Red Bull shows its muscles already on Day-1 of testing, and Racing Bulls…

Tests of dominance

There Red Bull it put 2023 to rest with 21 victories in 22 races and doesn't seem to have any intention of taking a breather in 2024. The Milton Keynes team was not content with developing the RB19 and examined new solutions which – at least on the first day of testing – they gave positive feedback. Max Verstappen trimmed more than a second off his opponents and the little sister Racing Bulls, which inherited a lot of its DNA from the RB19, also entered the fray behind the blue spaceship. A Red Bull that seems ready to do without its commander, Christian Horner, who was in civilian clothes at the wall yesterday.

“Red Bulla more than Red Bullgiven the muscular display – writes Jacopo D'Orsi on The print – even an exaggerated show of strength. Perhaps a signal sent outside in the hours in which the fate of the rather embarrassed Christian Horner seems to be sealed. Ferrari knows that the road is long. The first steps were taken yesterday: the SF-24 is more stable and easier to drive than the SF-23.”

Also Alessandra Retico on Republic highlights Verstappen's blistering debut: “First day of Formula 1 like the last: Max Verstappen commands. Worse: Red Bull who is not happy with his superiority it has evolved by also drawing on the losers, gives the first of the pursuers a second (Lando Norris' McLaren). It is true that the first impression should not count in a test, and even less the stopwatch, given that the machines stretch the sheet metal and take the first measurements, deck themselves out with rakes and try to understand if in reality, as in the simulator, they are the one what they look like. Yet the way (143 laps without a hitch) with which the world champion driver and team welcome 2024 in Bahrain, where the first GP will take place on March 2, leaves little room for imagination.” There is also a passage on Racing Bulls which could turn up more than a few noses in the event of high competitiveness: “Racing Bulls, former Alpha Tauri, finishes 4th with Daniel Ricciardo and to many it seems more than its cousin, the exact copy of Red Bull 2023”.

An aspect also highlighted by Daniele Sparisci sul Corriere della Sera: “The problem is understanding the values ​​of the big group, where an unprecedented threat has emerged from the second team of the Red Bull family. It was expected, Ricciardo took the Racing Bulls to fourth place, Tsunoda was in the top 5 in the morning. They run a car very similar to the one with which Max won the title in 2023 thanks to the closer synergies between Milton Keynes and Faenza. Here too there is a message: a team in form sells better.”