The meager 2024 Formula 1 pre-season, with only three days of practice, closed yesterday in Bahrain with an unencouraging conclusion for the show and the rivalry from next Saturday, March 2, when the World Cup will start: the championship will once again be a Max Verstappen and 19 other drivers who will fight for the crumbs left by the insatiable Dutch champion.
The three days of testing at the Sakhir circuit have made this clear, where the new Red Bull RB20, with its revolutionary aerodynamic solutions, has shown once again that it is a step ahead of its rivals. The Dutchman, who led the first day (1.1s faster than his pursuer, the McLaren of Norris) and in the last was the fastest with a medium tyre, will once again be the main candidate for the title.
All rivals see him as even more dominant than in 2023, when he won 19 of 22 races (86%, an absolute record), and Red Bull claimed 21 (the only one that did not appropriate the Carlos Sainz whistled in Singapore).
“I would say, I think, after seeing Max and the Red Bull car this year, there is less chance for everyone to win a race this season. But that’s the way things are”, admitted Fernando Alonso without sugarcoating the harsh reality after seeing how the RB20 has fared in the three test sessions. Such has been the superiority of the Dutchman, without the need to put on the softer tires to show muscle, that the Asturian does not hesitate to ensure that Verstappen will not have any rival to overshadow him: “I think 19 drivers in the paddock now we think that we won’t win the championship. This happens 99% of the time in your race”, assumed the Spaniard from Aston Martin, who bows to the bullfighting superiority: “Max is the world champion and Red Bull is dominating F-1 . The concept they have presented this year is also a surprise”, he commented in relation to the new aerodynamic concept that Adrian Newey has cooked up for Red Bull: with Mercedes-style cannons on the engine cover and vertical air intakes on the pontoons – which were precisely rejected by the team of the star -.
The result has been that Red Bull has pulled away from its most direct rivals and outdone itself: in Bahrain it was 1.5 seconds faster than the 2023 RB19 on the first day of testing, and moved away from the McLaren by 1.1s, the Ferrari (Sainz) by 1.2 and the Aston Martin (Alonso) by 2s… Yesterday, at the end of the pre-season, the Asturian, 8th of the day, stayed to 4 tenths of the Dutch with the same average compound, and the Madrilenian, 9th, to 5 tenths.
“I’m not surprised, Red Bull. They will start with an advantage and are the favourites. I hope we have a car that will allow us to fight Red Bull, also in the race”, commented Sainz, who finished the tests as the driver who set the best time of the pre-season, the only one to go below 1m30s, the second day (with soft tire C4). At least, the Madrid native reinforces his optimistic feelings after confirming that the Ferrari SF-24 is very fast in a single lap, as evidenced yesterday by Leclerc with the best time… Although in the long runs, the Red Bull continues in another orbit: unattainable.
