Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Saudi Arabia Grand Prix

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Two races down and two absolute snoozers.

No way to sugar coat it.

This year has been booooooring so far.

Regardless, there were still clear winners and losers from the weekend.

Let’s get right into it.

Losers

5. Carlos Sainz

One week after an incredible race and prepared to build off of it, Carlos Sainz missed the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to appendicitis.

Thankfully, everything has gone well and he’ll be back for Australia in a few weeks, but it’s still a big bummer for Sainz.

4. Lewis Hamilton

I don’t know if it’s the style of car, the setups they’re trying, or just pure senioritis from Lewis Hamilton in his last season at Mercedes, but he has been nowhere near the level he was at last year.

The car isn’t good enough to win, but it should be better than 9th!

3. Sauber

Back to back weeks now that Sauber’s atrocious pit stops have completely ruined the race for one of their drivers.

Last week, it was Bottas.

This week, it was Zhou.

They’ve got to get it figured out. Every point in the midfield this year is crucial.

2. Daniel Ricciardo

With the second (or maybe both Red Bull seats) up for grabs, there was discussion that Ricciardo might find his way back at Red Bull.

If so, he better have better performances than he has the past two weekends.

Because Ricciardo was completely outpaced by teammate Yuki Tsunoda this weekend.

1. Lance Stroll

His fight back for points in Bahrain last week was deserving of praise, but it was a first lap incident that had him last in the first lap anyway.

So I’m sure Aston Martin was looking for more consistency from Stroll this week to go along with a quality performance from Fernando Alonso.

But that’s not what they got.

What they got instead was Stroll putting the car into the wall and crashing out.

Aston Martin could finish very high up in the constructors standings this year.

But they need more from Stroll for sure.

Winners

5. Max Verstappen

Yeah he won again big whoop.

4. Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri showed last year that he is incredibly talented, but outperforming his veteran teammate Lando Norris for a 4th place finish is another example of his talent.

The kid is really, really special.

3. Nico Hulkenberg

I really thought Haas would be garbage this year, but Nico Hulkenberg has shown they have a lot more pace than I expected, finishing 10th and getting a crucial point in the midfield battle.

2. Kevin Magnussen

But the reason Hulkenberg was able to get points was because of Kevin Magnussen’s excellent defensive driving to make sure his teammate would wind up in the points, holding back lots and lots of faster cars for his teammates aide.

Like I said earlier, every point in this midfield battle matters.

1. Oliver Bearman

On Friday, 18 year old Oliver Bearman put his Prema car on pole position for the F2 feature race on Sunday. It was a great result and set himself up for a great race.

And then on Saturday, he gets a call from Ferrari saying “you aren’t going to race in F2, you’re going to replace Carlos Sainz and race in F1.”

So Bearman, despite no experience in a Formula 1 car and on a very difficult street circuit, was thrown into the 2nd best car on the grid with hardly any practice time.

The result? He finished 7th.

Which in any other situation is a bad result for Ferrari, but considering his lack of preparation, 7th is absolutely fantastic and the team was rightfully thrilled with the result.

It was another example that some guys just need an opportunity to shine.

Bearman certainly took his.