On Track

20 Apr 2025

The Debrief by Aramco: Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Concluding the season's first triple-header, the fifth round of the 2025 Formula One World Championship took place in Jeddah. Get the thoughts of Lance, Fernando and our team from across the weekend.

After racing along the waterfront and in the extreme heat of the Saudi Arabian city, our drivers concluded the Grand Prix in P11 and P16.

Sunday round-up and reaction

Under the bright lights of Jeddah Corniche Circuit, our duo had strong starts. Beginning on the Medium tyre, Fernando entered the top 10 after starting from P13, while Lance on the Hard compound gained two positions.
19 laps into the race, Fernando pitted from P12 for Hards. On this tyre, he made a number of overtakes throughout the duration of the Grand Prix.
By Lap 39, Lance still hadn't pitted. With Fernando running behind him in P13, the team chose to switch the positions of our drivers ahead of Lance's pit.
Lance was the final driver to make his pitstop. He came in at the end of Lap 40 for Medium tyres.
Earlier in the day, Jak Crawford, Aston Martin Aramco driver squad member, secured a podium in Formula 2's Feature Race.

P11

F. Alonso

FL: 1:33.009

P16

L. Stroll

FL: 1:32.745

#18 | Lance Stroll | Race

"We went long on the first stint, hoping for a Safety Car window – unfortunately that didn't work out for us. Our strategy was the only chance for us to hope for an opportunity and make up positions as we didn't have anything to lose starting from P16.

"We're far from where we want to be and just got to keep pushing to find more performance, we want to be a lot more competitive, and the season is still young."

#14 | Fernando Alonso | Race

"It was a very difficult race here in Jeddah and it was like 50 Qualifying laps for us, but sadly we come away from this weekend with no points. We tried to keep in the DRS of those in front of us and we capitalised on a few mistakes by others.

"We need to make improvements to the car, but we are all working hard to improve our situation. We won't give up and we will keep on pushing with Miami up next."

Andy Cowell | CEO & Team Principal

"It was a straightforward race, which was largely without incident providing little opportunity to make progress. Both drivers performed well this evening – giving everything lap after lap – as we split the strategies. Fernando started on Mediums, while Lance went very long on Hards in case a Safety Car came into play.

"It was a very intense, flat-out all the way race in hot conditions, which made it very demanding on all the drivers. It was a well-managed race all round, but ultimately, we just missed out on the points.

"After an intense triple-header, we have a week back at base to regroup and understand how to improve in all areas and unlock more performance from the car."

Next up

We're making our way stateside for the Miami Grand Prix on 2-4 May, the first of this season's races in the Americas.

Saturday

In the weekend's final Free Practice, Lance and Fernando completed running on the Soft compound, preparing themselves for Qualifying and the Grand Prix.
Both drivers set 19 laps in FP3, bringing our total Free Practice tally to 121 laps.
After the sun set and temperatures dropped, Qualifying got underway. Fernando made it through to Q2, where he qualified P13.
Lance was unfortunately out in Q1, only a small margin of 0.074 seconds away from progressing to Q2.

#18 | Lance Stroll | Qualifying

"Qualifying was our most competitive session this weekend so far. We made some small progress, but we just didn't have enough pace to get through to Q2, although the cut-off time was very tight.

"We did some set-up changes following the practice sessions yesterday and progressed a little bit, but the car is not easy to drive in the tricky conditions here and we still have plenty of areas to work on and improve. Tomorrow will be all about taking opportunities; we will see how it goes."

FP3

1:29.478

P20

1:28.645

P16

#14 | Fernando Alonso | Qualifying

"Jeddah is one of my favourite circuits and I think I achieved the maximum from the car with P13 in Qualifying. We managed to progress into Q2, but we used up all of our new Softs to get there, so it was always going to be difficult to progress any further than that.

"We have struggled again for performance this weekend and it could be a challenging race for us, but anything can happen on a street circuit like this."

FP3

1:28.888

P14

1:28.548

P12

1:28.303

P13

Andy Cowell | CEO & Team Principal

"We worked hard to unlock more performance from the car leading up to Qualifying, but it's such a tight grid with a tenth of a second covering a couple of rows. Our session was well managed by the garage and the pit wall with both drivers delivering clean and tidy laps aided by good tyre preparation.

"There is a long race ahead of us tomorrow. We will come out ready to take any opportunity to progress and compete for points."

Friday

Our drivers began Saudi Arabia's first Free Practice on the Medium compound before pitting for Softs in the second half of the session. To conclude Free Practice One running, Fernando switched back to the Mediums for his final stint.
After a combined 47 laps, Fernando concluded FP1 in P14 and Lance P17.
Later in the day, it was time for FP2 under the lights of Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Gathering data across the Soft and Medium tyres, Fernando and Lance finished in P15 and P18 respectively.
In Formula 2, Aston Martin Aramco driver squad member Jak Crawford secured P1 in Qualifying.

#18 | Lance Stroll | Free Practice

"Not the most competitive day for us, but let's see what we can learn from the data and come up with overnight to improve for tomorrow. Conditions here are tricky and it will be a tough mission to put it all together in Qualifying but we will work hard and put the work in."

FP1

1:30.583

P17

FP2

1:30.007

P18

#14 | Fernando Alonso | Free Practice

"We managed to get some clean laps in today, but it looks like the pace is a little behind where we want it to be. There will be a lot of traffic management in Qualifying and you need to have some luck too. We will look at the data tonight and hopefully put together the best package for tomorrow and try our best to challenge for the top ten."

FP1

1:29.976

P14

FP2

1:29.662

P15