The 2024 Formula 1 season was meant to be the moment Red Bull’s rivals brought them back within range.
On the strength of qualifying for the opening round, that appears to be the case for all bar one of them.
Max Verstappen claimed pole position for the second year in a row at the Bahrain International Circuit with a lap 0.529 seconds quicker than he produced 12 months ago. But while Red Bull have wrung more than half a second out of the RB20 than its predecessor at this track, almost all of their rivals have found more.
Unsurprisingly, McLaren have made the largest step forwards year-on-year at this track. The team suffered a dire start to 2022, Lando Norris barely scraping out of Q1. Following the gains they made with an impressive development programme last year, the MCL38 is 1.7 seconds quicker than its predecessor was at this stage.
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RB (formerly AlphaTauri) have also gained more than a second over the past year. Haas, against their expectations, are almost a second quicker over a single lap, which bodes well for their VF-24 given they spent much of testing focused on the poor tyre life which plagued their 2023 campaign.
Mercedes and Ferrari can take heart from gaining eight-tenths of a second, which translates to a 0.3-second improvement compared to the Red Bull benchmark. If nothing else, it gives them an encouraging sign they can keep the pressure on the world champions in qualifying, and potentially get in between the RB20s, as they have done this weekend.
The caveat is that the strength of their race pace remains to be seen. Intriguingly, Mercedes indicated their one-lap pace in Bahrain would have been better if they hadn’t optimised their cars for race trim, making the performance of the W15s tomorrow all the more significant.
But one team has fallen further away from Red Bull and, indeed, all their rivals: Alpine. This has come as no surprise to them after a miserable test last week. The A524 at least managed to circulate a tenth of a second quicker than its predecessor.
The car is supposed to represent a departure in philosophy from last year’s car, one which will provide a better starting point for development. For Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly – the latter qualifying last for the second year in a row – the upgrades can’t come soon enough.
Sauber is in a similar situation. The C44 is conceptually different to their previous car, and the team started the year intending to bring a series…
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