Written by Owen Bradley
Credit: Rudy Carezzevoli
Max Verstappen confirmed what many were fearing coming into the 2024 season, that Red Bull are likely going to be unstoppable this season. Verstappen got pole position, led every single lap, got the fastest lap and of course won the Bahrain Grand Prix as well. A truly dominant weekend from Red Bull, as Sergio Perez managed to defend from the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz for P2.
The 2024 Bahrain GP wasn’t full of action, Verstappen managed to break the DRS range to Charles Leclerc behind after just a couple of laps. Leclerc began to struggle heavily with the double left-hander and heavy braking zone in Turn 10. After struggling with the front tyres locking up, Leclerc eventually had to come into the pits after a battle with teammate Carlos Sainz.
The undercut from Soft tyres to Hard tyres certainly ended up paying off, with a number of cars managing to find themselves back in the mix after struggling, such as Leclerc who managed to get back in front of Sainz. Sainz would eventually get back past Leclerc and go through Russell as well for P3, and began slowly catching Sergio Perez as well.
Credit: ANP REMKO DE WAAL
The race settled in from that stage, with Verstappen cruising to over 20 seconds clear of Perez and the rest of the field being separated by DRS trains. Fans online made their thoughts clear and were slightly disappointed with the lack of overtaking after being excited for the return of Formula One all winter.
However, Carlos Sainz treated fans to an entertaining battle against Russell, Leclerc and Perez as he proved his point to Ferrari by scoring a very impressive podium. A disappointing race for Aston Martin, who ended up scraping the points in the end and evidently with some work to do in the coming months.
McLaren had decent pace throughout, challenging the two Mercedes' of Russell and Hamilton. However from the looks of this race, the teams order seems to be Red Bull still dominating, from Ferrari who are catching Mercedes quite a distance behind with McLaren right there with them. Aston Martin just one step back rounds out the Top 10.
Charles Leclerc had a somewhat frustration race, trying to solve his brake issues throughout the race led to him losing a lot of time, with a car that evidently does have pace after the impressive result that Carlos Sainz managed to achieve.
Formula One returns to our screens just next week for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
It was like a continuation of the 2023 season, as if there had not been a winter break but a single week between races. Red Bull should be hugely congratulated for such dominance and development. It shows how far ahead they really are that despite being the target they have probably extended the gap on highly motivated and resourceful teams who are/should be desperate to beat them. I would imagine F1 will have a very challenging year with viewer numbers now, especially with Geri's husband doing everything he can to get the female viewers and anyone with a moral compass to switch off too.