Formula 1, second double for Red Bull and podium for Leclerc. But it is the rookie Bearman who is the moral winner

For once, the ‘usual’ victory of Verstappen, with the usual follow-up by Perez, is not newsworthy. It doesn’t matter that it’s the ninth in a row.

The real news is the seventh position on the debut of a young man in Formula 1, at the wheel of a Ferrari, having been warned less than 36 hours before the race. However, it is also true that Verstappen won his second race in a row of 2024 in Jeddah following an unquestionable dominance, already seen seven days ago in Bahrain.

Maximum points always go to him. This week it also went very well for Perez who, all things considered, doesn’t suffer from a huge gap from his teammate as in other races, including last Saturday, even if it can’t be said that he was exactly close to him by the exhausts. Unlike much of 2023, at the start of the season he has done exactly what the team expects. So far nothing new or surprising.

Therefore, given Red Bull’s still unbeatable lead, Leclerc’s third place is undoubtedly a great joy, despite the fact that he himself defined the race as “boring, because the first two immediately fell behind”. Without history. Like a thousand other times. But Leclerc did his best today too, without reservations: he qualified on the front row, something the Monegasque knows how to do very well and regularly, he didn’t do badly in terms of race pace and all in all he didn’t have any other worthy opponents. For today’s Ferrari, it is difficult to ask for more. And the team might hardly have expected anything better, yet a miracle happened in Jeddah. On a weekend where the other starting driver, Carlos Sainz jr, had to undergo appendectomy surgery, having a car on the podium is anything but a consolation. But having a last-second substitute, a total rookie, as hasn’t happened for decades, who was capable of scoring points, this is truly surprising and, finally, capable of breaking a ‘calm’ that had already worried the fans so much in Bahrain.

At 18, the youngest debutant in Ferrari, immediately in the points

Tomorrow the English newspapers will talk regarding nothing else. Only the second in history to debut in red, 52 years following Merzario. Youngest rookie to debut with the Maranello team at 18 years and 305 days. It’s true that the ‘kid’ had just won pole in Formula 2, once more in Jeddah, and he knows his stuff. It’s true that Oliver Bearman is part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, he had already picked up an ‘old’ 2021 red car at Fiorano, and he had driven a more recent Formula 1, on a Haas, in a couple of free practices for the GP of Mexico and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in the end-of-season tests. But to find equally brilliant debuts we would have to almost bother that of Lewis Hamilton, who even came third in his first top-flight competition, in Australia, in 2007. Those were different times: then he was a long-awaited starter, prepared for a long time , with lots of tests behind us. And in any case it was a performance overshadowed by the disqualification and consequent total cancellation of the points collected throughout the year in the constructors’ championship due to the spy story involving Nigel Stepney.