Arabian nights

Based along the stunning yacht-lined seafront of the Red Sea coast, this 6.174km high-speed street circuit is a little like Monaco on fast-forward, with 79% of the lap spent at full throttle.

Racing under the Arabian night sky at the recently created Jeddah Corniche Circuit, cars travel at speeds of more than 320km/h on the world’s fastest street circuit, which features not one, not two, but three DRS zones. The track is the second-longest on the calendar and has the second-highest average speed of the season: at more than 250km/h, it tops Silverstone and is only bettered by Monza.

The Jeddah Corniche Circuit has no equal when it comes to the number of corners, however. A total of 27 make it the most of any circuit to feature in this year’s campaign, although only seven of those corners are braking points – the rest are taken flat out.

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. The sequence of corners from Turn 4 to Turn 10 creates a fast, flowing ‘S’ section, which pushes driver and machine to the limit, while the banked Turn 13 hairpin will provide a thrilling sight for fans watching the action from the imposing grandstand that surrounds the corner.

In 2025, Oscar claimed McLaren’s first victory in Saudi Arabia. It was our fourth win from the first five races, the first time we had achieved such a feat since 1998, when Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard were at the wheel.