On a street circuit like Monaco, and a lot of the circuits you have to concentrate a lot, but some of it is also very slow so you can relax a little bit, and it is a bit easier to judge where the wall is and so on. You need so much concentration because it is also so fast. Lando Norris rated the circuit as “One out of one,” highlighting the speeds as making it even more difficult to concentrate than other street venues. “We saw (with) Charles (Leclerc) today, it’s a track where if you make a mistake it can be extremely costly, so we just have to stay there and be on it as much as possible.” We saw what happened when everyone was on softs at the end - it can get very tricky, very messy very quickly then on the long run we didn’t have enough time to get a read. “It’s going to be tricky in qualifying, the traffic management - it’ll be trying to be there at the right place. “It’s a really nice fast and fluid circuit, really enjoyable - a lot of fun out there,” Perez said. Sergio Perez had similar sentiments to the Mercedes drivers, saying the traffic was the only main issue on Friday despite Charles Leclerc’s heavy crash.

“It’s quite hardcore, pretty full gas and close to the walls in high speed, but that’s what we want - that’s what we enjoy and it definitely gives us a bit of an adrenaline rush.” “I’ve said it already on the team radio - it’s really cool,” Bottas said. Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas was a big fan of the new venue, swearing on team radio in FP1 as he let the team know how much he was enjoying it. The closing-distance speed on other cars is definitely getting to a bit of a danger zone.”

“Yeah, (traffic) is definitely a lot of worse than a lot of places we go to - it’s Monaco-esque. When you get into the rhythm, it’s beautiful to drive.

It really is incredibly fast and a lot of grip as well. The track features a number of sweeping turns and blind corners due to the walls that line it, and Hamilton says it’s a fun challenge for the drivers until they come across another car going slowly. The Jeddah Corniche Circuit boasts that it is the fastest street circuit on the F1 calendar, with average speeds already over 155mph in FP2. The new circuit for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix got the thumbs-up from drivers after Friday practice, although Lewis Hamilton warned of the “danger zone” caused by closing speeds.

F1 average speed