It cannot be said that the winter break was boring, amidst the news and scandals that have emerged in recent days. However, after months of waiting, the time has come to concentrate and above all to let the cars and the track do the talking. Testing in Bahrain officially opened the 2024 Formula 1 season. During the first four hours of the morning session on the first day of testing, the teams brought their cars to the Sakhir circuit to evaluate the innovations studied in the past months. So let's see how the morning session went on day 1 of the 2024 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Let's start again froml Red Bul domainl
Red Bull, dominator of the past season, influenced much of the grid with its innovative solutions, also studying those of its opponents, which inspired Adrian Newey and his team in the creation of the RB20, extreme especially in both the vertical and vertical air intakes than horizontal, reduced. But Will this exchange of ideas between the teams, now in their third year of the cycle with ground effect cars, make the competition more intense or will we still see a single team in the lead in 2024? The concepts taken from Newey have made the RB20 a completely new car, and extremely interesting because it establishes a new philosophy, which, if it works, could leave the rest of the group behind once again.
It begins
The morning session of day 1 of the 2024 test in Bahrain sees 10 drivers on track: George Russell, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Valtteri Bottas, Alexander Albon and Kevin Magnussen. One of the most anticipated teams is that of Tsunoda, Visa Cash App RB. The team has not only changed its name and identity this season but has inherited more components from Red Bull, drawing the attention of competitors. Understanding the values now is difficult, the tests are not indicative, but the ambitions are high and he has also made this clear Daniel Ricciardo on the day of the presentation of the VCARB 01. Precisely for this reason the pair of RB drivers is one of those to keep an eye on at the Fantasy F1.
The first to inaugurate the 2024 season, the longest with a calendar of 24 races, taking to the track with the green light is George Russell. The Mercedes driver will have the whole day available to study and begin to understand the W15. Even Max Verstappen, like Russell, will not alternate with Perez. In the other teams there will be an alternation. At Ferrari, the first to take to the track in the morning session of the first day of testing with the SF-24 was Charles Leclerc. Last year, the Monegasque immediately complained about the lack of feeling with the car.
In this testing phase, although limited, it is important to understand the flexibility and driveability of the SF-24, the first single-seater entirely created under Vasseur management. With the passage of Lewis Hamilton in Ferrari in 2025 and the consequent farewell of Carlos Sainz, it is reasonable to think of greater attention to the Monegasque's requests in the development of the single-seater in 2024.
Not indicative times, but a lot of work on new features
The times in the first half hour of testing, although indicative, given the rakes, the different compounds and the type of work to be done, place them in the top 5 Alonso with 1:33.822, Bottas, Magnussen, Leclerc, Russell. The Monegasque mounted rakes on the initial part of the bazooka on the SF-24 to collect data on this new part of the car. The focus remains above all on the RB20, a single-seater that cannot be said to be conservative given the solutions introduced. There is a lot of work to do, and after 14 laps the Dutchman is still relatively distant from P1.
Following the first hour of testing in Bahrain, Charles Leclerc set a time of 1:33.658 with used averages and takes the lead, improving Fernando Alonso's time. Recall that last year, the fastest lap time at the end of the first day of testing was 1:32.837 set by Max Verstappen. Below is the partial ranking after the first hour.
Few laps for Oscar Piastri, just 7 in this first phase of testing. The MCL38 is one of the single-seaters that was most hidden during its presentation. Last season Andrea Stella's team did not start the season in the best way, arriving late on the project. However, the MCL60 has found its ideal form with development, collecting podiums after the summer break and collecting precious points to move up the rankings.
Up front, the challenge is between Alonso and Leclerc. The Spaniard from Aston Martin, after an hour and a half of session, comes within a few thousandths of Leclerc's best time. Williams is instead looking for important data on the aerodynamics of the front end of the FW-46.
Problems for Ocon?
During the first part of the morning session, the Frenchman said he was rather dissatisfied with the behavior of the A524, the new single-seater from Alpine. Esteban Ocon struggled a lot to keep the car on the track, as demonstrated by a small excursion into the gravel. The situation is not the best for the French team which, due to the regulations, had to resort to an almost bare car, with all that exposed carbon.
Verstappen in command
The first two hours of the session ended with Max Verstappen in the lead with a time of 1:33.065. At the first attempts of the flying lap, the Dutchman took a gap of 3 tenths from Alonso's Aston Martin and 5 from Alonso's Ferrari. Leclerc who with a second attempt, after aborting a spin due to a block, he placed himself in second place by less than 2 tenths from Dutch. Although we are still at the beginning of the tests, the hunger of the Monegasque is already clear, and he will also want to find confirmation in his race pace.
The second part of the session, with the long run
After the first two hours, the drivers to have completed the most laps are Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso with 39 laps under their belt, followed by Tsunoda, with 38 laps, Albon 36 laps, Bottas with 34 laps, Ocon with 33 laps, Magnussen 32 laps , Leclerc 30 laps. Oscar Piastri also recovers, with 23 laps, while Russell is still stuck in the pits with just 19 laps completed.
Here we are, the first to go under the 33 minute mark is Max Verstappen and he does it also beating the best time of the first day of testing last season which belonged to him with the sensational time of 1:32.548. Despite the record time, the RB20 still appears a little too nervous, and this leads Max Verstappen to make some mistakes. The top 5 now includes Verstappen, Leclerc, Alonso, Piastri and Tsunoda.
With less than an hour to go, all the drivers now on track are engaged in long run simulations, the first of the season. Despite some excursions on the race pace the RB20 proves constant, with a fixed pace of 36.5 for the Dutchman. However, the times of Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc were decidedly higher. Obviously the petrol loads are not known but it is important at this stage to also see the consistency in times. Which SF-24 seems to respect at the moment. In the afternoon of day 1 of the tests in Bahrain 2024 with lower temperatures, we remember that Sainz will be the one to ride with the SF-24.
The end of the first session on day 1 of the 2024 tests in Bahrain
After 3 hours of testing in Bahrain, the drivers completed a remarkable number of laps at the Sakhir circuit. Alonso leads the standings with 55 laps, followed by Verstappen with 51 laps and Tsunoda with 50 laps. Bottas and Ocon remained in tune, both accumulating 42 laps, while Leclerc was not far behind with 41 laps. Albon recorded 38 laps, followed by Magnussen with 37 and Russell with 25.
Among the most interesting new features, Tsunoda's Racing Bulls continued to run on the track, almost completely painted green due to the flow viz on the VCARB 01 bodywork. This evident use of colored fluid clearly indicates the careful tests conducted by the team to understand the trend of air flows on the car. An in-depth analysis that highlights the importance of capturing every detail during this crucial testing phase. In the final phase everyone concentrated on the race simulation, except for Piastri who attempted a further flying lap at the end. Fernando Alonso suffered the most in the long run phase, with a fluctuating performance that kept him at 40:41 and 38 minutes high. Piastri's long run was good, at one minute and 3 minutes. He was also very consistent on the CXNUMX.
During the session there was also the first yellow flag of the season. Alexander Albon is having problems. The Thai driver parked his Williams FW-46 on the side of the track after the engine stalled in the middle of the straight.
The 4 hours are over but don't despair because in an hour we will have 4 more to comment on with the afternoon session. We'll see if the situation changes again or if Verstappen's Red Bull RB20 will continue to maintain the gap with the rest of the group.
