Formula 1 is Back!
Yes, after 90+ days, Formula 1 is back in Bahrain for the start of the 2024 Season! New aims, targets, and hope will enter all 10 teams and 20 Drivers heading into the opening weekend so it’s important for them to get off to a great start as they look to buckle down for the longest season in F1 history! Who will come out on top, we’ll just have to wait and see, and remember, the Race is on Saturday this weekend (and next week in Jeddah also)!
Will Pace from Pre-Season Testing correlate to this Weekend’s Results?
As most people say every year, you can’t really take much from Pre-Season Testing. I totally agree, but it is worth having a little mention about what went down last week. Red Bull looked quick once again, as did Ferrari, whilst the likes of McLaren, Alpine, and Williams all “potentially underperformed”. Again, only time will tell on this and we’ll talk about another team that surprised a lot of people in a second!
Same Teams, New Names
For 2024, there are a couple of new names to get used to as Alpha Tauri and Alfa Romeo are no more and they are now known as Visa Cash App RB and Kick Sauber. Yes, I’m aware, their names aren’t the best (but they are quite fun)! VCARB, or RB for short, had a very good test (again it doesn’t really matter) and with more input from Red Bull themselves, RB will be hoping for a much stronger year with Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda as their drivers. As for Kick Sauber, you certainly won’t be able to miss them out on track and whilst they are expected to be towards the back of the field, it’s worth mentioning that this team has a good track record of starting seasons well (so keep that in mind).
Will Carlos Sainz Start the Season on a Strong note?
A lot of the off-season talk in Formula 1 surrounding the fact that Lewis Hamilton will be joining Ferrari in 2025. Before that though, Lewis still has another year with Mercedes whilst Ferrari still have the services of the very talented Carlos Sainz. I think it’s fair to say that Carlos will be looking to start the season on a very strong note to kind of show Ferrari what they’re losing. However, it’s worth mentioning that Sainz isn’t under pressure in terms of “driving for a seat” like some on the 2024 Grid which actually might help him quite a lot.
Can Anyone Stop Max Verstappen?
Max Verstappen enters 2024 as a 3-time World Champion and it’s fair to say that a large majority of the Formula 1 paddock/fans expect Max to match Sebastian Vettel’s, Lewis Hamilton’s, and Juan Manuel Fangio’s run of 4 successive Titles. Max also won 19 of the 22 Races in 2023 (including 17 of the last 18) so there are big question marks as to whether anyone’s going to be able to stop Verstappen from dominating once again. We’ll obviously find out a little bit this weekend if the likes of Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, and even his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez can challenge for the win, but given Max’s record, it’d be hard to make a case against him winning the opening round of the year (and many more after that).
My Predictions for Sakhir Qualifying
Max Verstappen
Charles Leclerc
Carlos Sainz
Sergio Perez
George Russell