Neither the internal investigations that Red Bull is carrying out to try to elucidate whether Christian Horner, its director, overstepped his bounds with one of his subordinates, nor the uproar caused by the announcement of Lewis Hamilton’s signing for Ferrari with a view to 2025. Nothing is capable of making the energy team or Max Verstappen lose focus, its main claim and the axis of all the company’s propaganda, which faces the next World Cup with the run that the three titles it has chained give it; the last one, in the most dominant car. With the RB19, the Dutchman broke every record imaginable. If we are guided by the data left by the only three preseason sessions that have been held, in Bahrain, the RB20 can perfectly improve the feat of its predecessor. The difference of more than a second that separated Mad Max from his first pursuer (Lando Norris), at the end of the first day of training at the Sakhir circuit, was a declaration of intentions, perhaps a preview of the championship that will begin the end next week in this same scenario.
In its day, with Sebastian Vettel at the wheel, Red Bull shook up the status quo with four titles in a row between 2010 and 2013. A decade later, the red buffalo brand continues to catch the staff out of control. He has done it again with the RB20. Far from following the continuous design line that most imagined, the 2024 car is based on a new concept that is visualized in the pontoons, practically reduced to nothing. A very illustrative bet on the bravery of the Milton Keynes structure. If it works, as it seems, Red Bull will have proven to be capable of taking on the idea of a rival (Mercedes) who failed to develop it and finally abandoned it, and get all the performance out of it that others couldn’t find.
“Impressive,” responded Helmut Marko, one of Red Bull’s main authorities, when asked to evaluate the premiere of the new car. “I don’t care what the car looks like. What I really like about the team is that it has not been conservative, and that it has once again crossed the limits,” said Verstappen. The reference team receives compliments from all sides, especially for showing the value of completely turning around something that already works (RB19). “I admit that when I saw the car I thought: ‘Wow! What there is no doubt about is that they have been brave in modifying several of the elements that made their car from last year so successful,” confessed Andrea Stella, McLaren director.
That Red Bull was not going to screw up was something that could practically be taken for granted. And the rest? All indications lead us to think that Ferrari has taken a step forward with the SF-24. Not only because Carlos Sainz was the fastest on the second day of track activity and Charles Leclerc was the fastest on the third. But because of the testimony of those who drive it, optimistic when asked if the car has corrected the deficiencies of its predecessor. The rest of the peloton arouses more uncertainty, although none like Aston Martin, which made a splash a year ago but does not seem to flow on the track as much as then. On his best day, his third, Fernando Alonso finished eight tenths off the best time.
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