Three seasons in, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit remains a baby of the F1 calendar, but it takes experience to tackle its fearless, punishing streets.

As an F1 test track that has been on the calendar for 20 years, Bahrain offers a gentle and well-known season opener, before Saudi Arabia offers a dose of the unfamiliar in Round 2, less than a week later. Three years in, we’re getting a better idea of what it takes to be successful on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, but such is the nature of the unrelenting street circuit, it always throws up surprises.

Attempting to predict what those might be is our mystic driving duo, Lando and Oscar. They’ll be assisted by some words of wisdom from our Team Principal, Andrea Stella, while we provide you with some information on the circuit, a new F1 icebreaker and a guide on what to wear.

“Jeddah up next! We’ve started the 2024 season well, and we’ll hopefully take that momentum into the Saudi Arabian GP. We had some things to look at after the Bahrain GP, which we want to keep working on, but we’ve made a good start and can build from here. It’s great to start the season with points in the bank, let’s bring home some more this weekend!”

“I’m looking forward to returning to the Saudi Arabian GP. We’re in a better position this year and it feels good to have already secured some points in the first race. We noted some things to improve on over the week, which we’ll aim to address this weekend. We’ll do our best to close off this double header with another double points.”

“We leave Bahrain with 12 points, which is a strong start to the 2024 season. We now head to the Saudi Arabian GP, which is a fast street circuit and one that is very different in characteristics to the track in Bahrain. That presents us with a new challenge and a new opportunity to learn about the MCL38 on a fast and flowing circuit.

“I would like to once again thank everyone in the team for their hard work, enabling us to start the season positively. We’ll keep working hard to improve our performance and deliver consistent strong results.”

Track insights

With an average speed of 245mph and 75% of the track spent at full throttle, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is seriously quick – only Monza is quicker, and that isn’t a tight and twisting, wall-to-wall, street circuit. But as any Formula 1 fan knows, it isn’t speed alone that makes for a good track.

At 6.174km long, with 27 turns, there’s a lot of tarmac for drivers to play with, but the streets are narrow and only seven of those corners are braking points – the rest are taken flat out. That’s an intense lap. The slowest of those seven comers, Turn 1, comes right at the start of the lap on the back of a DRS zone on the start-finish straight, making it the best passing opportunity on the circuit.

Driving under the lights on Saturday evening, with the yacht-filled Red Sea coastline as a beautiful backdrop, the race looks as good as it feels in the car. Even after three seasons of racing on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, it’s still a tough one to predict – what we can say, is that this won’t be a quiet race.

The season so far

After months of the teams all wandering around in the dark and doing their own thing, F1 switched on the lights on in Bahrain and allowed everyone the chance to assess and react to each other’s winter work.

Lando and Oscar enjoyed a solid first Qualifying session of 2024, clinching seventh and eighth on the starting grid. In Saturday’s Grand Prix, Lando finished one place up in sixth, bettering seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, whilst Oscar holding off two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso. We head into the second round with 12 points, sitting fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

F1 translations: Graining

F1 is full of specialist slang and complicated jargon that can stump even the most avid of fans, which is why we’ll be explaining common F1 terminology ahead of each grand prix this season. This week, it’s graining…

In the two Saudi Arabian Grands Prix so far, graining has proven to be a challenge for teams when using the Soft tyre, but what exactly does it mean?

Graining occurs when small strips of rubber are torn from a tyre, but instead of being left behind on the track, they are picked back up by the hot surface of the tyre. This results in a rough, uneven, and irregular surface. This impacts everything, from braking and corners to grip and handling.

Graining typically happens when there is less grip on the track or when there is a discrepancy between the temperature of the track and the tyre. The reason this can be an issue in Saudi Arabia is due to the street circuit’s smooth surface, making the track more slippery and cooler to start with, before rubber has been laid down, creating more grip.

F1 icebreaker

Stuck for conversation with your F1-loving friends? Spark up a discussion with our F1 icebreaker…

As well as being the fastest street circuit on the calendar, and the second fastest overall, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is also the second-longest street circuit on the calendar, the third longest overall and it has the most corners of any track.

The fit: Born to race

Whether we’re physically out on track, like Lando and Oscar, working in the garage, part of our marketing team at the McLaren Technology Centre, or cheering us on from home, we’re all racers and we were all Born to Race.

With slogan tees and hoodies in a variety of styles and colours, you can make sure everyone knows that you were Born to Race with our Essentials collection.