Verstappen was left alone

Verstappen overwhelmed last year with 19 wins out of 22 possible together red bull, a team that won all but one event with a very good car. Rivals wanted to come close by copying his winning car concept, but the Red Bull champion’s response was masterful: if others do your idea, completely renew it. And the result is a RB20 breaker, revolutionary, taken to the extreme, with pioneering and unique solutions. And so, the current F1 grid is full of cars with solutions similar and close to the 2023 Red Bull, with a new 2024 Red Bull that is a step forward. It seems they need to continue to rule, or at least, that is the dominance Max Verstappen on the first day of F1 preseason testing.

Red Bull’s groundbreaking concept was more visible on the track than it was in the presentation’s 3D renders. They arrive on the asphalt of Bahrain with more air openings on the sides, a Mercedes-style cazi ‘zero’ pontoon joins their concept from last year in the central lateral part of the car, with a large lower channel and a new upper air channel. on either side of the passenger compartment that connects to a large pipe in the engine hood that directs air to the rear.

The new RB20 just needs to fly. It was close, because after a hesitant start, Verstappen began to set times and more times, bettering the good times set at the start by Alonso and his new Aston Martin and Leclerc and his Ferrari. And with the Asturian and Monegasque leaving the baton to Sainz and Stroll, Max continued behind the wheel, dominating the afternoon as conditions improved and the sun set. Razed.

Times for day 1 of F1 2024 testing:

1. Verstappen (PB/Red Bull) 1’31″344 – 143 laps (ALL DAY)
2. Norris (GBr/McLaren) 1’32″484 – 73 v (NIGHT)
3. Sainz (ESP/Ferrari) 1’32″584 – 69 v (NIGHT)
4. Ricciardo (AUS/Red Bull) 1’32″599 – 52 v. (NIGHT)
5. Gasly (FRA/Alpine) 1’32″805 – 61 v. (NIGHT)
6. Walk (CAN/Aston Martin), 1’33″007 – 54 v. (NIGHT)
7. Leclerc (MON/Ferrari) 1’33″247 – 64 v. (TOMORROW)
8. Alonso (ESP/Aston Martin) 1’33″385 – 77 v. (TOMORROW)
9. Piastri (AUS/McLaren), 1’33″658 – 57 v. (MORNING)
10. Zhou (CHI/Sauber) 1’33″871 – 63 v. (NIGHT)
11. Sargeant (USA/Williams) 1’33″882 – 21 v. (NIGHT)
12. Russell (GBr/Mercedes) 1’34″109 – 122 v. (ALL DAY)
13. Tsunoda (JAP/VisaCash), 1’34″136 – 64 v. (FUTURE)
14. Bottas (FIN/Sauber) 1’34″431 – 68 v. (FUTURE)
15. Albon (TAI/Williams) 1’34″587 – 40 v. (MORNING)
16. Ocon (FRA/Alpine) 1’34″677 – 60 v. (MORNING)
17. Magnussen (DIN/Haas) 1’35″692 – 66 v. (MORNING)
18. Hulkenberg (ALE/Haas) 1’35″906 – 82 v. (LATE)

All have C3 tires except Ocon, which has C2.

In what should have been a true celebration of times and predictions, with all cars more than equal, Max Verstappen was left alone, dancing to the rhythm of his RB20 on a track where all his Enemies cannot steal his thunder. Verstappen ended the morning session with a 1’32.548, three tenths beating the best time set on the first day of testing last year. The Dutchman beat Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari by 0.699 (in the afternoon he edged out Sainz) and by 0.837 Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin. And in the afternoon, he continued his solo festival, managing to lower his time to at least 1’31.344″, thus improving his best by 1 and a half seconds. time achieved at the end of test day 1 of 2023 .Very good.

Verstappen ended the day with a 1.140 lead over Norris’s McLaren, which improved considerably in the afternoon, leaving Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari 1.240 behind (he ran in the afternoon). Ricciardo, with Visa Cash (formerly Toro Rosso) was 4th in 1’255 with a car that looked very similar to last year’s Red Bull and Gasly, with the Alpine 5th in 1’461. Stroll, who rode in place of Alonso in the afternoon, was 6th at 1.663. Alonso, with his morning time in which he was third, finished the day 8th by 2 seconds.

It is true that there is still much left, that all their rivals need to improve in their evolution and that in the tests all the teams reserve cards, but what was seen on day 1 of the preseason test gives of respect Red Bull want to continue the sweep and they can do it. The most striking thing is how. The hardest thing when a team is at the top of any sport is to change what is already working. They could press the key. again. Another masterpiece from Adrian Newey.

Alonso and Sainz, good start in a very tight place

What seems exciting is the fight for the podiums. All the cars are towards the Red Bull idea from last year and that makes the parity great. It is already at the end of 2023 and should be like this in 2024. McLaren, Ferrari, Visa Cash, Alpine and Aston Martin will have to continue to show the cards little by little in tests where it is very difficult to draw conclusions. There is only one thing that seems clear: Red Bull is ahead.

From there, nothing is clear. In the case of Fernando Alonso, the first morning behind his Aston Martin was very positive. If anything is important in the tests, it is doing a lot of laps and Alonso is the strongest in the morning with a total of 77 laps, no setbacks and showing signs of driving very comfortable in a car he has achieved. the weather is easy. and fast. In fact, Alonso was 3rd in the morning but raised his foot a lot in the third sector, indicating that he has more.

For its part, Ferrari started after Red Bull in the morning, with Leclerc 2nd, and Sainz entered SF24 in the afternoon to be third best on the day. Ferrari’s problem is called Red Bull and its massive development. Their goal is to fight for more wins this year, but either what was seen on the first day of the test was pure theater, or they will have a very difficult time.