After two days for practice and qualifying, there was a buzz around the F1 paddock that Red Bull may not be as far ahead as once thought. They failed to top the time sheets in any of the three practice sessions. Although Max Verstappen earned pole on Friday, his time was slower than Charles Leclerc’s Q2 lap time for Ferrari.
All that buzz was left for dead after Saturday’s race.
Verstappen kept the lead on the start and dominated the rest of the way, leading every single lap. Second place went to his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez who finished 22 seconds behind.
It was a classic beatdown that felt all too familiar to the results of last season. It leaves many questions for the rest of the teams heading into the rest of the season.
Regardless, here are some takeaways after the Bahrain race weekend.
Despite Red Bull dominating the race pace, qualifying was a different story. In Q3, nine drivers from five teams all fell within about a half second of Verstappen’s pole time.
While Red Bull pulled away during the race, the other four teams of Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, and Aston Martin were closer.
With the times so close in qualifying and the race, mistakes could prove costly. This was perfectly demonstrated by Lewis Hamilton. A single moment of snap oversteer on his final qualifying lap lost him two tenths, costing the Mercedes driver about six spots. Starting ninth, Hamilton was only able to gain two more spots in the race, finding himself too far behind to compete with the front runners.
Ferrari has the edge for now, but performing well in qualifying and race starts will be key in deciding who slots in behind Red Bull.
In our season preview for Alpine this season, the expectation would be that the team would take up the midfield. This has been the case for years, and there was little reason to believe anything would change.
For 2024, things have finally changed. Unfortunately, it is not in the right direction.
Alpine qualified a miserable 19th and 20th. Both cars moved up two spots in the race, but only because of a 52 second pit stop for Kick Sauber’s Valterri Bottas and an early mistake by Williams’ Logan Sargeant.
Substantial upgrades will be needed to put the team back on track, but this will not come easy. Along with the poor performance, Alpine is also losing both their technical director and head of aerodynamics by the end of April.
Alpine has already seen countless personnel changes over the past year. The possibility lies that these departures have played a role in the team falling behind in 2024. With these new departures, it only steepens the climb back up for Alpine.
In the midst of their futility, Haas has still been known to pull out shock qualifying efforts since 2022.
The problem for the American team has been maintaining the track position they gain in qualifying. Disastrous tire degradation has plagued them, and fixing that was a key focus for Haas in 2024.
Early returns have been promising.
Nico Hulkenberg qualified tenth for Haas, once again showcasing the team’s qualifying upside. In the race, the VF-24 showed much improved race pace. Telemetry placed Haas as the sixth fastest team overall, at times even surpassing the Aston Martins.
Unfortunately, the pace was all for naught, with both cars finishing outside the points. Hulkenberg fell behind after a lap one incident required a front wing change. Kevin Magnussen was just trying to salvage as many positions as possible after a poor qualifying.
Time will tell if there’s any merit to this pace going forwards.
Probably.
The wait won’t be long to learn more about how the 2024 F1 season will transpire. The next race is this Saturday in Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Image courtesy of F1.com
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