Then Verstappen came out and said that he could “not continue” were the 80-year-old Austrian to depart the team. With rumours that a Verstappen move to Mercedes is at least a possibility for 2025 coming out last week, it is another extraordinary twist and suggests that it is unlikely to end unless Horner leaves the team. It is believed that Verstappen has a clause in his contract that allows him to depart if Marko does. It is all rather interesting and quite strange that it comes in a team that is likely to continue to break records over the next couple of weeks.

Elsewhere, there was some on-track action worth talking about and that came through the debut of 18-year-old Briton Oliver Bearman. Bearman was drafted in at short notice to replace Carlos Sainz at Ferrari, who was suffering with appendicitis and required surgery. With just one free practice session Bearman acquitted himself well, qualifying 11th. He narrowly missed out on making it to Q3 and said he was disappointed with how his “messy” session went.

He did leave some out there, for sure. But the F2 driver – who took pole but had to relinquish it for the feeder series’ feature race in Jeddah – has a perfect chance to showcase his talents for a seat in 2025. When he takes the grid later today he will become the youngest ever Briton to race in F1 and the third youngest ever. He certainly has a chance of a few points, and that would be something, wouldn’t it?

The race begins at 5pm GMT and we will be here for all of the build-up and updates from Jeddah.