Three excellent reasons to watch the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix…

You’re sticking with the format then? Brave.

Or stupid. We went in strong with ‘Three excellent reasons to watch the Bahrain Grand Prix’ last week, and 92 minutes of turgid racing later that approach looked… misguided.

But we’re sticking to our guns, and like a football team manager who’s just overseen an eighth defeat in a row, we’re going to plough on regardless until such a time the chairman calls for a ‘quick chat’.

So, three excellent reasons to watch the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: in spite of Max Verstappen’s dominant win in Bahrain, the teams sound more optimistic that 2024 will yield more chances to win. Why? That’s because the Bahrain track is a tyre-killer and with the best tyre wear on the grid, that suits Red Bull all too well. At other circuits, the pace difference should be far less stark. Oh please let that be the case in Saudi.

Secondly, the intra-team battles are shaping up rather nicely. George Russell had the upper hand on Lewis Hamilton last week; Oscar Piastri’s race pace looks a lot closer to Lando Norris’s this year; Carlos Sainz drove like someone who’d been ditched for 2024 and showed Charles Leclerc no mercy when he hit trouble. And who wasn’t entertained by Yuki Tsunoda going full Dictionary of Guenther Steiner on Daniel Ricciardo via the team radio?

Lastly, if the race is another let down then at the very least there'll be endless cutaways to various members of high-ranking Red Bull personnel, all shuffling uncomfortably as the team simultaneously destroys the competition and destroys itself from within.

Set the scene for me.

F1 is making headlines this week... for all the wrong reasons. The saga surrounding Red Bull team principal Christian Horner continues, and earlier this week it emerged that the FIA president has been accused of meddling in a race result last season and trying to get the Las Vegas GP cancelled. Blimey.

On track, there is far less drama. Max Verstappen already leads the championship and is now on an eight-race winning streak, having set the record of 10 on the bounce only last season. He’s now only been beaten once in the last 19 grands prix, and if the RB20 is as quick as it looked in Bahrain then there will be no championship fight yet again in 2024. Oh dear.

What time does the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix start?

Remember we’re racing again on Saturday this weekend, with the lights set to go out at 5pm UK time on 9 March. Qualifying is on Friday 8 March, also at 5pm GMT.

Got a thing for uncompetitive practice sessions? FP1 begins at 1.30pm on Thursday 7 March, followed by FP2 at 5pm. FP3 precedes quali on Friday, starting at 1.30pm.

Is it going to rain?

Nope. Next question.

Gimme some history in 100 words or fewer.

The Saudi Arabian GP joined the F1 calendar in 2021, hosting the astonishing penultimate race of the epic title battle between Verstappen and Hamilton followed by a thrilling head-to-head between Max and Charles Leclerc in 2022. Remember when they played chicken with the DRS line? Lordy, that was weird. Sergio Perez won it last year, so we’ve not had a repeat winner yet. The 27-corner, 6.174km track in Jeddah provides a 50-lap grand prix, although plans are afoot to move the race to a custom-built track in Qiddiya with a 108-metre ramp and roller coaster. We’re not kidding.

The top three will be…

Max Verstappen will (probably) win, sorry. And Sergio Perez is a demon on street tracks so he’ll (probably) finish second again, sorry. The final podium spot is anyone’s guess though, given that P2 to P9 in qualifying last week were split by just three tenths of a second. Ferrari should be pretty strong again, but if Mercedes can avoid the engine cooling issues that cost so much time in Bahrain, they could be in the hunt. Let’s have a punt on George Russell for P3: if reports are to be believed it sounds like his podium here last season should’ve stood, so the universe owes him.

Shock of the weekend?

Jos Verstappen will retract his demand for Christian Horner to resign, and the pair will patch things up before being pictured together hand-in-hand in an apparent display of unity and devotion.

Meanwhile the person who compiles F1’s race highlights video on YouTube will be made an MBE after successfully finding seven minutes’ worth of material to use from last week’s race in Bahrain. Remarkable work, whoever you are.

Where can I watch the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix?

The usual places: you need to sign up for Sky Sports, or go via the middle man that is Now TV. Both require a debit or credit card, obviously. The free option is Channel 4’s highlights show, which will broadcast a quali and race rerun on 8.30pm and 9.30pm respectively this weekend. Failing that, you can listen to live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra for every session… except for the race, which clashes with some rugby apparently. Oh.