Then there’s the temperatures. The desert gets quite chilly in November without the sun shining on things, and the track surface gets down to just 11° C (52° F); by contrast, at the recent Singapore GP, also at night, the track temperature was more like 36° C (97° F).
It’s rare to see an F1 car on full wet tires but not running behind the safety car. Credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images
So, low aero and mechanical grip, an unusual layout compared to most F1 tracks, and very cold temperatures all combine to create potential surprises, shaking up the usual running order.
We saw this last year, where the Mercedes shined in the cold, able to keep their tires in the right operating window, something the team wasn’t able to do at hotter races. But it was hard to tell much from Thursday’s two practice sessions, one of which was interrupted due to problems with a maintenance hatch, albeit not as serious as when one damaged a Ferrari in 2023. The cars looked impressively fast going through turn 17, and the hybrid power units are a little louder than I remember them, even if they’re not a patch on the naturally aspirated engines of old.
Very little of any use was learned by any of the teams for qualifying on Friday night, which took place in at times damp, at times wet conditions—so wet that the Pirelli intermediate tire wasn’t grooved enough, pushing teams to use the full wet-weather spec rubber. Norris took pole from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with Williams’ Carlos Sainz making best use of the opportunity to grab third. Piastri would start fifth, behind the Mercedes of last year’s winner, George Russell.
If the race is boring, the off-track action won’t be
Race night was a little windy, but dry. And the race itself was rather boring—Norris tried to defend pole position going into Turn 1 but ran wide, and Verstappen slipped into the lead, never looking back. Norris followed him home in second, with Piastri fourth, leaving Norris 30 points ahead of Piastri and 42 points ahead of Verstappen with two more race weekends and 58 points left on offer.