Verstappen’s win in Bahrain hints at continued F1 dominance،
SAKHIR, Bahrain — With each lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Max Verstappen extended his lead over his rival drivers and a fog of déjà vu thickened in the desert air. The hope that permeates the start of any new Formula 1 season was methodically dismantled by the reigning champion as he relentlessly revealed the true potential of his Red Bull racing car and its unwavering superiority over its rivals.
Just 23 laps into the new season, Verstappen held a 10-second lead, which had more than doubled by the time he reached the checkered flag. As he crossed the finish line under a barrage of fireworks, Verstappen took his 55th career victory and, perhaps more impressively, his 18th victory in the last 19 races.
His ownership of the number 1 emblazoned on the nose of his Red Bull – the designation of the reigning champion – has rarely seemed stronger. There are still 23 races to go in 2024 – a higher number than any season in the history of the sport – but there was a sense on Saturday that Verstappen had already taken a giant step towards a fourth world championship.
Even in the shadow of the ongoing controversy surrounding Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, the genius of Verstappen and his new RB20 has shone through. On a weekend where he and the Red Bull team could have been forgiven for being distracted to the point of making a mistake, Verstappen arguably looked more comfortable up front than he did. been at any point in his career.
The performance was not lost on Red Bull's fiercest rivals.
“I think today Max is not in a different league but he is in a different galaxy,” Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said later on Saturday evening. “The performance is extraordinary, the machine is really at the top.”
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Asked if Saturday's performance was a sign of another year of Verstappen's dominance, Wolff added: “Unfortunately, yes. You just have to recognize that his performance levels are really strong.”
Is Bahrain a true reflection of Red Bull's dominance?
Friday's qualifying session offered a modicum of hope to Red Bull's rivals. Although Verstappen emerged victorious, the battle for pole position was surprisingly close, with Charles Leclerc's Q2 lap proving he had the potential to topple Verstappen had he managed to repeat it in Q3.
But the foundations on which Verstappen's dominance rests – namely relentless race pace and superior tire management – were being kept in reserve for Sunday. Throughout 2023, there was a trend where Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin looked close to Red Bull over a single qualifying lap, only to be vastly outplayed over a race distance.
At Friday's post-qualifying press conference, George Russell shocked Verstappen when he said he thought the Red Bull would hold a half-second lead over the rest of the field in the race. It turned out that Russell's estimate wasn't far off, averaging 0.43 seconds.
Twelve months ago, Russell doubted anyone other than Red Bull could win a race in 2023 (and he would have been right if not for Carlos Sainz's victory in Singapore). His analysis of the situation after this year's first race was only slightly more positive.
“There’s no doubt that Max is the favorite,” Russell said after finishing fifth. “I don't think anyone is going to fight him for the title this year. I just hope some people fight for wins here or there.”
Although Verstappen's victory on Saturday never looked in doubt, there were reasons why his rivals' challenge evaporated so quickly. Leclerc, who was only able to hold on to second place until the third lap, suffered brake problems early in the race which caused his Ferrari to pull to one side entering the corner and miss regularly the top, no matter how hard he tried to correct it.
“It was impossible in the first 15 laps,” he said after the race. “The problem was getting much worse with each lap, so I was basing my braking for turns 9 and 10 on the previous lap, which seemed too late all the time, but the problem was getting much worse, so every time I was braking. three meters earlier but still locked up.
“Then on lap 15 or 20, the problem stabilized. The team told me on the radio that it was over 100 degrees. [Centigrade] I realized the best I could do was take the car home.
“Honestly, since the problem didn't get better throughout the race, we started to be more consistent when the problem didn't get worse with each lap. All things considered, finishing fourth is a very good effort, but I'm obviously very disappointed with the result. Honestly, I think a second place would have been completely possible today.
His teammate's pace seemed to underline Leclerc's optimism about his car's true potential. Sainz finished third, less than three seconds behind Sergio Pérez in the second Red Bull, after struggling to match Leclerc's level in qualifying.
“I felt really good today,” Sainz said. “The start wasn't ideal but from then on I managed my tires well.
“And then from there I was able to pace myself, pass two or three cars on the way to the podium and then follow a Red Bull at the end, which was a pleasant surprise. Still not enough, not there wherever we want.” but it's a good step forward from last year and a good start to the season.”
In typical fashion, Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur put a positive spin on the result, emphasizing the fact that our knowledge of the cars' performance is based on a sample of just one of the 24 circuits on this year's calendar. .
“First of all, I don't focus on Red Bull, I focus on myself and trying to make the best of what we have. What we had this weekend is not wasn't completely bad. We had too many small problems in qualifying yesterday and in the race today.
“We also have to consider that Jeddah will be a completely different story, it's not the same layout and it's not the same track. We'll probably have a better idea of the global situation after Melbourne.”
“Before Melbourne it will be difficult to have a clear picture of the championship, but if you compare a year ago we were one second away and now we are maybe 0.5 seconds away. It's not enough , we are still behind, but to score the points of P3 and P4 today, in these circumstances, it is not a tragedy.
Mercedes also encountered problems on Saturday evening, with overheating becoming a factor after the first stint. To deal with the problem, the team sacrificed a significant amount of performance which saw Russell fall from second place on lap three to fifth place at the finish.
“The start went well and unfortunately we had to start cooling the engine more than expected,” Wolff said. “We don’t yet understand where this comes from.
“From that point on, when you had to turn off the powertrain performance for 0.3 to 0.4 seconds and you had to lift and coast, it cost us all 0.5 to 0.6 second we couldn't get anything out of the car…so it wasn't much fun.”
Asked if there was a glimmer of hope in Sunday's result, Wolff added: “In qualifying we were quite close together. It was good and I think our performance was masked by our problems. Pérez is 20 seconds behind his teammate, so we have hope.” “Maybe that's the positive side that I can see, but it's very thin and far away and I can't see almost that far.”
Russell also pointed out that the Bahrain circuit, which has always been an outlier on the F1 calendar due to its difficult track surface and the way it punishes the rear tires, likely played to Red Bull's strengths and exposed Mercedes' weaknesses.
“We definitely have a much better car this year, which I think we can build on,” he said. “Red Bull has always been strong here, as has Ferrari. I would say it's been a bit of a terrible circuit for us over the last couple of years, so I think it's too early to say. [if Red Bull will be as dominant elsewhere]”.
Even the most optimistic version of Saturday's result would make it difficult to believe in a serious title fight this year. There is no doubt that Ferrari and Mercedes did not show their full potential in Bahrain and have a better foundation on which to build their performances this year than 12 months ago, but a margin of victory is unlikely of more than 20 seconds is entirely due to the characteristics of the track.
Nonetheless, Red Bull remains wary of the improvements made by its rivals and, after a series of questions on matters other than racing, Horner was keen to stress that his team would not rest on their laurels despite the RB20's dominant debut outing .
“I’ve been in this business too long to draw too many conclusions from one race,” he said. “It's a fantastic start, we will enjoy this moment, score as many points as possible. But it's a long season, many different venues, different challenges, different conditions. And what we saw in the tests, things are tighter.”
“Now we did things well this weekend, we entered the right cars in the race, we ran a perfect race with both cars and we got a great result. But I think it will converge. “
