2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Heroes and Zeroes

[Jericoke]

Heroes

Oliver Bearman.  Absolutely brilliant story.  18 year old F2 racer, filling in for Carlos Sainz having an appendectomy, gets a single practise session in an F1 car, comes a hair shy of reaching Q3, manages to finish 7th place in his first ever F1 race.  Certainly raised to the occasion.

Max/Perez/RBR.  First and second without any (on track) drama.

LeClerc.  Third place is as good as you can do in 2022 2023 2024 without an RBR

Haas.  In a season where everyone expected some dead last finishes, they put in a solid race to get Hulkenberg into 10th place.  I didn't particularly enjoy K-Mag holding up all the midfield drivers, but it's a valid strategy executed to perfection.  It is nice to see that Haas is capable of engaging in strategy when we've seen 'top' teams struggle with it in the past few years.

Alonso.  Like LeClerc, there's only so much a racer can do without an RBR, so good job.

Albon.  He's a great racer, doesn't feel like a cookie cutter like the other drivers, but just can't seem to catch a break (aside from a broken front wing...)

Zeroes.
K-Mag.  We've all seen great drivers hold up opponents to help their teammates.  I suppose this is worthy of praise, but still, need to keep the car on track and not hit other drivers.  I hope his race doesn't open up a can of worms with midfield teams holding each other up.

Alpine.  I know I expected Haas to be the perpetual bottom dwellers, but looks like that's Alpine.

Stake.  What is going on with their pit stop problems?  I'm pretty sure the tire guns are standard amongst all teams, so can't really blame the equipment.

RB.  This was supposed to be the season to determine if Tsunoda or Ricciardo was going to force Perez out at Red Bull.  I don't think either of them look like they belong at the front of the grid.

Other thoughts:
The Christian Horner/Helmut Marko/Jos Verstappen drama at Red Bull is both entertaining and exhausting.  If they don't sort things out soon, it very much might cause the team to implode, as Jos has instigated predicted.  If Ford uses this an excuse to pull out of F1, and FOM continues to keep Andretti on the sidelines, what are Americans supposed to feel about this being a serious sport and not just another C-List sideshow?

[Willy]

Good work Jeri! Totally agree.

Oliver Bearman was the star drive in this race. 1 hour in the car before quali and he managed 7th in the race. A name we will be hearing for a while to come I imagine.

K-Mag being given two 10 second penalties was a tad over the top. The supposed pass on Tsunoda was a joke and at best he should have gotten 5 seconds.  10 seconds was overkill.

The RBR drama is quickly being swept under the carpet as these things are when this happens. As there is never smoke without fire I imagine the girl in question (who has now been fired....imagine that) had some valid reasons for speaking up about Horner.
It would be interesting to hear how Horner really treats women from Ginger Spice as she will know best.