It’s finally here, F1 fans! The 2024 season gets underway at the Bahrain International Street Circuit. While most will be delighted with the news, a few purists will be slightly irked with the race being staged on a Saturday.
2024 F1 Season – Bahrain Grand Prix
Saturday 2 March – 17:00
Bahrain International Circuit
Hopefully we get a more competitive season with Mercedes and Ferrari looking a lot quicker than at the close of last season. There’s only so much that pre-season testing can tell us, however. The real acid test will be this weekend in Bahrain. Darry Worthington previews.
Preseason Testing Performances
Here I’ll sum up each team’s pre-season performance in 50 or fewer words:
Red Bull: Dominant. Quickest of the pack and racking up a solid amount of laps. New car looks a class above the competition as does star man Max Verstappen.
Ferrari: Good improvement. Second quickest team on average. The SF-24 was only a couple of seconds off Red Bull’s new model in the final few practice sessions.
Mercedes: Hope springs eternal. Toto Wolff is running up the car and they did alright during preseason testing with their W-15 model looking a lot smoother and more reliable than the 2023 vintage.
Aston Martin: Big budget brings small rewards. Looked decent in pre-season although not as good as last year’s testing sessions. Car looks reliable as they posted a boatload of laps despite not running a race simulation.
McLaren: A lot better than last year. They were in the middle of a competitive pack behind the trinity of Mercedes, Ferrari and champs Red Bull. Car looks far more reliable than last year’s iteration and quicker to boot.
RB: Solid start. They managed to get through a staggering amount of laps without any real reliability issues. Car looks like it will be mixing it up in midfield.
Alpine: No progress. The car looked sluggish in pre-season testing. Their A524 needs work but Alpine aren’t strangers in that regard having had to do the same last season after a slow start to the 2023 campaign.
Williams: Worrying Reliability. Fewest laps completed of all the teams and while they did set decent lap times, they had to contend with driveshaft issues throughout. Could be a smart bet for the first team to retire this weekend.
Kick Sauber: Solid if not spectacular. They registered the third quickest time on the final day of testing but they were far from consistent with their lap times.
Haas: Better than expected. Some decent lap times during pre-season. The team has stated they’re looking for a car that does the job in races so they loaded up heavy on the fuel in practice and opted against lightening the load meaning we don’t know how quick the car actually is.
Off-season news in bullet points
- Hamilton off to Ferrari in 2025
- Chinese Grand Prix returns to the calendar
- RB takeover from Scuderia AlphaTauri
- Sauber Kick replaces Alpha
- Loose drain covers cause disruptions at pre-season testing at this weekend’s race venue
- Horner talks up Mercedes’ off-season testing performances
Track – Bahrain International Circuit
The Bahrain International Circuit – otherwise known as the Sakhir Circuit – was designed by F1’s favourite circuit architect, Hermann Tilke. The tiny Kingdom spared no expense when it came to constructing the complex with in excess of $150 million going into the original construction contracts.
While the actual complex is home to six different circuits, the one we’ll focus our attention on is the 5.412km-long Grand Prix circuit. The track throws up fifteen different turns with three challenging hairpins set to really test the field.
Max Verstappen won the first of his 19 races of the 2023 at last year’s opener in Bahrain finishing 12 seconds ahead of teammate Sergio Perez, who secured a Red Bull one-two. They were joined on the podium by veteran Fernando Alonso.
As is always the case in Bahrain, the weather is dry for the weekend with temperatures in the high teens and low 20s. It’s a good thing climate change hasn’t brought rain to the Gulf as a few loose storm drain covers at the street circuit wreaking havoc on a few testing sessions.
Value Bet
Daniel Ricciardo – Podium Finish – 125/1
The veteran Aussie enjoyed a solid pre-season and looked really good behind the wheel of an RB that managed some solid lap times.
While Mercedes and Ferrari probably have the edge over the RB’s when it comes to race pace, Ricciardo is a wiley operator who knows how to get the best out of underpowered cars.
He’s a massive 125/1 to finally get on the podium in Bahrain and I’ll be having a small punt on him doing so this weekend.
The Aussie also has a tidy enough record at the venue finishing seventh here in 2020 in an underpowered Renault and seventh in 2021 in a poor McLaren. He has produced some good drives at the here finishing fourth here in 2018 and fifth in 2017 and fourth in 2016 while he was still at Red Bull.
To Win Race Outright
Max Verstappen 33/100
The Dutch ace won 19 of the 22 races staged in 2023 and with the new Red Bull car humming in pre-season testing, it would take a brave man to bet against him making it 20 wins from 23 starts.
The Red Bull man broke his duck at the Bahrain International Circuit last term winning the season opener by almost 12 seconds. While I doubt there will be as big a gap between him and the runner-up this weekend, I do think he’ll claim another win here.
