The 2024 season of Formula 1 has officially started. A new year, a new season, but no new results.
Here’s something SBOTOP F1 fans have grown accustomed to reading: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen wins the Grand Prix. Yes, to no one’s surprise, Mad Max won the Bahrain Grand Prix in the most dominant fashion.
The Flying Dutchman picked up where he left off and garnered pole position, the fastest lap, and the race win while leading in all of the laps. A perfect weekend from what looked like a perfect driver.
Red Bull’s claim for another world championship is not a lofty ask for the reigning champions, and if their performance in Bahrain is the benchmark of their dominance throughout the season, then the entire paddock could be in for a very long campaign.
Verstappen finished the race 22 seconds ahead of his teammate, Sergio Perez, who finished second, trailed by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in third.
It looks like it’s another strong year for Verstappen and Red Bull, but maybe, just maybe, a worthy adversary can challenge them this season.
Ferrari look like they can compete
Scuderia didn’t have a perfect race, but Ferrari’s duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz look to be Red Bull’s best rivals this year. It was a three-and-four finish for Ferrari in Bahrain, and they were ahead of any Mercedes and McLarens by quite a lot.
This was the expected hierarchy in the Bahrain Grand Prix 2024 betting odds, and it looks like it will trend that way all throughout the season.
An interesting takeaway from Ferrari’s performance in Bahrain is the fact that Carlos Sainz, the driver Ferrari is set to replace, was objectively faster than Scuderia’s golden boy, Charles Leclerc.
Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win a Grand Prix last season and, at times, outclassed his teammate, Charles Leclerc. But despite Sainz’s brilliance with the team, he will no longer be part of the organisation by the end of the season.
In case you missed it, Ferrari will part ways with Carlos Sainz by the end of the season to bring in Lewis Hamilton for the 2025 campaign. Now, Ferrari fans can only hope and pray that Scuderia’s decision to keep Charles and kick Sainz was the right one.
McLaren boys are off to a good start
After a slow start in the 2023 season, the boys at McLaren charged their way to convincing Bahrain Grand Prix 2024 results last weekend.
McLaren’s golden boy, Lando Norris, finished sixth, sandwiched between the other British drivers, Merc’s George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
This was by far a better performance to start the season from Norris, after finishing 17th during the last edition of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Norris’ teammate, Oscar Piastri, held his own and showed the entire paddock his improvement by finishing eighth.
With their convincing performances, McLaren were able to bag a total of 12 points, a notable improvement from their maiden race in 2023, where they scored zero points.
Alpine struggle in Bahrain
Alpine finished last season as the sixth-best team in the grid. A respectable performance from the French outfit, who separated themselves from the bottom of the pack and proved that they’re a formidable threat in the midfield.
Unfortunately, it seems like it will be a different narrative for Alpine this season, as their results in Bahrain have exposed that they are still far from mastering their new car.
But Alpine was not too surprised with the pace and results coming into Bahrain. “It’s important to be objective about it when you start with a brand new car, can’t expect to figure things out in three days. It’s not going to be an easy first race, [we’re] not going to start from where we would have liked.” Alpine driver Pierre Gasly stated.
He added that it will take the team “some weeks” to figure things out before they can become competitive again.
“But we’ve got to give ourselves some time to understand that new car concept. The good thing is that we’ve identified very clearly what we’ve got to work on, as a team. Whether we’re able to fix it with car set-up for the first few races of the season, time will tell. But for sure there will be a pretty aggressive plan of updates which we’ll need to close the gap.”
Things are already getting spicy in RB
Visa Cash App RB F1 Team, formerly known as AlphaTauri, finished 13th and 14th in Bahrain after what looked like a spirited effort from Red Bull’s second team.
But in the last few laps, tempers flared up, as Yuki Tsunoda had a hard pill to swallow after being instructed to switch places with teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, who had the superior tires among the two cars.
After a lap of complaining and whining on the team radio, Tsunoda finally conceded and swapped places with Ricciardo, but not without more whining afterwards, of course.
Both drivers were unhappy with what transpired during the race, and one can only imagine how interesting the post-race debrief must have been for RB.
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