Bahrain, Bahrain – March 2nd: The Oracle Red Bull Racing cars are seen in the garage before the Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit on March 2, 2024 in Bahrain, Bahrain. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
Growing up in Canada with strong influences from NASCAR and IndyCar, I have always been captivated by racing under the lights. Everything is intensified at night, especially the excitement of the races. Just as the lighting provides clear visibility for the drivers on the track, the first qualifying session of F1 brought clarity in determining the hierarchy of the new challengers within the teams.
All F1 news sources predicted a direct battle between Ferrari and Red Bull Racing, and the result is exactly as predicted. It is important to remember that Bahrain has not always been favorable to the dominant car, even though this is just an initial assessment. Max Verstappen comfortably won last year with a margin of nearly 40 seconds. However, between 2017 and 2019, Ferrari stole the spotlight from their clearly superior rivals Mercedes. Personally, I have always had the intuition that Bahrain is similar to circuits like Singapore, Brazil, and Austria, where the dominant car is not always rewarded.
Starting directly in the 2024 season, it seems that Bahrain is favoring the RB20, despite challenging practice sessions for both Sergio Perez and defending champion Max Verstappen. In the 2023 qualifying sessions, Red Bull, usually driven by Verstappen, consistently maintained a two-tenths advantage over the nearest non-Red Bull competitor. As seasons progress and cars evolve rather than undergo revolutionary changes, these patterns tend to remain fairly consistent.
Once again, Verstappen secured pole position for the Bahrain GP, following the pattern established in 2023. However, it was not a simple task as Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari delivered a lap in Q2 that surpassed Verstappen’s subsequent pole lap in Q3. As a traditionalist, I believe the fastest lap should determine pole position. Therefore, when analyzing the numbers, Leclerc reigns supreme today.
Alpine had a challenging session, and it was evident to everyone that things did not go well for them. To make matters worse, their A524 car had the worst year-on-year progression among all teams, performing worse than their best qualifying lap in 2023 by -0.121.
Interestingly, Red Bull Racing also struggled, being the second-worst performer with a year-on-year lap time improvement of -0.529.
There was a lot of excitement surrounding Red Bull and their new RB20 car, with equally strong criticisms of Alpine’s A524. However, the truth is that the RB20, driven by Checo, improved only at a rate similar to Alpine’s. It may seem unbelievable, but that’s what the numbers show.
Despite all the discussions about Red Bull’s greatness in the offseason, they are still the cars to beat. However, they now have competition and need to work harder to stay ahead.
If we look at the previous year-on-year results of Bahrain GP qualifying, Red Bull consistently made above-average progress from 2014 until their championship campaign in 2021. This is the first time in 10 years that they have shown below-average improvement.
On the other hand, McLaren made significant improvements in lap times, but it is not particularly notable. The team had well-documented struggles in early 2023 with their previous car. However, they made significant progress throughout the year, as seen with Oscar Piastri’s victory in the Qatar Sprint.
This is good news for Ferrari and Mercedes, who showed average improvements. The Mercedes W15 improved by -0.855 compared to last year, while the Ferrari SF-24 is close behind, ranked 6th overall with an improvement of -0.835 compared to its best lap in 2023.
Williams had a relatively quiet session, but the numbers are promising for them. They made significant changes to their car compared to last year, and Alexander Albon’s best lap secured the 13th starting position. Their FW46 car showed the third-best overall improvement, being -1.240s faster than last year.
It is still too early to draw definitive conclusions. These results only provide a rough idea of what is to come. But as always, Formula 1 never fails to provide excitement, and the race for development is officially underway!
© 2024
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