Red Bull pace the star of F1 preseason but Ferrari impresses

BAHRAIN — Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team will leave Formula 1 pre-season testing confident they can sweep away all challengers again in 2024.

At the end of the final day on Friday, it was Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, not Verstappen, at the top of the order, but all the chatter this week has been centered on the reigning world champions.

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Although things seem more accurate on the surface when looking only at the times, particularly those from Thursday and Friday, it's rare for rival teams to be so pessimistic about their chances of challenging the leading team at the start. resulting from the tests.

Red Bull's overall pace over the three days of testing prompted Fernando Alonso to say that he and 18 other drivers already knew Verstappen would be champion again this year.

Rivals estimate Red Bull could be up to half a second per lap faster than the others (a comfortable advantage in modern F1), although that could well change from circuit to circuit as the season progresses.

Verstappen won last year's final race, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, by 17 seconds. His average margin of victory throughout the year in races that finished under racing conditions was 13.363 seconds.

These stats help to highlight why half a second per lap is a significant margin for any team to overcome, especially with Red Bull likely to aggressively develop its RB20 car, which features a completely revamped design concept compared to the RB19 , which broke last year's record.

Verstappen has won three consecutive drivers' championships and Red Bull won the constructors' title in 2022 and 2023.

Last year was one of the most dominant seasons in F1 history: Verstappen won a record 18 races while Red Bull won 21 times out of 22 events during the year.

In truth, the order of competition is never known until the first qualifying session of the first race – when teams truly show the raw pace of their cars on low fuel and fresh tires – but Verstappen has already said that his team had taken a step forward. since last year.

This first qualifying session will take place in a week at the same location as testing on March 1, before the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on March 2.

At last year's testing, Aston Martin made headlines after emerging as a shock outside competitor to Red Bull, but this time around it appears to be firmly in a busy chasing pack with Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes.

Another consensus that has formed this week in the paddock is that the team groups could be even closer together than in 2023, which could create another frustrating season to imagine the all-time classic championship that could take place if Verstappen and Red Bull were magically erased from the competitive order.

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur explained how tight this field was: “For ten kilos of fuel you will go from P2 to P6 or P7, which means the most important thing is to concentrate on yourself, to have good feedback from the pilots.” drivers and so far their feelings are good.”

Beyond Red Bull, the Ferrari car impressed throughout the three days, with the most positive feedback coming from drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Both drivers complained that the 2023 Ferrari car was difficult to drive throughout the season. This erratic nature was demonstrated in its season record, which saw the team take seven pole positions but only convert one into a Grand Prix victory.

Although they are happy with the new car's improved handling, neither the quotes from Leclerc or Sainz in the media nor the general body language – so often indicative of how a team feels at this stage of the year – suggest that they are men who expect to face challenges. for a first world title this year. Mercedes and McLaren probably seem well established within this chasing group.

One team to watch ahead of the first race will be the newly renamed Red Bull second team Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda, now nicknamed RB.

The team, formerly Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri, have had a solid three days in terms of mileage and are hoping to take a major step up the grid now that they have agreed a major commercial partnership with Visa and Cashapp.

He could well look to swap places with perennial midfielder Alpine this year, with the French team's new car looking disappointing to most onlookers.

It's telling that Alpine has downplayed any expectations about its car, although it's worth noting that the team rarely turns in particularly stellar test performances, as it prioritizes long trips on heavy fuel over 'to downright fast times.

Williams is another difficult team to judge at this stage, while Sauber and Haas look set to be at the back of the pack to start the year.

However, as with the chasing pack, the rear group of teams appears to be very tight.

The 2024 F1 season begins with a rare scenario of back-to-back races on a Saturday, with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix following Bahrain on March 9.

The first two races were postponed to Saturday to take into account the start of Ramadan.

This year's racing calendar stands at a record 24 events over the course of the season, including three in the United States.