Max Verstappen lay down an early marker for Red Bull with comfortably the fastest time on the opening day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
The three-time world champion has won those titles in consecutive seasons with increasing dominance, taking victory in 19 of the 22 races last year. Handed a new concept in the form of the RB20 with radically different sidepods and engine cover solutions compared to its predecessor — something technical director Pierre Wache admits is a “risk” — Verstappen enjoyed the ideal start to his title defense.
Alongside George Russell in the Mercedes, Verstappen was one of two drivers to complete the entire day and amassed 143 laps while also setting a fastest time more than a second clear of the rest of the field. The RB20 looked to be a slight handful early on, but it was soon the class of the field on track, notably allowing Verstappen to get on the throttle earlier and more aggressively than any other car.
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The closest team was McLaren, with Lando Norris second fastest but 1.140s adrift of Verstappen’s best lap on the same C3 compound tire. It was the C3 that was used by all but two drivers — Alex Albon on the softer C4 and Esteban Ocon on the harder C1 — to post their quickest times.
Norris was running Gil de Ferran’s Indy 500-winning helmet design in tribute to his former McLaren colleague, and aside from the gap to Red Bull had a largely encouraging start to pre-season. Oscar Piastri’s 57 laps made it a total of 130 for the team, with only Verstappen and Haas managing significantly more.
Carlos Sainz was third quickest after taking over from Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, who had been second in the morning session. Track conditions tend to be better under the floodlights as temperatures drop, with running ending at 7pm local time, and the top six times all coming in the final part of the day.
Fourth fastest was Daniel Ricciardo in the Visa Cash App RB (VCARB), just 0.015s behind Sainz and looking solid early in pre-season, while Pierre Gasly’s Alpine and the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll rounded out the top six – the latter 1.6s off Verstappen.
On a day when there were no red flags. Stroll did cause one moment of drama when his left wing mirror fell off on the pit straight in the final hour of running. Ricciardo was close behind the Aston Martin but managed to swerve away from the debris at the last moment, but Nico Hulkenberg wasn’t quite so alert and shattered the mirror with his left-front wheel.
The incident didn’t impact Hulkenberg’s running though, as he completed 82 laps in the afternoon to go with Kevin Magnussen’s 66 in the morning. That total of 148 was the highest of any team, although the fastest Haas lap time was a second off the pace of the next -slowest car in Ocon on hard tires.
Testing is often tough to read but if pace is a concern for Haas after day one — something the team was pre-warning over the winter — Williams has a bigger worry after suffering with reliability issues.
Albon was only able to complete 40 laps in the first half of the day after having to return to the garage with a concern and then stopping when Williams tried to run again. The team did get Logan Sargeant out relatively soon after the lunch break but following a spin for the American at the tricky Turn 9, he too was soon confined to the pits and didn’t re-emerge as Williams investigated a suspected driveshaft issue, with only 61 laps in total possible.
For most other teams, there was largely trouble-free running but less of a clear picture of competitiveness, with Russell’s 122 laps for Mercedes relatively positive but a best time 2.7s off Verstappen in 12th place not hinting at raw performance at this very early stage.
