Verstappen facing questions over future as Formula One heads over to Saudi
Max Verstappen's future with Red Bull will be called into question this week when he returns to Saudi Arabia, one of three tracks where he was beaten last season.
The Dutch driver's father, Jos, who will not attend Saturday's race in Jeddah, caused a stir in Bahrain last weekend when he claimed the team was in danger of disintegrating if Christian Horner remained in charge.
Verstappen has not commented on the incendiary remarks, but he did publicly wish his father a happy 52nd birthday on social media on Monday.
According to media reports, Horner was not invited to the birthday dinner in Dubai.
Verstappen, 26, also refrained from expressing unqualified support for his beleaguered boss after Horner, 50, was cleared last week of alleged misconduct toward a female employee.
On Monday, team management and a representative of Verstappen senior met in Dubai to clear the air before the latter's participation in a regional car rally in Belgium this weekend.
On the track, Verstappen will look to build on his strong start to the season by winning at the floodlit Corniche track, where he won in 2022 before teammate Sergio Perez won last year.
"It's a completely different track layout, with a lot more high-speed corners," he said after winning from pole in Bahrain, setting the fastest lap and leading every lap.
"The Tarmac, of course, is completely different to what it is here, so less degradation. Probably that will help other teams as well compared to us."
Jeddah's smooth surface is the second longest on the calendar, producing the second highest speeds after Italy's Monza.
The floodlit night race will begin a day earlier than usual to accommodate Ramadan, on Sunday evening.
Last year, Perez won from pole position, while Verstappen moved from 15th to second after a drive-shaft failure in qualifying.
The only races on the 22-round calendar where Verstappen did not win last year were Jeddah, Azerbaijan (where Perez also won) and Singapore (where Ferrari's Carlos Sainz won).
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton will return to the scene of his most recent victory in December 2021, when Saudi Arabia made its debut.
The Briton was only seventh in Bahrain, with teammate George Russell fifth, when Mercedes made a cooling miscalculation. They're hoping high-speed Jeddah proves a different story.
"We've got an opportunity to take a step forward immediately," said team boss Toto Wolff.
"It will be good to continue our learning with the new car on a very different circuit to Bahrain. We will be aiming for a more consistent weekend and to understand our true performance relative to the rest of the grid."
Despite brake issues with Charles Leclerc's car, Ferrari, the closest team to Red Bull in Bahrain, should be competitive.
Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin finished third last year after a penalty was overturned, a result that continues to cause controversy within the governing FIA due to an alleged intervention by president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
The race weekend also marks the beginning of the all-female F1 Academy season and the introduction of Formula One's new Aston Martin Vantage safety car.
The safety car has been deployed at all three Grand Prix races held in Jeddah to date, with the 2021 race being red-flagged twice.
SportsLigue