The potential for greatness
By Mukarram Hamid
The Bahrain International Circuit will host pre-season testing and the first race of the 2024 season (Image: Getty Images)
Formula One pre-season testing starts this week (21-23 February) before the beginning of the 2024 season. Last season saw Red Bull and Max Verstappen secure victory over their rivals but will the same story occur in the upcoming year, or will someone defeat the mighty Bulls once and for all?
Red Bull record-breakers
The 2023 season saw Red Bull and Max Verstappen dominate both Drivers and Constructors championships in a way never done before. Red Bull managed to win a total of 22 out of 23 races, with Verstappen securing 19 of these. He also achieved the highest percentage of wins in a single season and broke the record for consecutive wins, securing ten wins in a row, beating the old record of nine by ex-Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel.
Both team and driver showed unparalleled dominance, but the duo will be looking to improve their achievement and aim for a complete season wipeout. Red Bull Racing revealed their 2024 challenger on 15 February 2024, which sparked much speculation and chatter within the F1 community. The RB20 looks to be a significant upgrade from the RB19 last year, with a more aggressive look and new designs.
The RB20 with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez behind (Image: Getty Images)
Innovation is at the centre of the RB20 as the Milton Keynes outfit have looked to improve their challenger drastically. With changes to the sidepods, resembling the failed “zero-pod” concept Mercedes ran for the last two years, however where Mercedes struggled is where Red Bull is hoping to succeed as Mercedes’ idea was to build inlets that took away the sidepod in itself and in comparison, Red Bull have opted for inlets that maintain the sidepods but create a vast undercut at the front of them.
Red Bull has also made massive steps with their radiator technology, which allows it to be smaller but produce the same heat-rejecting capacity. Also, the shape of the radiators is now a compound curve that surrounds the bodywork in an attempt to achieve maximum aerodynamic effect.
Adrian Newey, Red Bull’s Chief Technical Officer, said during the RB20 reveal: “We’ve made some improvements to the car in all areas: mechanical, vehicle dynamics, and aerodynamics.
“We know roughly what we’ve done from the shakedown at Silverstone; it seems to have- from what we can tell – behaved exactly like we expected it to.”
Will Red Bull be in a league of their own for another season? Or will these great ‘innovations’ turn out to be their downfall?
Crown chasers
Red Bull was the fastest team on the grid in the 2023 season, with a near-perfect run. However, throughout the rest of the field, the competition was as fierce as ever, with teams reshuffling their positions on almost every race weekend. Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, and Aston Martin all took turns as the second fastest team throughout the year; Mercedes and McLaren were the only two to have both drivers on the podium in the same event. The question everyone is asking is, have any of these teams made a stride forward and put in a claim for the championship?
Aston Martin started last season strong, with six podiums out of the first seven races; however, due to regulatory changes, they soon found themselves well off the pace of their rivals and struggling to find the pace they once possessed.
The Silverstone-based outfit did manage to secure two more podiums before the end of the season but ultimately finished fifth in the Constructors standings, more than 20 points behind fourth-placed McLaren.
Overall, Aston Martin’s season was a great accomplishment for the team. As for the 2021 and 2022 seasons, the team finished seventh with just one podium finish in total. Aston Martin will look to leapfrog the competition again, start the year strong, and maintain that advantage throughout the season.
Dan Fallows, Aston Martin’s Technical Director, said on Undercut: “AMR24 is a strong and exciting evolution of last year’s car.
“We’ve taken the lessons that we learned, particularly in the last part of the 2023 season, to develop a car with a wider operating window, and that will provide a strong platform for development over the course of this year.”
Dan Fallows, Aston Martin’s Technical Director (Image: Getty Images)
McLaren had an opposite season compared to their fellow British rivals; they began the 2023 season with an underdeveloped car, which saw them score no points for the first two races and only finish in the points three times in the first nine races. The Woking-based outfit brought their first set of upgrades to the Austrian Grand Prix, which was a great success for the squad.
The MCL38 during testing (Image: Getty Images)
From Austria, McLaren went from the midfield to battling it out at the front and nearly beating Red Bull on a handful of occasions. McLaren went on to secure nine podiums, two of which were double podiums, in total and finished fourth with 302 points, more than 100 points off Ferrari, but this is mainly a result of having an underdeveloped car for the first half of the season.
McLaren hopes to break the trend of starting a season with a car that hasn’t been fully upgraded, as they have done for the past two seasons, but start strong and make a charge for the championship.
After the reveal of the MCL38, Andreas Stella, Team Principal of the McLaren F1 Team, said to Motorsport.com: “I have to say we don’t see diminishing returns; this obviously will have to be proven once we put the car on the ground.
“But when it comes to the wind tunnel development, we see the gradient we established last year- that led to the Austria development.
“It seems we can maintain it. So that’s also where I would expect the launch car to be at the start of the season.”
Ferrari’s 2023 season was filled with highs and lows, having both drivers securing pole positions and multiple podiums to being the only team to win a race outside of Red Bull but also watching their drivers crash or unexpectedly report a lack of pace with the car.
However, during the last portion of the year, Ferrari fought very hard to not only try and beat Mercedes to second in the standings but also show that they could win against Red Bull in a fair fight; the Italian outfit came close to both of these objectives as during the Las Vegas Grand Prix, they battled for the win against Red Bull until the checkered flag. Also, they finished the season third in the standings with three points separating them from Mercedes. Ferrari hopes they can continue where they left off and fight Red Bull for wins from the beginning.
During the reveal of their 2024 car, Fred Vasseur, Ferrari Team Principal, said: “This year, we must start off where we left off at the end of last season, when we were consistent front runners, with a view to constantly proving in all areas.”
Mercedes ended the 2023 season runner-up with 409 points, eight podiums and one pole position. Like McLaren, Mercedes started the year on the wrong foot due to continuing with their “zero-pod” concept that proved unsuccessful in the previous 2022 season.
The SF-24 on the track in Bahrain (Image: Getty Images)
Mercedes quickly realised their mistakes and created a new car with more prominent sidepods, which changed the game for the German outfit. In their second race with these new updates, the squad achieved a double podium with their drivers and secured six more during the year while challenging Red Bull for a race win during the latter part of the season.
For the upcoming season, Mercedes have drastically altered their challenger to include a new sidepod, chassis, front wing and more. They’ve also introduced a new element, which is claimed to be an innovation that’ll hopefully see the German squad battle for the championship.
After the launch of the W15, James Alison, Mercedes’ Technical Director, said: “A big focus has been on improving the previous car’s unpredictable rear axile; we’ve also worked hard to create a less draggy car.”
The W15 is the result of a lot of engineering work from Team Mercedes (Image: Getty Images)
With Red Bull taking a new approach with their car concept, Mercedes trying to find a loophole in the regulations, Ferrari and McLaren hoping to continue strong and Aston Martin looking to fight back at the front, the potential to secure the championship is anyone’s game.
Pre-season testing occurs this week followed by the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix which takes place from Thursday 29 February– Saturday 1 March.