{"id":18488,"date":"2024-02-21T17:03:17","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T22:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=18488"},"modified":"2024-02-21T17:03:17","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T22:03:17","slug":"verstappen-p1-red-bull-impress-with-rb20-in-bahrain-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/02\/21\/verstappen-p1-red-bull-impress-with-rb20-in-bahrain-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen P1, Red Bull impress with RB20 in Bahrain Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen set the standard on the first day of Bahrain testing, as Red Bull’s RB20 flexed its muscles early.<\/h4>\n

Gauging the pecking order is very difficult during pre-season testing, even when last year’s dominant force continues where it left off. However, the reigning Champions<\/a> are already demonstrating tremendous form in Bahrain.<\/p>\n

Even with last year’s record-breaking RB19, the Austrian team was only marginally fastest on day 1 of testing in 2023. In relatively standard fashion, they chose to preserve their pace until qualifying.<\/p>\n

Whilst they undoubtedly have more performance in reserve, they certainly weren’t shy about setting a strong benchmark.<\/p>\n

Further down in the pecking order, over a second behind the Dutchman, was Norris in P2 and Sainz in P3. The former teammates enjoyed solid sessions for McLaren and Ferrari, respectively, who completed their programmes without major issues.<\/p>\n

\"classification_20240221_165238_L143.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Although no definitive conclusions can be drawn, these historic rivals seem to have made a concrete step over winter. The same seems applicable to Aston Martin, who finished in the top 10 with both Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.<\/p>\n

The Silverstone-based team is understood to be happy with their early running. After struggling with mid-season development last year, the AMR24 appears to correlate with the data from the wind tunnel.<\/p>\n

Considering last year’s setbacks, this is an encouraging sign. Much McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes, there is more to come from the British outfit.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Mercedes,<\/a> they were perhaps the trickiest team to gauge in testing. Focusing almost exclusively on high-fuel runs, they hardly made an impression on the timing sheets.<\/p>\n

This is hardly a novelty for the Silver Arrows, who were anonymous in testing even in their glory days. However, after two disappointing years, there is plenty of pessimism surrounding Toto Wolff’s personnel.<\/p>\n

Still, it would be premature to write off the W15. As part of the team’s new direction for development, their current package must form a strong foundation to build upon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Different fortunes in the midfield<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Further down the field, Haas managed to complete more laps than anyone. With the team’s pre-season focus being tyre management, the VF-24 is unlikely to set any sensational times over the next two days.<\/p>\n

Williams was plagued by reliability issues across the morning and afternoon sessions. They still secured some mileage, although plenty of work lies ahead to optimise the FW46 machine.<\/p>\n

Alpine kept a low profile, focusing on the harder compounds for much of their running. Still, a late C3 run from Pierre Gasly gives the French outfit a respectable position at the end of day 1.\u00a0Sauber enjoyed a solid session, though perhaps nothing indicative of a substantive change from 2023.<\/p>\n

Such a change is more likely to come from VCARB, also known as RB. The Faenza-based outfit produced strong lap times and seemed pleasant to handle from the on-board footage.<\/p>\n

However, Daniel Ricciardo has cautioned against getting carried away with today’s times. This is a wise disclaimer, given that the front-runners have kept their cards close to their test.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow should see the times improve and, consequently, a clearer picture emerge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen set the standard on the first day of Bahrain testing, as Red Bull’s RB20 flexed its muscles early. Gauging the pecking order is very difficult during pre-season testing, even when last year’s dominant force continues where it left off. However, the reigning Champions are already demonstrating tremendous form in Bahrain. Even with last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":18490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2174,2220,68,23,79,78],"class_list":["post-18488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2174","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-red-bull-racing"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}