Emerson Fittipaldi: Saudi Arabian GP could follow Bahrain GP pattern

Former Formula 1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi says that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this afternoon could be similar to the one in Bahrain last weekend.

The second race of the 2022 season takes place this evening in Jeddah, with Sergio Perez set to lead them away after qualifying for pole position last night.

It’s the first of his career, and he’ll have the Ferraris and Max Verstappen for company heading into turn one.

Certainly, that has a familiar ring to it with the two teams battling for supremacy last weekend in Bahrain, before Red Bull suffered a double retirement, and Fittipaldi believes we could see a similar race play out, with the two teams likely to again lead the way as there has not been much time for others to upgrade their cars:

“My opinion, it would be very interesting to see in Jeddah, the confirmation of what happened in Bahrain,” he said to Vegas Insider.

“Because it was only one week ago, they didn’t have the time to go take the car back to the factory. It’s a very short time.

“The cars will start in Jeddah, very similar to how they finished in Bahrain.

“I don’t think they have time to do any major aerodynamic modification or final tuning of the aerodynamics.”

Each team will have areas on their car that they want to improve but, Fittipaldi is right, there hasn’t been much time to make changes between Bahrain and today’s race.

That said, then, it looks as though the two early front-runners will once again be the teams to beat this weekend.