Formula 1 Testing: Red Bull, Verstappen dominate field in Bahrain Wednesday

It’s just testing, of course, but the first look of the 2024 F1 season has Red Bull on top by a large margin.

It’s important to remember that Formula 1 testing is just testing. That being said, Red Bull and Max Verstappen made sure to sweep the field anyway on the first day of testing in Bahrain on Wednesday.

While it’s hard to tell exactly what fuel loads teams are running, whether they are on a fast lap or a slow lap or trying to figure out specific aspects of the car (among a slew of other things), Verstappen cleared the rest of the grid during testing by running the most laps of any driver (143) and finishing 1.140 seconds clear of the second-place Lando Norris. The display comes after Red Bull put out a drastically different car design heading into the season, so teams will certainly be on watch after Verstappen’s dominant 2023 campaign.

Not every driver participated in testing. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton did not run on Wednesday, but they’re set to run on Thursday.

Haas ran the most laps with 144 on the day (though both drivers finished at the bottom of the standings). Williams ran the least amount of laps, with just 61 between Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant.

Here’s what the order for Bahrain testing looked like after Day 1:

  1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull, 143 laps) [1:31.334]
  2. Lando Norris (McLaren, 73 laps) [1:32.484]
  3. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari, 69 laps) [1:32.584]
  4. Daniel Ricciardo (Visa Cashapp RB, 52 laps) [1:32.599]
  5. Pierre Gasly (Alpine, 61 laps) [1:32.805]
  6. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin, 54 laps) [1:33.007]
  7. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari, 64 laps) [1:33.247]
  8. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin, 77 laps) [1:33.385]
  9. Oscar Piastri (McLaren, 57 laps) [1:33.658]
  10. Zhou Guanyu (Kick Sauber, 63 laps) [1:33.871]
  11. Logan Sargeant (Williams, 21 laps) [1:33.882]
  12. George Russell (Mercedes, 112 laps) [1:34.109]
  13. Yuki Tsunoda (Visa Cashapp RB, 64 laps) [1:34.136]
  14. Valtteri Bottas (Kick Sauber, 68 laps) [1:34.431]
  15. Alexander Albon (Williams, 40 laps) [1:34.587]
  16. Esteban Ocon (Alpine, 60 laps) [1:34.677]
  17. Kevin Magnussen (Haas, 66 laps) [1:35.692]
  18. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas, 82 laps) [1:35.906]

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