F1 testing that Red Bull will continue to dsuggests ominate and that Mercedes and Ferrari will improve.
SAKHIR, Bahrain — Red Bull would have been forgiven for playing it safe with its new Formula One car for the 2024 season.
After designing the most dominant car in F1 history last year — the RB19 won 21 of 22 grands prix last year — even a steady evolution could have been enough to maintain an edge over the field.
Instead, Red Bull changed direction again.
The RB20 heralds radical changes to the car concept, including a shift toward the slim sidepod setup Mercedes tried and failed to make work over the previous two seasons. If it backfired, it could have given rivals a chance to catch up.
But as preseason testing closed in Bahrain on Friday night, opinion through the F1 paddock was unanimous: Red Bull, yet again, is the team to beat. And its advantage will take a lot of work to overcome.
Red Bull stunned the paddock when the RB20 car fully emerged at the start of testing. Some of the changes were evident from the launch last week, yet it wasn’t until Max Verstappen ventured out for the first time on Wednesday that it became clear just how extensive the changes had been.
“When I saw the car, I was like, wow! McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said. “They certainly were brave in changing some of the shapes that made that car so successful last year.
It was a bold move, but one Verstappen fully trusted. “Honestly, I don’t care how the car looks,” he said. “As long as it’s fast!” His faith was quickly justified on the opening day.
“As soon as I jumped in here, it felt pretty normal,” Verstappen said. It looks a bit different, but it’s the direction the team chose, and I believe that’s the best direction to go if they say so.”
It was a way for Red Bull to stay ahead of the opposition.
Each car concept has a natural ceiling for development gains, something rivals found to their cost through the past couple of years, which prompted them to follow the RB19’s lead — only for Red Bull to move the goalposts again this year. It’s a big flex that looks like it could pay off handsomely.
The record books won’t show Red Bull finishing 2024 preseason testing as the quickest team. That honor will go to Ferrari, courtesy of Carlos Sainz’s lap of 1:29.
921s at the end of the second day, with teammate Charles Leclerc four-tenths of a second off thanks to his Day 3 fastest lap.
Red Bull’s run plan meant it didn’t go all-out to beat those times. In the final hour of the last day of testing, typically the ‘golden hour’ where drivers set their best times in cooler conditions, Verstappen was running on the C2 compound tire — equivalent to the medium in Bahrain next week — and lapping 6.5 seconds off the pace to focus on long runs.
His C3 lap put him second on the final day, four-tenths off Leclerc’s benchmark set on softer, quicker C4s. Pirelli thinks the gap between each ‘step’ in tire is around three to four-tenths of a second, but fuel loads and engine modes make comparisons tricky.
No one in the paddock doubts Red Bull is the team in front. Verstappen’s Day 1 benchmark served as a warning shot to the rest of the field, one that even the less dramatic pace shown through days two and three could not hush.
Charles Leclerc said Red Bull was qite a bit ahead of Ferrari. His boss, Fred Vasseur, agreed. Lewis Hamilton said Red Bull was “out in the distance compared to Mercedes.
Lando Norris said McLaren, one of the few teams to run Red Bull close through the second half of last season, was “a very long way behind Red Bull right now.
“They’re definitely the team to beat,”
added McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. “How much their advantage is, I’m not quite sure.
But it’s probably enough of an advantage to be comfortable. For everyone else, I’m not sure, but I think Red Bull are definitely the favorites still.”
Red Bull itself won’t buy into the hype until it gets to qualifying in Bahrain, the first competitive session of the season. Even then, it’ll claim its advantage could be track-specific.
The same will apply to the string of races that follow. But everyone will know deep down where they stand.
“I think 19 drivers in the paddock now would think they will not win the championship,” said Fernando Alonso. “It happens 99% of the time in your career. This is a brutal sport.”
Like last year, the rest of the field looks much closer together.
Ferrari enjoyed a very successful test, particularly by the miserable standards of this time last year, which Leclerc called “probably the worst ever test that I’ve had in my entire career.
The SF-24 is a much more stable, consistent base for both Leclerc and Sainz, lacking the wind sensitivity and tire degradation struggles that were its big weaknesses last year.
Mercedes also seems in a far better place. George Russell said the car is “not the diva it was in the past two years,” lacking the troublesome rear end that caused the drivers to lack confidence.
Lewis Hamilton described the W15 as “much more enjoyable to drive and a good platform to work from this year.”
McLaren went into testing accepting it hadn’t got all the innovations and development steps it wanted for the MCL38 car onto the car, meaning there was plenty more potential to come.
Time was lost on the final morning to a clutch issue, and Norris admitted the team was “a long way behind Ferrari,” indicating it isn’t in the mix to be second-quickest behind Red Bull right now.
The team is more likely to be around Aston Martin, the breakout star team of testing last year, which experienced an understated three days.
