Fernando Alonso
Luckily, after 357 races, 32 victories and 100 podium finishes in Formula 1, Fernando Alonso has learned a certain old-age racing driver wisdom. So he was initially able to bear with composure that his 100th podium was snatched from him on Sunday just as he had just left the stage. “It doesn’t hurt that much, even if it’s not third place. I celebrated with a trophy in my hand and champagne. Now I’ve lost three points. It was more of a Fia show than it was a big disappointment for us.” , he announced bravely.
Alonso had positioned his car too far to the left in his pits on the starting grid in Jeddah. That put a five-second penalty. Later, when the safety car was deployed, he wanted to dismount her easily. He also waited according to regulations. What he didn’t suspect, however, was that one of his mechanics at Aston Martin had put the jack on his rear as a precautionary measure, out of sheer anticipation for the subsequent tire change. Mind you, the car has not already been jacked up.
Because the commissioners of the world automobile association Fia are about as accommodating in the execution of the penalties as the German tax office (no reproach), Alonso received a 10-second ticket and subsequently slipped to fourth place. It was only after Aston Martin exercised its so-called “Right of Review” and presented seven precedents from past races where mechanics had touched the car for time penalties, but there was no penalty, did they change their mind hours after the end of the race : The mere application of a jack, they determined with their intellect, is not yet work on the car. And hey presto Alonso was third!
As Alonso recovered – and before he regained his third place – he grumbled: “You can’t issue a penalty 35 laps after the pit stop. They had enough time.” Because if he had known about the penalty, Alonso argued, he could have tried to get an 11-second lead over Russell. There, too, he undoubtedly had a point.
George Russell
The 25-year-old Mercedes driver, who (temporarily) inherited third place from Alonso, grinned happily for almost the entire press conference, as if he had just clinched a race win. Given the circumstances he had to contend with that weekend – that is, his inadequate Mercedes – he had also accomplished something almost as great: he had outperformed both Ferraris (who, however, were unlucky because they stopped in front of the safety car rolled the box) and defeated his teammate, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
In qualifying he was four tenths faster, in the race he didn’t let him overtake him. And before he disappeared from Saudi Arabia, he proved what a fair sportsman he is. “I’ll take the trophy, but Fernando deserves the podium,” he said. When it comes to penalties, a little more “common sense” must be applied in the future. Alonso didn’t gain any advantage with his crooked position in the starting box, which is why a five-second penalty was “too much”. And the ten seconds in the second incident were also “too extreme,” argued Russell. Seen in this way, he will be able to live with the fact that hours later the commissioners snatched third place from his hands. They suddenly had the same opinion as he did.
Max Verstappen
One might think that anyone who storms from 15th on the grid to second place in a race will then throw themselves on the ground in gratitude and kiss the asphalt. In any case, tennis pro Novak Djokovic, who is obsessed with success, tends to eat the grass there after big victories in Wimbledon. The at least as ambitious racing driver Max Verstappen has a different psychological composition. “Everything looks great on paper,” he grumbled after his impressive ride. “We won in Bahrain, we won here. But not everything is as good as it looks!”
Apparently he wasn’t referring to the fact that his team-mate Sergio Perez has now won a race just like him, but rather the technical problems that are increasingly worrying him. There had already been problems with the gearshift in Bahrain, in Jeddah the drive shaft broke in qualifying. That’s why starting position 15. “And in the race I had bad vibrations. There’s no doubt for me – we have work to do.”
Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s motorsport consultant, has not yet been able to confirm the vibrations described by Verstappen, but promised that the team will follow up all the leads carefully. “We have to check where the vibrations really came from. If we can still set the fastest lap, it might not have been acute,” he said. Verstappen got the fastest lap.
Angela Cullen
After all the successes, wanting to change employers again is what the British tabloids regularly accuse the Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of when things are not going well for him. Angela Cullen must now dare to take this step, Hamilton’s personal…, yes, what exactly?
For him, Cullen was a physiotherapist, life coach, bodyguard, friend and a constant source of good humor. After losing the 2016 world title fight against Nico Rosberg, not only were his vertebrae damaged, Hamilton’s psyche was also cracked. The 38-year-old said goodbye to the classic personal trainer model and hired the New Zealander, eleven years his senior. Since then, the Brit has been champion four times in a row and has broken all the important Formula 1 records.
The man, who used to only be seen with models, was suddenly often with the trainer between races: “She is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. A very special person.” In the publicly celebrated life of Lewis Hamilton, Cullen was one of the most mysterious components. The separation also remains a mystery, because team boss Toto Wolff said: “If things don’t work anymore, you have to be honest and change something.” She was a mascot for the whole team – and “the only person who has a louder voice than a starting Formula 1 car!”
Because this sounded a bit too much like a rift, Hamilton explained: “Everything is good between me and Angie. She is now going into a different phase of her life. We are still very close and text each other every day.” It is said that Cullen wants to devote herself to her family after the hardships of travel in recent years, she is married and has two children. It’s not like she’s going to Ferrari.
Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez has now accumulated five race wins in his career. And since Sunday at the latest, a preference has become apparent. After Bahrain 2020, he only won on street courses: in Baku 2021, Monte Carlo and Singapore 2022 – and now in Jeddah. He started from pole position in Saudi Arabia last year, but then fell victim to a safety car. “I went into the weekend thinking that this place owed me something and I got that today,” he said.
There was only one little thing that annoyed him after his victory. Knowing full well that she could grow into something bigger. His teammate Verstappen snatched the fastest race lap from him in his last attempt, for which there is an extra point. After two double victories by Red Bull, Verstappen travels to Australia as the world championship leader for the Happy Brumm, the Formula 1 counterpart to the Happy Slam of tennis professionals, thanks to this little point. He asked his team “two laps before the end and they told me that I should drive at a certain speed. They said that I drove the fastest lap and should keep my pace,” complained Perez. “I thought Max had the same information. We need to talk about that.” Helmut Marko says: “We couldn’t control that. That’s Max.”
Gunther Steiner
It is currently very difficult for the Haas team boss to say anything positive about his new driver Nico Hülkenberg without combining the praise with a peppery criticism of his predecessor Mick Schumacher. “You’re always smarter in hindsight,” said the 57-year-old South Tyrolean in Jeddah about the move he made from rookie Schumacher to the experienced Hülkenberg. There are now “ten good teams, all with a similar budget, financially and technically sound. Everything is getting closer together, and then you need good drivers.” Hulkenberg is just such a person.
Schumacher had wrecked his Haas several times last year, but in times of budget limits it is important that the drivers do not cause accidents that are expensive and have a negative impact on development resources: “It is crucial to spend as little money as possible on this ‘ Steiner said. Schumacher had two years at Haas. “But you can’t beat a dead horse. He wasn’t happy. But I would say he saw it coming.”
Steiner, a trained butcher, rhetorically reaches deep into the sausage shelf and pulls out: not the fine tender, but the coarse fat.
red bull
On the racetrack, unlike on the football field, the shower racing stable is now delivering the trophies for the second year in a row as ordered. After the death of company founder Dietrich Mateschitz last year, it seems that his diadoches from the various business areas still have to sort themselves out a little. The former football manager and new CEO Oliver Mintzlaff was in Jeddah in the pits and witnessed the dominance of the RB cars, which has increased even further this year.
Immediately after landing, he should have been handed the crisp assessment of himself that the RB motorsport consultant Helmut Marko, 79, about him of all places in the magazine speed week had made, which belongs to the Red Bull Group. “It’s no longer the case that I report by phone after every training session and race,” explained the 79-year-old, who had been friends with Mateschitz for many years. “The direct, personal and friendly relationship is no longer there. Didi was a visionary, had emotions. I don’t see that anymore.” Mintzlaff, on the other hand, he only “met twice. He got insights. You’ll see how far he will respond to our ideas. Red Bull Racing has always been very independent.”
In Jeddah, Marko added another tip: “I think Mintzlaff is busy after Manchester anyway…” That was an allusion to RB Leipzig’s 7-0 swatter against Manchester last Tuesday in the Champions League round of 16 City. A certain Erling Haaland, whose international career began at Red Bull Salzburg, scored five of the seven goals.