Formula 1 Saudi Arabia 2024: New driver at Ferrari, power struggle at Red Bull and first shifts in the ranking

The 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix took place a week after the season opener in Bahrain. So it's no wonder that huge steps couldn't be made in a week. Nevertheless, there were the first shifts in the ranking of drivers and teams.

Oliver Bearman, man of the day
The reserve driver Oliver Bearman at Ferrari had to or was allowed to take over the wheel of the Ferrari for the ill Carlos Sainz, who was in hospital for an appendix operation. He cut a surprisingly good figure. He achieved an impressive 7th place and scored 6 championship points in his first Formula 1 race. He left McLaren man Lando Norris and 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton behind in Mercedes. No wonder he was honored as Man of the Race. Ferrari now has a promising young talent in its team.

Annoying power struggle at Red Bull
In addition to the racing events, one could again observe and especially read in the tabloids that Max Verstappen was on the verge of running away from the team if Helmut Marko was fired. The target is team boss Christian Horner, who was confronted with unpleasant allegations that no one knows whether they are true or not. This story allegedly sparked an internal power struggle between Horner and Marko. It seems to have become a bad fashion in our western society to attack (successful) men with wild stories, to drag them into the mud in front of the whole world and to want to destroy their reputation and life and often enough to be successful with it. Wife and ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell was also there to support her husband in Saudi Arabia. Formula 1 fans are not interested in such gossip and could easily do without it.

First shifts in the rankings
In addition to the Formula 1 intrigues, you could see the first shifts in the teams and drivers in the rankings in the naked racing action. Oscar Piastri in a McLaren was able to leave his stablemate Lando Norris behind and move up to 4th place. As a result, Mercedes and McLaren swap places in the table early this year. Fernando Alonso shone with a 5th place and scored a valuable 10 points to stay in touch with Mercedes and McLaren. And Nico Hülkenberg also surprised with a 10th place and his first World Championship point this year for the Haas team. The Haas Formula 1 team is recording its first clear upward trend after being the most unsuccessful team at the bottom of the table last season. Now we can look forward to the race in Australia in two weeks.