Will Red Bull gallop over the horizon?published at 11:45 Greenwich Mean Time 19 March 2022
Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain
The feeling after pre-season testing was that Red Bull may have emerged into the sunlight of a new Formula 1 dawn with a car that might see them gallop over the horizon. Friday in Bahrain did not do that much to disabuse one of that notion. Max Verstappen ended the day fastest and the car looked in imposing form, especially on a long run, in which the world champion seemed to be in a world of his own.
The hope for competition lies only with Ferrari. Charles Leclerc’s day was promising. He ended second practice about 0.1secs behind Verstappen, and that despite doing his fastest time on the same tyres on which he had a spin on his first attempt at a flying lap. It was impossible to judge the Ferrari’s performance over a long run because Leclerc only did two laps. That was very nearly as quick as Verstappen’s, but the second was 0.7secs slower.
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said: “Red Bull is in a league of their own and then there is a bunch of teams that is in a corridor of fuel weight and engine modes. The regulations were made to bunch the field up and that’s what’s going to happen.” Perhaps not with Red Bull, though?
