The Unforgettable Chaos: Reviewing the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah

The inaugural Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, held under the stark, floodlit Jeddah skyline, was a weekend steeped in anxiety and bristling with anticipation. Long before the starting lights illuminated the grid, a palpable sense of apprehension permeated the paddock. This was the sport’s first visit to the Kingdom, and the hastily completed Jeddah Corniche Circuit – dubbed the “world’s fastest street circuit” – had barely received its formal sanction less than 24 hours before the pit lane opened. Not every barrier was fully painted, and some temporary structures felt less than robust, yet the six-kilometre ribbon of asphalt and its extensive network of barriers stood ready to crown a potential new world champion.

The circuit itself was an enigma: hyper-fast and incredibly tight in equal measure. Practice sessions and qualifying had already delivered a barrage of near-misses and traffic jams, setting a clear precedent that Sunday’s main event would be anything but clean or conventional. Drivers voiced their concerns openly. Sergio Perez, reflecting on his qualifying performance, articulated a sentiment shared by many: “It’s a really, really nice circuit. Very, very dangerous, though. I really just hope that it goes through that we don’t see a big shunt out there.” His words, laden with an eerie prescience, foreshadowed the tumultuous events that were about to unfold.

Qualifying Drama and a Missed Opportunity for Verstappen

Perez’s premonition would, unfortunately, be realized in dramatic fashion. However, before the race even began, the championship narrative took another twist during Saturday’s qualifying. Max Verstappen, on a sensational lap that looked set to secure pole position, pushed the limits perhaps a fraction too far. A critical misjudgment at the circuit’s notorious Turn 27 saw him clip the wall on his final run, ending what could have been his greatest ever qualifying lap. Instead of starting from the front, Verstappen would line up alongside his fiercest rival, Lewis Hamilton, on the front row, setting the stage for an even more intense direct confrontation from the very outset of the race.

Despite the setback, Verstappen retained a strategic advantage: his medium compound tyres were at least four laps fresher than Hamilton’s, a detail that promised opportunities for the Dutchman in the early stages of the race. The 250-meter sprint to Turn 1 would be crucial, a chance for Verstappen to leverage his fresher rubber.

The First Start: Mercedes Defends and Schumacher’s Crash Rewrites Strategy

As the five red lights extinguished, Hamilton made a solid getaway, but it was his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, who truly played a pivotal role. Bottas, starting just behind Hamilton, acted as a crucial bodyguard, effectively covering any potential room on the inside for Verstappen into Turn 1. This tactical masterstroke from Mercedes meant Verstappen and Red Bull had to settle into the role of chasers during the race’s opening phase. The field navigated the serpentine sweepers of the opening sector without major incident, establishing an early order: two Mercedes cars leading Verstappen, followed by Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, under pressure from Perez, and Lando Norris battling hard to maximise his soft tyres in sixth.

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Pre-race wisdom suggested that a one-stop strategy from mediums to hard tyres would be the optimal choice for those starting in the top 10, given the soft tyre’s poor degradation on longer runs. However, the high probability of a Safety Car intervention, or even multiple, loomed large as the primary wildcard, threatening to compromise carefully planned strategies at a moment’s notice.

The inevitable Safety Car materialized on Lap 10. Cameras suddenly cut to the alarming sight of Mick Schumacher’s Haas F1 car heavily embedded in the reinforced barriers on the outside of Turn 22. This incident immediately triggered Mercedes’ planned double-stack pit stop. “Box, box, box,” Bottas was instructed, with the team needing to create sufficient space between their cars for the manoeuvre. Bottas’s gap to Hamilton began to deliberately inflate as race engineer Riccardo Musconi relayed updates: “So, Lewis is two-and-a-half ahead. Three seconds ahead. Four seconds ahead. So five seconds, that’s a good gap… Six seconds…”

Verstappen and Red Bull, stuck behind Bottas and acutely aware of Mercedes’ tactic to gain track position for Hamilton under the Safety Car, were far from impressed. “Valtteri’s lapping massively off the pace,” Verstappen complained. “It’s a piss-take. Absolute piss-take,” his engineer Giampaolo Lambiase concurred, before making a crucial decision: “Stay out, Max, stay out.” While the majority of the field streamed into the pits for hard tyres, Verstappen followed the instruction, inherited the lead, and seemingly gained a significant advantage.

However, any sense of security Mercedes might have felt in their strategy evaporated when the marshal boards around the circuit began to flash bright red. The race was being suspended with a red flag to allow for barrier repairs. This dramatic development changed the game entirely. “So, that means we are in the lead now?” a surprised Verstappen asked, realizing his team would now be permitted to change his tyres at no cost in time or position. “That’s correct,” Lambiase affirmed matter-of-factly. Hamilton, shaking his head in his cockpit, recognized the unwitting self-snooker: “Okay, so what does this now mean? Does this now mean he can change tyres?” “Yes it does,” engineer Peter Bonnington affirmed, equally matter-of-factly.

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The First Controversial Restart and the Second Red Flag

After a 20-minute delay, the field left the pits to resume a race transformed. Esteban Ocon, having also stayed out under the red flag, had vaulted from seventh to fourth, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who gained three places without pitting. Their fortunes starkly contrasted with McLaren teammate Norris, who plummeted from sixth to 14th after an ill-timed pit stop to ditch his soft tyres.

For the second time that evening, drivers lined up on the grid, this time to recommence the race from Lap 15. Verstappen, now on fresh hard tyres, was on pole, with Hamilton directly behind him. Hamilton’s getaway was superior, pulling alongside and then clearing the Red Bull by the braking zone for Turn 1. Verstappen, unwilling to concede the lead, dived deep to the outside, attempting to swing back past Hamilton into Turn 2. The room vanished, and Verstappen darted beyond the white lines, bouncing over the inside kerb. Hamilton had to straighten up to avoid contact. “He just cut across the whole kerb!” Hamilton exclaimed, subsequently losing a second position to Ocon’s rapid restarting Alpine exiting Turn 2.

Behind them, Perez’s pre-race fears manifested in a major accident. Caught between Leclerc and Pierre Gasly through Turn 3, Perez was clipped by the Ferrari, sending him spinning into the inside wall. The following pack had little room to react. While many drivers miraculously found a sliver of space to squeeze through, George Russell could only slam on the brakes, an effort that proved futile. Nikita Mazepin, with nowhere to go, slammed into Russell’s Williams in a nasty collision, instantly putting both cars out of the race. All three retirees climbed safely from their cars, but Russell’s frustration was evident. “Absolutely inevitable,” he spat over the radio as he retired his wounded Williams, “Stupid.”

Race Control Intervenes: A Controversial Offer and a Third Start

For the second time in as many laps, the red flag was deployed. Verstappen still held the lead ahead of Ocon. The downtime, while debris was cleared, offered both Mercedes and Red Bull a chance to scrutinize the controversial restart on replay. Race director Michael Masi, after reviewing Verstappen’s actions at Turn 1 and 2, which were deemed to be outside both regulations and circuit confines, sought a pragmatic solution. He aimed to resume the race without immediate stewards’ investigations looming over the outcome.

“I’m going to give you the opportunity to start from grid position two for this,” Masi informed Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, “based on what occurred at Turn 1 and 2.” After Masi clarified that this meant dropping Verstappen behind Hamilton to third on the grid, with Ocon taking the lead, Red Bull reluctantly accepted the offer. Verstappen duly pulled over once the field returned to the track, allowing Ocon and Hamilton through. This unprecedented negotiation set the stage for yet another restart.

Verstappen’s Gamble and the Infamous Brake Test

For the third time that evening, the drivers took to the grid. Hamilton and Mercedes had successfully repelled Verstappen at the first attempt and had only lost the lead on the second thanks to a move subsequently deemed illegal. Could the Red Bull driver make good on a third attempt? He could, thanks to a strategic gamble by his team. While Ocon and Hamilton stuck with their hard tyres for a race still boasting 34 laps, Verstappen switched to mediums. It was a big ask for these tyres to last the remaining distance, but they offered superior immediate grip, significantly improving his chances of a quicker getaway than his rivals.

At the second restart, Hamilton was momentarily preoccupied with trying to assume command of the inside line to Turn 1 over Ocon. This slight distraction created the opening Verstappen needed. Capitalizing on the space, Verstappen plunged inside the Mercedes at the apex and swept cleanly into the lead. Hamilton narrowly escaped being caught between two adversaries, suffering only minor front wing endplate damage from a light touch with Ocon. Within just four corners, Verstappen had rendered the unusual negotiations under the second red flag irrelevant, once again resuming the lead of the race.

Hamilton quickly dispatched Ocon to reclaim second position by the end of the lap, then set about reeling in Verstappen for the lead, a scenario that had become a recurring theme throughout the intense 2021 season. While Verstappen’s pace was formidable, the critical question remained whether his medium tyres could endure the remaining distance. From laps 18 to 35, the gap hovered around one-and-a-half seconds. Hamilton kept a relentless pace, with only an occasional Virtual Safety Car for debris offering Verstappen brief respite from constantly checking his mirrors. Then, at the end of Lap 36, Hamilton breached Verstappen’s DRS range, signaling the start of the final, most controversial act of the race.

With a tight exit out of the final corner and a decent tow from the Red Bull ahead, the stage was set for what should have been a truly spectacular wheel-to-wheel battle, a display of exquisite racecraft between arguably the two most naturally gifted drivers on the planet. Instead, the battle for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix victory descended into an ugly, unsportsmanlike confrontation.

Carrying immense momentum, Hamilton tucked up behind his rival down the pit straight, pulling to the outside to seize the inside for Turn 2. Verstappen, in a move eerily reminiscent of his notorious Sao Paulo stunt, refused to yield, charging to the apex with such speed that he clearly would not make the second corner. He scrambled over the inside of Turn 2 as Hamilton swerved to avoid contact. “This guy’s fricking crazy, man,” Hamilton vented, clearly unimpressed.

Red Bull knew their driver was in trouble. Not only was he vulnerable to losing the lead, but he was also likely to face an investigation and almost certainly a penalty if he did not surrender the position. As Verstappen swept through Turn 22, the team delivered the instruction. “Let’s give the position back to Hamilton,” Lambiase instructed him. “Obviously do that strategically.”

As Verstappen navigated the long, bending straight approaching the final corner, he began to lift off the throttle, slowing significantly for Hamilton to naturally breeze past before reaching the braking zone of Turn 27. Hamilton, at this point unaware that his rival was voluntarily giving up the position, also began to slow. Whether it was genuine confusion, or a suspicion about Verstappen’s intentions and a reluctance to pass him just before a DRS zone, Hamilton continued to decelerate, closing in on the Red Bull that was now practically crawling in front of him. Then, with the Mercedes directly behind him in the middle of the road, Verstappen sharply, suddenly hit the brakes.

In scenes more befitting an open-lobby multiplayer race in a video game than a battle between two real-world championship contenders, Hamilton clipped the back of Verstappen’s car. The two rivals had collided on a straight, at barely over 100 kph, while leading a Grand Prix with millions watching. “He just brake-tested me!” Hamilton exclaimed. “He’d been told to give you the position,” Bonnington explained, exasperated. “I don’t know what’s going on here, Max,” an audibly bemused Lambiase admitted. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

Aftermath and Championship Implications

Hours after the chequered flag, Verstappen was handed a 10-second time penalty by the stewards for the collision, specifically for “braking suddenly and significantly” after the pair had already slowed down. The stewards also noted Hamilton’s clear reluctance to pass Verstappen at that moment, fearing it might gift the Red Bull driver DRS and an easy move back into the lead down the pit straight.

After one of the most ludicrous incidents seen on any Formula 1 circuit, and having collectively wasted around four seconds with their dawdling, the pair resumed racing speeds. Verstappen still led, with Hamilton second, his front wing now bearing the scars of two collisions and littering even more debris on the track.

With Hamilton still not having received restitution for the Turn 1 incident, Verstappen allowed Hamilton to catch up once again and lifted off the throttle once more on the approach to Turn 27. This time, Hamilton accepted the offer and drove into the lead, only for Verstappen to immediately dive to the inside into Turn 27 and reclaim the lead yet again. However, by the time Verstappen had finally fulfilled his obligation to cede the position, the stewards had run out of patience and had already handed him a five-second time penalty for illegally retaining his lead at Turn 1 back on Lap 37.

The sheer ridiculousness of the entire battle was compounded further when Verstappen pulled aside for Hamilton on the back straight for a third time. Hamilton kept his car to the inside, forcing Verstappen wide around the outside of Turn 27. Race Director Masi would later inform Mercedes that he believed this move was close to being worthy of an unsportsmanlike driving warning flag.

Finally, Hamilton was ahead, and Verstappen would be losing five seconds at the finish. The Red Bull began to fade as his medium tyres, pushed to their absolute limit, started to lose any significant life. What could have been an enthralling wheel-to-wheel battle for the win had instead been decided by a series of unnecessary incidents and controversial decisions, leaving the end of the race feeling somewhat hollow as it eventually reached its climax.

Having somehow navigated the chaos of the race without further detriment, Hamilton put Verstappen out of his mind and checked off the remaining laps. When he took the chequered flag, securing both the win and the fastest lap, he was greeted with an unprecedented outpouring of passion and excitement from his Mercedes team. “I think today I’ve seen a passion and excitement within my team that, I think, in 10 years I don’t think I’ve seen,” Hamilton reflected. “Which is amazing.”

In a welcome reminder of how thrilling clean racing could be, Bottas executed a masterful chase of Esteban Ocon in the latter part of the race. With a last-gasp run to the line, aided by DRS, he snatched the final podium spot from the Alpine driver. It was a demonstration of how hard and clean racing is indeed possible around this peculiar circuit – provided both drivers are willing to race within the established boundaries.

Daniel Ricciardo secured fifth for McLaren, ahead of Gasly in the AlphaTauri. The two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz once again proved to be the closest-matched pair of teammates in the field. Antonio Giovinazzi tripled his points tally with a strong ninth-place finish after an impressive weekend, and Norris took the final point, bitterly rueing his red flag misfortune that had cost him dearly.

Despite surrendering his points advantage, missing out on pole due to his own mistake, and having lost a potential win in such tumultuous circumstances, Verstappen was understandably aggrieved. He expressed his discontent over multiple run-ins with the stewards, yet surprisingly appeared at ease with the incredibly close championship picture heading into the most important race of his life the following weekend. “I find it interesting that I am the one who gets the penalty when both of us ran outside of the white lines,” he stated. “In Brazil it was fine and now suddenly I get a penalty for it. Well, you could clearly see both didn’t make the corner, but it’s fine.”

“We’re equal on points now and I think that’s really exciting, of course, for the whole championship and Formula 1 in general. But I said it earlier on my in-lap, I think lately we’re talking more about white lines and penalties than actually proper Formula 1 racing and that’s, I think, a little bit of a shame.” Verstappen’s comments highlighted a growing tension regarding race officiating.

While referees in sports like football, rugby, and the NFL are often lauded for ‘letting them play’, the stewards applying a similar mentality to Verstappen and Hamilton’s earlier squabbles, such as in Interlagos, had perhaps only served to blur the lines when clarity was most needed. Christian Horner’s pointed remarks that the day’s events showed the sport missed former race director Charlie Whiting were particularly significant, coming just two weeks after Masi had censured him for complaining about a “rogue marshal” in Qatar.

The first-ever Saudi Arabian Grand Prix certainly delivered on spectacle, perhaps becoming one of the most hotly debated debut races in Formula 1 history. However, several drivers raised serious concerns over its suitability as a racing venue, and the ill-tempered scrap between the title contenders frequently descended into farce. Now, level on points heading into the final, decisive round of this longest-ever season, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen knew that all that truly mattered next weekend was finishing ahead of the other to be forever hailed as the winner of this increasingly tempestuous duel.

The Verstappen-Hamilton mythos had one final chance to be defined by brilliance, not by bickering and controversial incidents. Everyone in the Formula 1 community hoped that the final chapter would offer an ending worthy of a season that deserved far better than the chaotic and contentious conclusion it received in Jeddah.

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