Luke and Dino get set for their first taste of the Jeddah Street Circuit
Round 3 - Jeddah - Preview
The FIA F2 Championship heads straight from Sakhir to Jeddah for Round 3 of the series and the second leg of this double-header in the desert.
Fresh from a successful weekend at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Hitech TGR is eager to carry the current momentum into the Saudi Arabian event, acutely aware that championships can be defined by early season performance. The team is sitting at the top of the standings after two rounds, while Luke and Dino elevated themselves to third and sixth in the drivers’ battle – Luke is just one point adrift of the current leader.
Jeddah presents a tough challenge for all the drivers – the 6.714km track is one of the fastest on the calendar and is certainly the quickest of the street circuits. Stretching out alongside the Red Sea coast and featuring three DRS zones, it calls for a thorough setup evaluation in the sim and in Friday’s practice, optimising the car balance in the high-speed corners to make the best use of the high grip and get the maximum performance out of the Supersoft tyres in Qualifying.
As a street track, there is no run-off, and the walls add further intensity that calls for full focus on every inch of each breathless lap.
The compounds selected are the Medium and Supersoft, which should make for a variety of different strategies up and down the field in the Feature Race. There is unlikely to be any deviation from the Medium for the Sprint Race due to the significant thermal degradation.
As ever, even the best strategy can be ruined by an untimely Safety Car deployment, of which there were several last year.
Much like its Middle East neighbour of last weekend, Saudi Arabia is set for high ambient temperatures, which means the mercury will be rising even higher in the cockpit, which can add another 10°C. The only slight respite is the slightly later session times for qualifying and the races.
Clive Hatton, Hitech’s F2 Team Manager, said of the weekend ahead in Saudi:
“After a strong weekend in Bahrain, the drivers are excited to drive here in Jeddah for the first time. They’ve had a good look at the track, and with plenty of preparation, they’re ready to take the weekend on.”
Free Practice gets the on-track action underway at 12:45 local time on Friday and is followed by what will be a breathless Qualifying session between the walls at 18:00 local. Saturday’s 20-lap Sprint Race is scheduled for 18:15 local time, while the 28-lap Feature Race will get underway at 16:25 local on Sunday.