TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has blasted Red Bull and Aston Martin for turning Formula One into a “boring” sport.
While in a different order, Saudi Arabia saw a repeat of Bahrain, with Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso on the podium.
Holding a commanding pace over the rest of the pack, Red Bull secured a second consecutive one-two finish, while Alonso picked up the third place trophy.
With the exception of the drama around the FIA imposing then retracting a penalty for Alonso’s alleged pitstop infringement, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix proved to be an uneventful affair.
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“We like to think that when the red lights go out at the beginning of an F1 race, every single one of the drivers goes round every corner and down every straight as fast as is humanly and mechanically possible,” Clarkson wrote.
“That’s what racing is all about, surely? It seems not.
“When Lewis Hamilton came up behind his teammate, George Russell, in last weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, George solved the problem by driving more quickly. Why didn’t he do that in the first place?,” the motoring broadcaster continued.
“Then you had the Red Bulls. To stop them from doing any racing, each of the drivers was told to do the same speed as one another,” he bemoaned.
“I know there are boring reasons for this, tyre wear and saving the engine and so on, but I wonder how many people would watch athletics if they thought half the competitors were not going as fast as they could. To prolong the life of their shoes,” Clarkson warned.
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2023 risks being a walkover for Red Bull, as some of their rivals fear they could easily race to victory in every round of the season, having performance that far exceeds even their closest rivals.
The battle on track risks being an internal one for Red Bull, as Verstappen and Perez are almost neck and neck at the top of the Drivers’ Championship with 44 and 43 points respectively.
Red Bull on the other hand is already pulling away from the second ranked team of Aston Martin, having secured 87 points to their rival’s 38 across the first two races of the season.