F1's Aston Martin Safety Car for Saudi Arabia GP could sport country's flag colors

The F1 Safety Car will apparently be wrapped in Saudi Arabian flag colors for the inaugural Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, according to an Instagram post by F1 photographer Kym Illman.

While there has been no confirmation from the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix organizers or F1 on the matter, Illman says the regular Aston Martin green livery of the Safety Car will be replaced by the Saudi Arabian flag colors with a white script. The design will then revert back to its original livery for the final race in Abu Dhabi.

The FIA Safety Car has never been in any other color apart from the Mercedes red and silver livery or the Aston Martin green livery. The only other change has been the "We race as One" rainbow livery as part of F1's diversity campaign in 2020.

If the speculation is true, then for the first time this season, we will see the Safety Car in different colors for the first time in the 2021 season.

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Saudi Arabia Grand Prix set to become F1's fastest street circuit

The Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which will host the inaugural Saudi Arabia Grand Prix next week, is expected to be the world's fastest street circuit, where F1 cars will have an average top speed of 322kmph. Featuring 27 corners and three potential DRS zones (subject to FIA approval), the 6.175km circuit will be the second-longest on the calendar after Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

Given that it's a brand new circuit which is still being constructed as of this writing, there will be no historical data available to teams and drivers, who'll have to depend on simulations to get a feel for the layout.

Going by the rendition of the circuit in the F1 2021 videogame, there will be very few run-off areas available. As such, it will leave minimal room for error and increase the potential for incidents during the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.