Amidst the 2024 Formula 1 pre-season testing from February 21–23, all the F1 drivers took out their 2024 F1 challengers at the Bahrain International Circuit and lap-logged their cars to the limit. The present-most highlighted drivers, Max Verstappen driving the ‘absolute monster’ RB20, and Lewis Hamilton with the Mercedes W15, started the testing on D1 and D2, respectively.
Following their individual pre-season testing, these two Formula 1 archrivals revealed their first impressions on their F1 cars.
Max Verstappen is happy with new RB20 F1 car
On Friday, 23rd February, Max Verstappen, the reigning Driver’s Champion, completed the 2024 Formula 1 pre-season testing at Bahrain, covering total 209 laps (1131 km) of the Bahrain International Circuit. The Red Bull #1 participated in only 2 testing days–Day 1 and Day 3 only– throughout the pre-season testing: he topped D1 testing report with 1:31.344 lap time and finished 4th in D3 table with a lap of 1m 30.755s.
Following the completion of the pre-season testing, Max Verstappen revealed his ‘extremely positive’ impressions on the RB20. Speaking during the post-session interview, he said “The car [RB20] does everything I want. I think it all looked quite positive”.
“[I’m] quite happy with the car, how it was behaving, and then when we head into the race weekend it’s about fine-tuning the balance around the circumstances that you face throughout that weekend”, he added.
In the interview, Verstappen also shared that ‘only time will tell’ if the RB20 proves to be more dominating than its previous edition, the RB19. Emphasizing on the RB20’s development, he quoted: “I think there’s of course always a lot of work to do – you always want to do better, but I think we had a very positive test and we learned a lot from every single thing that we changed on the car, and we also know what we want to do for next week, and that’s what we’ll focus on”.
Although Verstappen talked ‘humbly and positively’ about the RB20 without giving away too much of the real picture, F1 Insider claimed that the Red Bull man reported that ‘the RB20 reacts even better to his driving impulses than the RB19’.
With the pre-season testing now complete, Bahrain will see the real ‘Max Verstappen-RB20’ combination between 29th February to 2nd March, and also witness Lewis Hamilton race with his ‘final’ Mercedes W15 car.
Lewis Hamilton remains dissatisfied with ‘bouncing’ F1 car
As for Lewis Hamilton’s 2024 pre-season testing, the 7x Formula 1 World Champion–driving the Mercedes W15—completed 172 laps (930 km) in his D2 and D3 runs of the testing.
Following his pre-season runs with the W15, Hamilton ‘cautiously’ revealed his first impressions on Mercedes’ 2024 F1 challenger: the car has improved this season, with more developments to come. He quoted: “It’s a work in progress. It’s definitely improved. I think everyone has. And we’re just going through the same sequence as always.”
Emphasizing the W15’s ‘bouncing’ rigid floor, Hamilton ‘subtly’ opened up his dissatisfaction by saying, “The cars are still stiff and bumpy, as we know of this generation of cars”.
Lewis Hamilton clearly struggled with the ‘bouncy’ Mercedes W15 in pre-season testing D3, as he finished in 12th place with a lap time of 1 minute, 31.999 seconds.
Can Max Verstappen win his fourth title in a row with his new RB20? Can Lewis Hamilton bounce back to winning ways with his ‘bouncy’ W15? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
