“Max is not in another league, he is in another galaxy,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said. “Performance is exceptional.”
But there were at least some reasons for optimism. Realistically, I don't want him to be able to challenge for a championship. But I hope he can try his hand at racing from time to time.
As an example, Verstappen only narrowly beat Leclerc to take pole position and would have been second on the grid if the Ferrari driver had repeated the lap he managed in the second session of the top-10 shootout. It would be.
As another example, Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez was only four seconds behind third-placed Verstappen, but even before Leclerc retired with engine trouble last year, the gap was even greater. It was much bigger, giving up third place to Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin.
And then there were the conditions of other teams. Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren all have cars in much better shape at the start of this season than last year.
Verstappen's view was that Bahrain was in the hands of Red Bull, although other teams were similar. This course is particularly hard on tires. Gentle tire use was Red Bull's biggest advantage last year and the new car shows similar strengths. Other tracks aren't as tough on the rubber, so in theory the rivals should be more competitive there.
“In general, other teams are closer,” Verstappen said. “However, everything is working very well and I do not expect the same to happen at every Grand Prix in the near future.
“We had particularly good mileage here, but I expect everyone to be even closer on race pace in Jeddah (in preparation for next weekend's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix).”
Wolff was depressed despite being aware of the fact that the field was closer to second place Red Bull than last year.
“That may be the glimmer of hope that I see, but it's so thin and far away that I can barely see it,” he said.
But even within his own team, some thought there was more reason for optimism.
It was a difficult race for Lewis Hamilton, who was stuck in 9th place on the grid due to poor qualifying. Mercedes began to experience overheating problems after a few laps, with Russell and Hamilton having to shut down their engines, resulting in an estimated 0.5 seconds per lap loss in performance.
They thought that alone wasn't enough to challenge Ferrari for a podium, but they still felt that their car was at least comfortable to drive this year, unlike in 2023, and that it simply lacked performance. I was encouraged by the fact that
“Red Bull will win everything for a while,” Hamilton said. “But what I feel is that for the last two years we've had all these problems and we've spent a few races trying to iron them all out.
“As opposed to now, we have a platform that we can start adding to. It's a building process right now, and we're a great team.”
