F1 PRE-SEASON TESTING: Team preparation for the upcoming season centers around Red Bull.
For starters, Red Bull is conducting an internal inquiry following claims that team Principal Christian Horner, 50, acted inappropriately and domineeringly toward a female worker, casting doubt on Horner’s future.
For example, even though chief technical officer Adrian Newey maintained he did not see the car as any sort of revolutionary advancement, it was a “wow” moment when it was introduced at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes base last Thursday.
With only three days of testing under their belts before the season begins, the ten teams are limited to running one car at a time. Thus, a driver in Bahrain should have no more than fifteen minutes to get to know his new vehicle.
About a week ago, Fernando Alonso, the two-time champion, lamented this during the introduction of his Aston Martin vehicle. The lack of running was referred to by the Spaniard as “unfair”.
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Considering that Mercedes will have a vacancy after Lewis Hamilton decides to join Ferrari, Alonso is sure to be the center of attention this season. According to Alonso: “There are three world champions on the grid and I am the only one available.”
However, it is a conversation for later on in regards to the driver market. Even the stars who don’t have a seat for 2025 will be more concerned with their new horses than their futures right now.
Pre-season testing usually gives a vague picture of relative performance because of a number of variables, including tire types, fuel loads, engine settings, track circumstances, and so on. However, it was clear from almost its very first meaningful run last year that Red Bull’s RB19 was unmatched.
Even though nobody predicted Max Verstappen and Red Bull to deliver the most dominant season in Formula One history, by the end of the three days last year, it was clear who would be the 2023 world champion.
The nine other teams will be praying fervently that this does not happen again this week, as will everyone else who has an interest in a thrilling, competitive world championship during what will be Formula One’s longest season ever.
WHAT MAKES RED BULL APPEAR SO UNIQUE?
There was one overarching irony that made the car introductions over the last two weeks noteworthy. Numerous automobiles resembled the Red Bull from the previous year and had several of its design elements. This year’s Red Bull, however, was the vehicle that didn’t resemble the one from the previous year at all.
Horner, whose attendance at the event was unexpected given the claims, stated: “It’s an evolution of the car from last year, but it’s not conservative; you can see the guys have been quite aggressive in some areas and are still pushing the boundaries.” And [we] understand that our rivals will continue to exert a lot of pressure.”
HORNER: RED BULL TEAM FINDS DISTRACTION IN ALLEGATIONS.
The Red Bull continues to operate under the same general aerodynamic philosophy. However, Newey and his group have been approaching problems creatively.
Red Bull has completely removed the horizontal cooling duct at the front of the car, opening up the sidepod undercut—a vital component of the design that directs airflow to the floor edge and rear of the vehicle—even more than it was previously.
Rather, two thin vertical slats have been added, just below the horizontal portion of the original sidepod bodywork, to allow air meant for the radiators to enter. The goal is to increase the amount of space available so that more air mass may flow down the side of the vehicle, increasing downforce and performance in the process.
Two enormous tubes that connect the cockpit to the back of the vehicle run toward the back of the vehicle. These are similar to a feature on the Mercedes from the previous year, but considerably more noticeable.
It is believed that these air channels ensure that the downforce-producing exterior air is as little disrupted as possible when it exits the automobile towards the rear, likely even increasing it, in addition to providing cooling.
Has Newey created yet another masterpiece? The expectation for a competitive year is predicated on something that might not be immediately apparent. It looks like it will be a very lengthy year if the car proves to be as clearly better than the others in testing as its predecessor was.
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HOW DO THE COMPETITORS OF RED BULL FEEL?
Optimism among Formula One teams typically peaks during the preseason. It is their belief that having given it their all over the winter will help them get ahead of their competitors. Reality that is on track hasn’t yet subdued that ambition.
The fact that their opponents are feeling a little pessimistic speaks volumes about the enormity of the task ahead of anyone who isn’t driving a Red Bull—”a mountain to climb,” as Mercedes team manager Toto Wolff has described it.
At Silverstone on Monday, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will operate the MCL38.
Not many people appear to believe that the world champions will have an early advantage over the competition. How big will it be and how long will it last are the questions.
Red Bull’s victory in all but one race last year is not the only evidence supporting this belief. However, as McLaren team principal Andrea Stella stated last week, the team’s car was so good that they could stop making improvements to it early on and still win, which will have freed up more resources for the 2024 design.
It is hoped that as the races progress, Red Bull, being closer to the top of the growth curve with the restrictions, would lead to the closure of others, who have more to find.
The team that advanced the most in 2023 was McLaren; after beginning the season near the rear, they made one of the most remarkable in-season development leaps in Formula One history by launching themselves into the lead group behind Red Bull. Stella believes that something akin to this could happen once more, but from a much greater starting point.
“If we keep the development rate we had in 2023 that we will add hopefully on to the 2024 car I think we can be in a strong position,” he explained. “Whether that is enough to challenge Red Bull and the other top teams, we will find out.”
ARE MERCEDES ABLE TO RECOVER SUCCESS?
There are other new cars attracting notice besides the Red Bull. At the Mercedes’s unveiling, Newey mentioned something “interesting” about an innovation he saw, but he wouldn’t say what it was. Presumably, he was referring to the design of the front wings.
Wolff called the Mercedes a “complete relaunch” for this year’s model. He acknowledged that they “got it wrong with the new regulations” that were imposed in 2022, thus it is necessary that it be that way.
Compared to their previous two failed designs, the new Mercedes undoubtedly has a different appearance. And the previous winners are hoping that their three days in Bahrain this week will validate their changes to the car’s basic attributes.
George Russell and Hamilton have been complaining for the last two years that the Mercedes is unreliable and undermines trust since they never quite know what it will do when they turn it into a bend.
According to Wolff, the goal is to perform well, look inward, and aim to have a predictable, downforce-rich car on the track so that Lewis and George can drive it with enjoyment and in a less challenging manner than in past years. We’re hoping for more positive than negative responses from Bahrain.”
IS FERRARI UP TO THE CHALLENGE?
Similar circumstances exist at Ferrari, who at the end of the previous season were Red Bull’s main rivals.
Charles Leclerc’s three pole places in the final five races of 2023 demonstrated that Ferrari had made great progress on performance in addition to managing a car that had begun the season as a spiteful and violent machine. The Ferrari was, on average, only 0.032 seconds slower than the Red Bull during a qualifying lap during the second part of last year.
Throughout the winter, they have been concentrating on figuring out a better trade-off between qualifying and the race, since even on the occasions when the Ferrari could outperform the Red Bull for a lap, it would eventually tire out.
“It is always a compromise, but overall for the [2023] season, the global picture was that we were competitive in qualifying and suffered more in the race,” team manager Frederic Vasseur stated. The need for the car to be simpler to drive has to be our first concern.”
The Ferrari simulator indicated the team had taken “a significant step forward” on this, Leclerc remarked at the introduction. However, simulating the behavior of these ground-effect cars with venturi subfloor tunnels in the virtual environment is not always simple.
The irony of the previous season was that, although Red Bull’s domination reached unprecedented heights, it did so during a year when the gap between the fastest and slowest cars in qualifying was one of the smallest ever—on average, just 1.4 seconds separated them. This was the Alfa Romeo Sauber.
Alonso anticipates that this will happen once more. It’s going to be really close, he says. This year, I venture that four or five teams will finish in 0.2–0.3 seconds. That will place you outside the top 10 or in the race for podiums in less than 0.2 seconds.”
And as the teams get ready for their cars’ first serious running, McLaren’s Lando Norris has probably summed up the situation best thus far: “Are Red Bull beatable?” Norris asked last week.
“You have to say yes, because we were very close at certain times and at certain times we did. But the question is: are they beatable over a season? I think that will be very difficult.”
And that is another reason why it will be so difficult to work out about the true competitive picture from this week’s running.
When margins are so small, the effect of the inevitable variables of testing is even harder to unpick.
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