1. Lando Norris – 77 points

2. Oscar Piastri – 74 points

3. Max Verstappen – 69 points

4. George Russell – 63 points

5. Charles Leclerc – 35 points

6. Kimi Antonelli – 30 points

7. Lewis Hamilton – 25 points

8. Alex Albon – 18 points

9. Esteban Ocon – 14 points

10. Lance Stroll – 10 points

11. Pierre Gasly – 6 points

12. Nico Hulkenberg – 6 points

13. Ollie Bearman – 6 points

14. Isack Hadjar – 4 points

15. Yuki Tsunoda – 5 points

16. Carlos Sainz – 1 point

17. Liam Lawson – 0 points

18. Jack Doohan – 0 points

19. Gabriel Bortoleto – 0 points

20. Fernando Alonso – 0 points

In fact, fans online have likened the renderings of Qiddiya Speed Park, due for completion in 2027 at a cost of $480m (£360m), to Rainbow Road in the video game Mario Kart. And with a 70m incline at turn one, nicknamed “The Blade”, it’s not actually as outlandish a comparison as it might seem.

Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko poured fuel on the fire when he stated post-Bahrain that the team has “great concern” over Verstappen’s future, given their current struggles.

“I don’t know, to be honest,” Verstappen said, in Thursday’s press conference at the Saudi Arabian GP, when asked why Marko made those comments.

“I just keep working, trying to improve the car. Naturally, Bahrain was not a great weekend for us. I think we were all pretty disappointed with that.

“We keep trying to come up with new ideas to try on the car, the competition is tough, that’s how i go about my weeks. Just trying to improve my situation.

“Considering the characteristics of this track, we should make a small step forward compared to what we did in Bahrain,” Leclerc said.

“The numbers we hoped to see on the Sakhir circuit from this update are what we then saw. Here, we expect something more.

“We are three tenths away from McLaren, our performance is similar to that of Mercedes while Red Bull has been a bit more inconsistent so far, and this makes it more difficult to have a clear picture of their potential.”

“Why wouldn’t they want to sign Max? It’s totally understandable,” Russell said.

“He’s the best at the moment. He’s a four-time world champion. That’s not anything against me or Kimi. There’s two drivers for every team and he is one person.

“So that doesn’t concern me one bit because the performance is my currency and right now I think I am performing as good as anyone on this grid.”

7. Aston Martin – 10 points

8. Racing Bulls – 7 points

“I think if Max Verstappen sprung into the marketplace, I would be quite worried for George, actually, because Kimi is obviously their man for the future,” Brundle said on Sky Sports.

“So there’s a lot of ifs in there. George is doing a great job for him as team leader, but Toto missed Max once, I don’t think that he’ll miss him a second time should he get the opportunity.”

“It is a weekend where I want to perform, I want to do well,” Norris said.

“But it is early enough in the season where, if I can work on some things and improve in some areas, that will pay off in the longer run.

“We have come into the weekend with a different approach, with a different mindset, different things to try.

“I needed a couple of days off, a reset. Probably would have liked a few more days but I made the most of my three days relaxing, getting away from it a little bit.”

On McLaren being at the top: “Things can swing, you are talking about a few tenths, you can catch them.”

On Russell: “He’s going a top job. He’s such a stoic person, people talked about Lewis and Max, now you can see how he’s delivering. He’s performing in that car to the maximum. He’s getting better, better and better.”

On Antonelli: “It’s important to tackle it actively, he’s learning. I don’t want him to take any risks in the high speed.”

On potential of signing Verstappen: “I wouldn’t say that, I don’t flirt if I’m happy in the relationship in a professional way. I am super happy with the line-up we have, Max is at Red Bull, we haven’t had a conversation.”