By Carlo Platella
The Bahrain Grand Prix confirmed the undisputed superiority of Red Bull, if ever there were still any doubts. The next stop in Saudi Arabia will still have a lot to say about the actual advantage of the world champions, one way or the other. The Jeddah track highlights the aerodynamic efficiency of the single-seaters, the main asset of Red Bull 2023, but where the pursuers have made the most important progress. The question is not whether the Verstappen-RB20 duo is still in an advantageous position, but rather whether the gap with the competition can be recovered by the end of the year.
The Bahrain verdict
In the inaugural race Max Verstappen had an advantage of 7 tenths per lap on hard tires compared to Sainz's Ferrari, who however was still slowed down by a brake problem, although not of the same severity as what afflicted Charles Leclerc. In the first part of the race on soft tyres, however, both Reds were following Russell's Mercedes, trailing the best Red Bull by 8 and a half tenths per lap. The Silver Arrow, however, also ran with the power unit weakened, a necessary precaution to overcome an overheating problem, sacrificing between 4 and 6 tenths per lap. In short, if the world champions remain ahead, their actual advantage remains to be quantified.
An advantage that will inevitably vary from track to track. Bahrain was a track with high tire degradation, in whose management Red Bull continues to have a strong point. Its design, full of straights interspersed with slow curves, would have been perfect last season to encourage rivals to get closer, but according to Verstappen the 2024 car has also improved in tackling hairpin bends. The times of the RB20s in the central sector, however, which was guided and full of medium-high speed corners, were highlighted a more limited superiority compared to the pastespecially towards Ferrari and McLaren.
The Silverstone of Arabia
Attention thus shifts to the second stage of the World Championship scheduled in Jeddah, a track that is as fascinating as it is dangerous. Smooth and fast, the Saudi circuit leads the drivers to travel with the accelerator at full throttle for 80% of the distance, a value that the track has in common with other high-speed circuits such as Monza and Las Vegas. With the exception of the first chicane, tackled at around 80 km/h, the rest of the circuit is made up of high-traffic bends, where balance, aerodynamic load and front-end readiness emerge. It is emblematic that in Bahrain the 4.2 g of lateral acceleration was not exceeded, compared to the 4.5 g that will be reached in Jeddah.
In Saudi Arabia the single-seaters carry a lot of speed through corners, reducing the time spent braking, estimated by Brembo at 11% of the lap, compared to 18% for Bahrain. The attention shifts to the initial phase of braking, where aerodynamic stability prevails, avoiding going down to low speeds where mechanical management instead emerges. The only exception is braking on Turn 1, the most demanding on the track, where the cars decelerate from 325 to 166 km/h with a peak of 4.5 g. Overall, the result is a fluid and high-speed track, with an average speed per lap of over 250 km/h, in line with tracks such as Spa and Silverstone and considerably higher than the 217 km/h average in Bahrain.
Aerodynamic test
The characteristics of Jeddah make it a track where What counts above all is aerodynamic efficiency, understood not as simple straight-line speed, but as the proportion between load and aerodynamic resistance. Efficiency was the great quality of Red Bull last year, which in Saudi Arabia expressed an advantage over the competition even greater than that seen in Bahrain, a scenario which could instead be reversed in 2024. The question is how much the RB20, revolutionized in shape to release further load from the bottom, has improved in fast corners and how much the progress concerns other areas, such as slow cornering.
In 2023 Ferrari he set the second best time in qualifying with Leclerc, clinging to the speed on the straight of a Red team which, instead, was struggling in the long Saudi bends. However, the new SF-24 now appears well balanced and competitive even on fast cargo curves, the same ones where McLaren continue to express yourself at your best. We will remember Oscar Piastri's access to Q3 in 2023, with an MCL60 still far from the top, but which already showed a very competitive concept in the high-speed bends. Aston Martin for its part, last week it established itself as one of the cars with the best top speeds, while Mercedes it did not shine in a particular area, expressing a more balanced car. One more reason to follow it carefully.
Variable rubber
Tires chapter. In Saudi Arabia, coverage management will be the opposite of that commented in the opening round. In Bahrain the limiting axis was the rear one, stressed above all by the longitudinal stresses during acceleration, while in Jeddah the lateral loads prevailed which tire the front. Thermal degradation will be significantly less, allowing pilots to maintain sustained pace for the entire duration of the race.
This does not mean that tires will not be a central theme in the second weekend of the season. A problematic aspect could be the temperature setting in qualifying, with a less abrasive asphalt and mild temperatures, thanks to the night-time hours of the sessions. In past editions it has not been uncommon to see teams carry out two introductory laps to get the tire up to temperature in qualifying, an aspect that was already decisive on Friday in Bahrain. The choice of Pirelli it is for the intermediate compounds of the range, C2, C3 and C4, with a significant increase in inflation pressures for the front axle, set at 24 compared to 22.5 psi in 2023. A countermeasure, that of the Italian tire manufacturer, necessary to counteract the increase in car load, which teams and drivers will have to deal with for the entire season.
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