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The key behind Richard Verschoor’s ‘redemption’ F2 feature race win in Saudi Arabia

April 29, 2025

by Samarth Kanal

5min read

Richard Verschoor celebrating F2 win Saudi

Richard Verschoor emerged as the new Formula 2 championship leader after winning the feature race in Saudi Arabia - a win that he dubbed “redemption” after a penalty cost him victory on the previous day.

Richard Verschoor emerged as the new Formula 2 championship leader after winning the feature race in Saudi Arabia - a win that he dubbed “redemption” after a penalty cost him victory on the previous day.

The MP Motorsport driver crossed the line first in the sprint race but a five-second sanction for pushing a rival off the track gave the win to Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad instead - making him the youngest FIA Formula 2 race winner.

Verschoor, who has lost F2 wins before (and faced five previous technical disqualifications), gave his take on this sporting penalty that cost him on Saturday.

“Come on, it was not that I completely pushed him [Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti] into the wall,” he reasoned.

Yet he conceded: “To be fair, if you purely look at the rules word by word, I would say they [the stewards] gave the right call. But what they also always say is that they are using a bit of common sense. We are racing, racing for the lead. We are battling hard."

Richard Verschoor (L) was penalised for an incident with Pepe Marti (R) in the Saudi Arabian F2 sprint race

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The timing of his sprint race penalty irked Verschoor as it came late in the race after a safety car, dropping him from first to fourth.

“I was definitely not happy yesterday,” he said. “Because, they gave it [the penalty] on lap 18 or 17. I would have pushed more during the race to make up a five-second gap.”

On Sunday he managed to recover from ninth and finish first, this time holding onto the win and taking 26 points - one of those being for the fastest lap of the race.

Here’s how Verschoor did it.

The offset strategy explained

Pirelli supplied two compounds for the F2 races in Saudi Arabia - the high-wearing but fast supersoft and the hardy but slower medium compound.

The top eight began Sunday’s feature race on supersofts and switched to medium compounds, on laps eight and nine, just before the virtual safety car was deployed for debris. They would reach the chequered flag on those tyres.

Verschoor meanwhile started on mediums and switched to supersofts on lap 24 of 28, using the pace on those new tyres to overtake Jack Crawford, who was ending the race on worn medium compounds.

Sunday’s race was an example of the offset strategy paying off.

Verschoor began the feature race on medium tyres and switched to supersofts - an offset strategy

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Why Verschoor’s strategy worked in Saudi Arabia

A lack of safety car interventions was key on Sunday in Saudi Arabia. Safety cars are very common at Jeddah given the tight confines and lack of runoff area, which mean crashes take longer to clean up and necessitate a caution to slow the field down - which made the offset strategy a risk.

The safety car would have bunched the field up and dashed Verschoor’s hopes of enjoying clean air - laps without cars creating turbulent and destabilising wake in front of him - from around lap nine to 24.

That clean air allowed Verschoor to put in a string of fast laps and build up enough of a gap so that when he did pit, he only had the car of DAMS driver Crawford in front.

Runner-up Jak Crawford said he didn’t consider running a medium-supersoft strategy in Saudi Arabia

Had the safety car been deployed early in the race, Verschoor’s rivals would have pitted for new medium tyres without losing as much time as usual - as the whole field must slow down during a caution period.

Had the safety car been deployed later in the race, Verschoor’s rivals would also have pitted and cancelled out his tyre advantage by fitting new supersoft tyres.

Verschoor said he put in “20 qualifying laps in a row” to build up that crucial gap before pitting for supersoft tyres and, despite emerging on “icy” tyres, he held ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins off and chased down Crawford for the win.

Why didn’t Crawford and Martins choose the offset strategy?

Runner-up Crawford, who started on pole position and finished second, explained why the offset strategy presented such a risk.

“I had no points on the board this year up to that race [at Jeddah]. I had to go with the safest option and the option-prime [supersoft-medium] is the safest strategy, covering all safety cars. So that's what we did. Just to play it safe, collect the points. I wouldn't change anything.”

Verschoor admitted that it had been a risky gamble to use the strategy that he did - and that it doesn’t often pay off.

“Maybe if I would be in the same situation again [but] leading the championship, at the end I wouldn't have done prime-option [medium-supersoft] today,” he admitted.

“I don't know how many points we [have] but it's so early - we need so many more points on the board.”

The MP Motorsport driver is now the one to beat heading into the next round of the season at Italian circuit Imola - with Marti 12 points behind in the standings.

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The key behind Richard Verschoor’s ‘redemption’ F2 feature race win in Saudi Arabia

Richard Verschoor emerged as the new Formula 2 championship leader after winning the feature race in Saudi Arabia - a win that he dubbed “redemption” after a penalty cost him victory on the previous day.

Why Verschoor’s strategy worked in Saudi Arabia

Why didn’t Crawford and Martins choose the offset strategy?

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Sign up to receive regular newsletters and ensure you stay ahead with exclusive articles on technological innovations and valuable insights into the world of motorsport