Hamilton revels in new Mercedes while signs reveal Red Bull’s potential

“We’re not bluffing like people assume we are.”

“At the moment, we’re not going to be in the race for the win.”

“We’ve got a lot to work on.”

“Today, we found out that we are a long way off.”

Over the last two years, the opening day of the first grand prix weekend of the year has been a sobering one for Lewis Hamilton.

Determined to reclaim that eighth world championship title that he lost on the final lap in 2021, Hamilton instead climbed out of his car from the first day of practice over the last two years knowing that he had a mountain to climb with his new Mercedes. But not in 2024.

At the end of day one in Bahrain, Hamilton was quickest of all. With Mercedes team mate George Russell two tenths behind in second, it seems to reinforce that this is a much stronger start to the new season than the team have had the last two years.

“We didn’t know exactly where we would stack up against everyone else, but we had a positive FP2 session,” Hamilton said after his 1’30.374 put him at the top of the times.

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“Overall, I’m feeling much happier with the car than last year. We’ve made some good improvements and it feels much more like a race car.”

As promising as it may appear for Mercedes and its fans, it’s foolish to read too much into lap times on the first day of the season. Down in sixth position, behind the Mercedes, Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Ferrari and Oscar Piastri’s McLaren, reigning world champion Max Verstappen was quick to point out that his team were not running their power units near their full potential. Indeed, Verstappen was the slowest of the four Honda-powered cars in the speed trap.

Hamilton recognised this too, admitting that he still forsees Mercedes being behind the Red Bulls when things get truly competitive.

“I think we’re going to be in the mix,” he said. “I think it’s a bit too early to say, but I think we’re there or thereabouts with Ferrari and maybe Aston and McLaren. I don’t know exactly where we lay with those guys, but we’re around those. So it’s going to close. I think if Max is in the front, he will clear off as he has done for the last couple of years.”

There are plenty of signs Red Bull have far more pace in hand than they revealed on Thursday. Their best lap time was 1.1 seconds slower than their quickest throughout last weekend, the largest deficit of any team:

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Although all 20 drivers ran considerable distances on the soft tyre in the second session, long run pace will matter most on Saturday. Before then, on Friday, qualifying will be the first true opportunity to see the genuine pace of the 2024 cars.

Despite being so dominant last season, single-lap performance was never the RB19’s strength. However, the data suggests that the RB20 is a formidably quick car – especially through the speed Verstappen carried through the fast sweepers of turns five, six and seven and traction out of slow corners, as Verstappen seemed to be able to get on the throttle earlier out of turn ten and onto the back straight.

Even with their power units supposedly not as turned up as their rivals, Verstappen and team mate Sergio Perez both recorded higher top speeds at the end of the pit straight on their fastest push laps than all their likely closest threats for pole did. Not only does that suggest the RB20 is fairly slippery down the straights, it may make beating the Red Bulls to pole position all the more critical.

But there are two major pitfalls that all drivers will need to be wary of avoiding heading into this first qualifying session of the year. As ever, keeping within the white lines at the edge of the track is essential. We have seen many drivers across Thursday’s practice and last week’s test running wide on the exit of turn four and elsewhere. That will be an immediate invalidation for any flying laps on Friday – as the combined 13 lap times deleted in Thursday’s F3 qualifying session across turns two, four, 13 and 15 demonstrated.

The second but more unknown factor lies in the revised maximum lap time rules. Last season, drivers were timed for every lap in qualifying and summoned to the stewards if they exceeded the maximum lap time set by race director Niels Wittich. That remains the case this season, but now they may also be in breach if they go too slowly through one of the many microsectors that make up the lap.

The impact of this subtle change is that any driver who backs off significantly at any point on circuit may be at risk of breaching the limit – even if they speed up and still fall under the maximum time of 1’54 at the end of the lap.

While it may seem reasonable in theory, if it will work in practice remains to be seen. Even if the rule makes no material difference to the qualifying results, it may end up making the queue of drivers outside the stewards’ office even longer than it was at times at the end of 2023.

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Combined practice times

P.	#	Driver	Team	FP1 time	FP2 time	Gap	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’33.302	1’30.374		47
2	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1’33.251	1’30.580	0.206	48
3	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’33.193	1’30.660	0.286	42
4	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	1’33.385	1’30.769	0.395	51
5	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1’33.113	1’30.784	0.410	52
6	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’33.238	1’30.851	0.477	46
7	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1’37.938	1’30.884	0.510	50
8	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’33.868	1’30.891	0.517	46
9	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’33.268	1’31.113	0.739	50
10	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’33.413	1’31.115	0.741	50
11	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1’33.583	1’31.333	0.959	43
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB-Honda RBPT	1’32.869	1’31.516	1.142	49
13	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	1’34.213	1’31.715	1.341	46
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’37.477	1’31.764	1.390	52
15	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB-Honda RBPT	1’33.183	1’31.881	1.507	53
16	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1’35.144	1’31.951	1.577	49
17	77	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber-Ferrari	1’33.354	1’32.001	1.627	45
18	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1’34.807	1’32.027	1.653	46
19	24	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber-Ferrari	1’33.923	1’32.048	1.674	44
20	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1’32.901	1’32.608	2.234	50

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2024 Bahrain Grand Prix

• Tsunoda accepts he got “a bit heated” in team orders dispute with Ricciardo
• “We’re fighting with one arm behind our back”: Hamilton and Russell’s race radio
• Red Bull say RB20 draws inspiration from rivals in less obvious areas
• All cars finish two consecutive F1 races for first time ever
• “I don’t know what the car’s going to do every time I brake”: Leclerc’s race radio

Browse all 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix articles