step softer with the C3 as the hard, C4 as the medium and C5 as the soft. However, with thermal degradation reduced in the 2025 range, it’s possible the softer options may still push teams towards a one-stop.

05

Bahrain International Circuit Guide: Track Layout & Key Features

Jeddah Is Set For F1

Jeddah is fast. Very fast. Max holds the outright lap record here, a 1:27.472 set in Q3 last year at an average speed of 254 km/h. That’s faster than Silverstone and not far off ‘Temple of Speed’ Monza. That’s mostly down to the sinuous nature of the circuit, which is essentially a parallel pair of long, winding sequences of mostly high-speed corners bookended by hard-braking hairpins. With only a couple of gilt-edged overtaking spots – the Turn 1 chicane and the last corner, Turn 27 – qualifying is all-important here. Three out of the four editions to date have been won from pole and track position in the race is key. There are three DRS zones, however, so getting close is possible. It all adds up to Jeddah being one of F1’s biggest risk/reward circuits. You’ve got to be bold, but it is all too easy to get bitten.

06

Win a Mystery Box Prize with our Saudi Quick Quiz!