Two Formula 1 teams are facing a warmer race weekend knowing they have cooling problems to solve after the opening round in Bahrain.
Although there were no retirements from the season-opener last week, two Mercedes-powered designs suffered overheating: The works W15, whose drivers had to lift-and-coast to cool their cars, and the Williams FW46, leading to warnings of “critical” temperatures.
While that occurred in ambient temperatures under 20C, drivers can expect to face warmer conditions at Jeddah Corniche Circuit this weekend. It is forecast to be the hottest race at the venue since the round moved to an early-season date.
As last week, the competitive sessions all take place a day earlier than usual, as F1 chose to complete its two opening races in the Middle East before Ramadan. The opening practice day on Thursday will see a sunny start to the weekend with ambient temperatures of 28C for first practice in the day time, followed by a slight drop to 26C under the lights for the second hour of running later that evening.
Third practice on Friday will be the final session held in the day time with another 28C session, before qualifying is held under identical conditions to free practice two, meaning push laps in the second practice session could provide a useful indication of how competitive qualifying will be.
For Saturday’s race, temperatures of around 27 degrees are expected, while track temperatures will sit around the 35-39 degree range. If that holds, that will make this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix the hottest since the first race event in 2021, which was held in December rather than March.
Wind could be a factor that drivers have to contend with again this weekend, although it’s likely to be more severe – around 15-25kph – during the day time practice sessions of first and third practice than qualifying and the grand prix. Although that could give drivers an easier time when it matters most, the wind could make it more challenging to perfect car set-up in those earlier sessions.
Unsurprisingly, the official weather forecast projects no chance of rain across the three days.
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2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
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