BAHRAIN: Red Bull wins...again.
NUMBER ONE
It’s back, baby…
Let’s be honest, while sparks flying against the Bahrain night sky might look dramatic, it wasn’t the most exciting race ever witnessed.
The mighty Verstappen immediately launches off into the distance, as per. Now I get the whole Red Bull domination thing being a tad repetitive, but we must humbly bow down to Adrian Newey’s latest MONSTER of a creation. Whatever your take on Red Bull, that thing is a rocket
Perhaps the most gripping challenge of the race, and I’m thinking this will be a recurring pattern, is the battle for P2, P3 and P4. We’ve got Russell, Leclerc, Perez and Sainz scrambling for podium, while Verstappen is in a lonely race of his own – a whole 20 seconds ahead of his buddies. Unsurprisingly, Perez’s Red Bull takes P2 (frankly embarrassing if it didn’t). Driver of the day and locked in mortal combat with his teammate, Carlos Sainz takes P3 – and good for him! Without a seat next year, this man is on a MISSION.
The dramatic storylines of Drive To Survive taught us to look beyond the competition for podium and enjoy the battles further back in the field. As an angry Tsunoda is ordered to swap positions with his teammate Ricciardo, we see a tight contest for midfield positions in the final couple of laps. The RB teammates remain close (positionally not, I dare say, socially) taking P13 and P14. Haas, Sauber and Williams see their drivers split respectively between shit (P16, P19, P20) and slightly less shit (P12, P11, P15). Safe to say, Alpine needs to go back to the drawing board.
Of course, we must look at every driver’s favourite excuse – problems with the car. From Hamilton’s dodgy seat to Bottas’ curse of the dodgy wheel nut, the first race of 2024 certainly exposed some teething issues. Let’s crash through them (bad choice of words):
- Leclerc and his brakes. Major lock ups. Car pulling right. Not ideal.
- Williams – both Albon and Sargeant not getting on with new steering wheel set ups.
- Bottas not quite topping his infamous day-long pit stop, but 52 seconds waiting for yet another wheel nut issue is not great.
- Hamilton’s broken seat. I’m no expert but even I know that must be a pain in the arse. Literally.
- Mercedes – cooling/overheating issues in both cars, but Mr Wolff is confident that a simple reconfiguration will sort it. Anything you say Toto.
Those are the headlines, but it’s safe to say no one is fully confident just yet. But that’s the joy of F1! Each week we’ll see new updates, improvements, configurations, strategies and more.
By Abu Dhabi it could be Ocon up on that podium. (I’m not placing any bets).