Chapeu Adrian Newey. Season 75 of the F1 World Championship opened with the Bahrain GP: Red Bull presented its credentials, scoring a peremptory one-two. What was surprising was not Max Verstappen's 55th victory, but Sergio Perez's second place. The Mexican, only fifth in qualifying, took his RB20 to the place of honour, taking advantage of perfect race tactics that allowed him to take advantage of the new set of soft tires for the final stint.
If Max roughed up the fresh reds on lap 38 to sign the fastest lap in 1'32″608 which humiliated all his rivals, Perez intelligently managed the greater potential of the tire to control Carlos Sainz. Red Bull leaves Sakhir after having given a sign of his granitic superiority on a technical level and beyond. Christian Horner has suffered broadsides on a personal level for the alleged sex-gate and, for the moment, the manager of Milton Keynes has revealed a capacity for self-control that does not it minimally affected the weekend of the world champion team.
One might say that the 2024 world championship began as last year's ended, but this is a half-truth: Ferrari is second force with Carlos Sainz on the podium for a well-deserved third place and Charles Leclerc still fourth after a race tormented by a brake problem.
The Spaniard's SF-24 finished 2.6 seconds behind Perez, while the gap to Verstappen was decidedly more significant, well over 25 seconds. On the eve of Sakhir it seemed that second position was contestable: Ferrari suffered the return of Checo and limited the gap from the Mexican. For now, the Cavallino's objective must be: to get behind the elusive Max who continues to have good and bad weather. Pole, race and fastest lap: the Dutchman did what he did, in his own way.
Ferrari isn't in the right place yet: it suffers on the soft tyres, while it defends itself on the hard tyres. Sainz put on a show with spectacular overtaking even on his teammate, but always without risking any contact. The Spaniard is ready to play his loyal role even when separated at home. Charles Leclerc could do little: the Monegasque, with a serious balance problem on the brakes, took home an important fourth place. He took advantage of George Russell's only mistake on lap 46 to overtake the Mercedes and catch up with his teammate, albeit behind.
Without trouble would we have seen another Leclerc race? It's possible, but Verstappen with the new RB20, however immature, is already a winner. Max lives on another planet and you have to take note of that. Ferrari is first of the rest, demonstrating that the car has made a decisive step forward. The red is consistent, but there is a lot of work to do because the gap in the race to Red Bull is around half a second.
The Cavallino team can be halfway happy: Verstappen is further away than expected, but the others are behind. Mercedes takes fifth place from Russell and seventh from Lewis Hamilton: the youngest Englishman had a very Garibaldian start to the race, but then the objective values emerged that make the W15 the third force. Lewis, only ninth at the start, recovered two positions, but was unable to catch the McLaren of Lando Norris who got between the two black-silver arrows.
Oscar Piastri with the second MCL38 finished eighth ahead of the two Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, while the rest of the group was lapped. The qualifying grid was contained in just over a second, while in the race the differences become much more macroscopic.
Fernando was given position by the Canadian who on the first lap was hit by Nico Hulkenberg who was in turn touched by Valtteri Bottas' Sauber. Hulkenberg had been forced to pit to change the nose.
Guanyu Zhou ended up out of the points, having been very regular with the Sauber and certainly not a lightning strike. The Chinese controlled Kevin Magnussen with the best Haas at the finish line and Daniel Ricciardo's Racing Bulls. The Australian on soft tires was unable to catch the VH-24 in the final stint although he had benefited from the team order which forced Yuki Tsunoda to give him the way, albeit reluctantly. The Faenza car disappointed expectations: if it goes like this it won't spark further controversy due to its similarity to the RB19.
F1 dismantles the paddock quickly because from Wednesday we start again in Jeddah…
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