Defending champion Verstappen and team look unbeatable after opening-race romp in Bahrain.
Max Verstappen began his pursuit for a third straight Formula 1 title in imperious fashion as Red Bull Racing crushed the opposition during a sedate season-opening F1 Bahrain Grand Prix.It is only Race 1 of 23 but Max Verstappen laid down a marker that evoked memories of his dominant second half of 2022.
Only one car—teammate Perez—finished within 30 seconds of the winner, and only seven of the 20 cars finished within a minute of Verstappen. The talk in the paddock post-race was not so much whether Verstappen will win the championship, but how many of the remaining 22 races he will win. “Obviously it is a perfect start to this project,” said Alonso. “We didn’t expect to be that competitive. The aim in 2023 was getting the mix in the midfield, leading that midfield and getting close to the top three teams. But even a podium was maybe not on the radar in 2023. And we found ourselves the second-best car today in Bahrain or the whole weekend, just behind Red Bull. So this is a little bit of a surprise.
Charles Leclerc departed Bahrain with maximum points in 2022 but in 2023 he left with zero after suffering an engine failure during the race. Leclerc was running third—albeit a stretch behind the dominant Red Bulls—when an ancillary component on the SF-23’s engine failed. Leclerc was asked about the lack of race pace and merely responded: “Performance. We are just not quick enough. It’s impossible to look at the positives on a day like this when you don’t end the race.”
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