A new challenge and a new opportunity at Jeddah
There are no breaks coming for the FIA Formula 2 Championship as it moves from the Bahrain opener to Round 2 on the shores of the Red Sea, on the fast Jeddah street circuit. Jeddah will conclude the first back-to-back stint in the Middle East for the series. The second one will take place at the end of the season, with the final events in Lusail and Yas Island within seven days. Jeddah is a street course with many high-speed sections. Teams and drivers will have a chance to continue the learning process on the new F2 car on a track that is very different from that of Bahrain.
Trident Motorsport and its drivers Richard Verschoor and Roman Staněk are aiming to have a more consistent weekend than seven days ago and a better vision of their level of performance compared to the rest of the grid. The goal in Jeddah is to secure the first points of the season. Despite being extremely fast, the track of the Arab city’s Corniche has the highest number of corners on the season, 27, and it’s the second in terms of length, sitting at 6,174 km.
The technical staff and drivers of Trident Motorsport worked with great determination and attention to detail in the preparation activities for the trip to Saudi Arabia. Now it’s up to the track to provide its response, in the same place where Verschoor took second place with Trident Motorsport in the 2022 Feature Race.
Giacomo Ricci, Team Manager: “The Jeddah Corniche Circuit awaits us with very different technical characteristics compared to Sakhir. It has low degradation, the proximity of walls, very fast sections, and slow hairpins. The Arabian track offers a demanding challenge, but also a fresh opportunity after the Bahrain debut. We prepared for the trip with the usual determination and focus, with the aim of being competitive right from qualifying and returning home with our first points of the year.”
The FIA Formula 2 Championship will start with a 45-minute Free Practice session at 12:55 on Thursday. Qualifying is scheduled on the same day, at 18. Friday will host the Sprint Race at 18.10. The Feature Race will then conclude the weekend on Saturday at 16:25. The activity on track will benefit from a full live broadcast on Sky Sports F1. Times are local (GMT+3).