Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: We return to Jeddah for the second race of the of 2023 season. Whilst the circuit has undergone some substantial revisions since last year, it retains its fundamental character and offers a very different challenge to the track in Bahrain.
We enjoyed a productive couple of weeks in Bahrain and were able to take a lot of positives from the race weekend. We now face the challenge of quickly adapting the car to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which is much more sensitive to drag than Bahrain. There are a couple of tricky corners on the circuit, which seriously test the car and drivers. With each lap being in excess of 6km, there are few opportunities to practice these corners before the Qualifying session.
Like the last event, the key sessions take place in the evening and we will need to be mindful of the changes to wind and temperature following the sunset. The track surface is much smoother than in Bahrain and Pirelli have provided softer tyre compounds for this event.
We are looking forward to tackling this charismatic street circuit and improving our understanding of FW45.
Alex Albon: Jeddah is a really fun street track and I’m looking forward to it, however it’s one of those tracks where confidence is very important, and you need to build up to through the weekend. On paper, it’s a track that might suit us a little better than Bahrain, so we’ll see once we’re there. We’re still understanding the car and it will be interesting to go to a different track to learn more about the car.
Logan Sargeant: I’m really looking forward to round two in Saudi. We’ve built a great foundation in Bahrain to work from. Hopefully we can continue to be competitive and keep improving as a team. Obviously, Jeddah is a very challenging circuit so we’re going to have to build into the weekend with the aim to come away with a positive result.
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