First round Verstappen-Leclerc, Russell lurking
Max Verstappen And Charles Leclerc they will start on the front row today at 4pm when the Bahrain Grand Prix gets underway, the first act of the 2024 F1 championship. Ferrari with the Monegasque missed pole position yesterday in Qualifying and today wants to demonstrate that it has resolved once and for all the problems linked to tire degradation which have made the start of the 2023 season very complicated.
On paper, the SF-24 could pay something in the first stint with the soft tires and then improve its competitiveness with the switch to the harder compounds. The script that emerged from the tests and free practices highlights that Max Verstappen still seems to have something more than his rivals in the race, Russell even hypothesized that in the race Red Bull will be half a second per lap faster than Mercedes. Verstappen is not of the same opinion and also according to the Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur Red Bull at least at this moment does not have that aura of an unbeatable car as happened in 2023.
“As we have been saying since the start of this weekend, it is very difficult to read the winter tests and we are still completely in the dark regarding fuel levels. From what we have seen it seems that this year Red Bull will not have the margin it had last year and perhaps more teams could put it under pressure when they will be called upon to make particular strategic or set-up decisions. For the race we will focus first and foremost on ourselves: we need to check that the car is more consistent in tire management, as it seems so far, and we will see what we can bring home. The first objective is not to leave any points along the way“, Vasseur's words ahead of the first GP of the season.
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