With practice on Thursday, qualifying on Friday, and the season’s opening race in Sakhir on Saturday, all live on Sky Sports F1, the exciting three days of testing came to an end on Friday, signaling the arrival of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Ted Kravitz joins Craig Slater to talk about his top ten rankings following Bahrain F1 testing.

Examining the main talking themes as preseason testing draws to an end in anticipation of the 2024 season’s first race in Bahrain the following week.

Favorites of Red Bull, but not supreme

In what ways may one enhance the car that is statistically the most successful ever made? quietly change? Not if Adrian Newey is involved. The RB20 is undoubtedly a substantial evolution and has design elements that have attracted the attention of opponents, even though it may not quite be a complete revolution over the virtually unstoppable RB19 from the previous year.

The car itself and its first images, which were unveiled at last week’s Milton Keynes presentation, generated a lot of technical curiosity, but Wednesday’s first day of testing verified that the sidepod and cooling arrangement had undergone a number of significant modifications.

On Wednesday’s first day of racing, Max Verstappen really got off to a fast start in the vehicle, covering over two race distances in the session and setting a new record by a whole second. Newey was watching from the pit lane. Although the new car’s lead over the field was never going to be that large, it was still a fantastic start that solidified their position as the team to beat for many.

That belief, however, shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given the winter of stable regulations and the fact that the team won 21 of the 22 races in the previous season. Even though they have added new concepts to their car, they still need to keep improving if they want to keep their competitors at bay.