Video | Formula 1 has a revolutionary tool: it surprises Verstappen

Formula 1 is warming up for what will be the start of a new season, the teams have tested their cars in recent weeks and are adjusting the final details for their debut this Saturday at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

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The new season brings new details that will make the experience of 'Great Circus' fans more interesting. It will be a record year with 24 Grand Prix scheduled in the calendar, in six of them also with a race-sprint, never before in the history of the Formula 1 There will have been so many tests.

However, in the last practices there was an unexpected protagonist who can revolutionize the way of looking at the big tent of motorsport. Red Bull put into operation a drone that records live shots of the cars traveling at more than 350 kilometers per hour.

“I never thought I would see a drone going so fast just to record camera footage,” said champion Max Verstappen, who was challenged to escape the drone.

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“I was very surprised at how fast he could keep up the pace and also how close he could go in the corners, how he turns. It gives a little bit of a different perspective to watch Formula 1,” said the Red Bull driver.

According to the information provided by the team from Austria, the drone has a three-minute battery life that can record high-definition images of two laps of any circuit.

The technological device accelerates twice as fast as a Formula 1 car, reaches 300 kilometers per hour in just four seconds and can be piloted manually at a distance of 10 kilometers.

Verstappen shows his favoritism in F1

The only winter tests carried out this week in Bahrain They have confirmed it: Max Verstappen and Red Bull They appear as the big favorites for the next Formula 1 season, which will have a record 24 races.

In the paddock there is no longer any doubt that 2024 will once again be dominated by Red Bull given the superiority of its triple world champion Max Verstappen at the wheel of a car that was already born well in 2022 with the new aerodynamic regulations, which are still in force, and which has since evolved for the better.

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To try to match the brand champion team, the competition has tried to imitate the latest cars designed by the Austrian team… which in turn has wanted to stand out again with a completely different aerodynamic concept of the RB20.

A bold bet, but one that seems to be on the right track from what has been seen in the rehearsals in Bahrain. Although all teams try to save themselves
one or more tricks up their sleeve and they did not reveal all their secrets on the circuit Sakhir This week, the opinion is unanimous: Red Bull and 'Mad Max' They are going to dominate the championship again. “I think that 19 drivers in the paddock today consider that they are not going to win the championship,” acknowledged the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), double world champion in 2005 and 2006.

Even Ferrariwho on the stage of the first grand prix of the season next Saturday, positioned himself as the great threat to disrupt the hegemony of the Austrian team, admits that “at the moment, (Red Bull) are still far ahead” of the rest said its pilot Charles Leclerc.

The Horner 'case' is the other great threat that can alter the idyllic present at Red Bull: its historic 'Principal Team', the British Christian Horner is the subject of an internal investigation following an employee's accusations of “inappropriate behavior.”

At the moment, the team that last season won 21 of the 22 races contested, has not made any decision with Horner, who denies the accusations. The World Championship of the premier category of motorsport will have reached the limit of races, since the regulations establish a maximum of 24 Grand Prix per season.

Some drivers, like the British Lando Norris (McLaren), consider it excessive: “
24 is a lot; If I had to give an ideal figure, it would be closer to 20,” she told last year.

To minimize fatigue, travel and the ecological impact, F1 has decided this season to “regionalize” the races. Thus, the Japanese GPwhich was traditionally run in October, moves to April, before the China (which returns to the calendar), the one of Azerbaijan It will be held in September (instead of spring) and Qatar will be held just before Abu Dhabi.

Instead, it has maintained the Canadian GP in June (the 9th), between appointments in Monaco and in Spain. Another novelty is that the championship will begin in Bahrain on a Saturday (March 2) and not on the traditional Sunday, to adapt to Ramadan. The same thing will happen next week in Saudi Arabia.

Each of the 10 teams participating in the 75th edition of the championship has retained its pair of drivers from the previous year, with which the grid remains intact from one season to the next for the first time in the history of the discipline. It will not be repeated, at least in 2025, when the transfer of Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes to Ferrari, a change that threatens to affect many other pilots.

The signing of the seven-time world champion (six of them with Mercedes) for the team caused an earthquake in the paddock and there are already several drivers who are positioning themselves to occupy their coveted position at Mercedes. The Spanish veteran Fernando Alonso, world champion in 2005 and 2006, is
one of those mentioned to sign for Mercedes, since his contract with Aston Martin ends at the end of the season.

For the moment, the 42-year-old Asturian assures that Aston Martin continues to be his “priority”, but a good part of what may happen will depend on the performance of both in the long 2024 season.

SPORTS
With information from AFP.

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