A solid thursday

Scuderia Ferrari got through its planned programme during free practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche circuit. Charles and Carlos, the latter able to drive despite suffering the consequences of a bout of food poisoning, ran practically identical job lists which involved trying all three Pirelli compounds in both race and qualifying configuration. As usual in Jeddah, it is particularly important for the drivers to do as many laps as possible to get used to the very fast corners and to racing between the walls. Tonight, all the data will be analysed to see what steps need to be taken prior to qualifying which takes place tomorrow at 20 local (18 CET) preceded by the final hour of free practice at 16.30 (14.30 CET).

FP1. In the first session both Scuderia drivers completed 24 laps, starting off on the Hard to acclimatise to the track and to clean the sand off its surface, even though it soon became clear that grip on the racing line was very good. Leclerc posted a time of 1’30”935 and Carlos did a 1’31”526. They then switched to Soft tyres, upping the pace and setting their respective best times of 1’30”030 and1’30”164. In the final minutes they fitted the used Hard tyres to run with a heavier fuel load.

FP2. In the session run under lights Carlos and Charles first went out on Medium tyres setting times of 1’29”665 and 1’30”035 respectively. They then switched to Soft tyres, the Monegasque lapping in his best time of 1’29”180 while Carlos posted a 1’29”455. Once again, the final third of the session was given over to running in race configuration with a heavier fuel load, running two different compounds: Charles continued with the Soft and Carlos ran the Medium set from the start of the session. In the final two minutes, Charles switched to used Mediums, completing a total of 25 laps, while Carlos did 26.

Charles Leclerc #16

The track had good grip to start with and we can expect quite a lot of track evolution throughout the day tomorrow. All in all, everyone is really close in times so it will be tight and interesting to see who extracts the maximum from their car and comes out on top.

Carlos Sainz #55

It has been a very difficult day for me as I haven’t fully recovered from the sickness that has kept me in bed for the last 24 hours and I still feel very weak. Anyway, I made it to the track and managed to maximise the time with the car and the team. This track has a lot of grip and the high speed corners makes it very demanding for cars and drivers. Even though I couldn’t push to the limit today, at least we completed the programme and hopefully tomorrow I will be fully recovered and we can focus on qualifying and the race.