Max Verstappen kicked off the 2024 F1 season in by dominating the competition at the opening race in Bahrain. Piloting his Red Bull with surgical precision, Verstappen secured a commanding victory that dashed any hopes rival teams harbored of mounting a serious challenge. To underscore the totality of Red Bull’s advantage, Sergio Perez, who found himself outshone by Verstappen’s prowess, settled for second place without encountering any significant threats to his position.

While the battle behind the Red Bulls raged fiercely, the hierarchy seemed to mirror that of the previous year, with Ferrari and Mercedes vying for the title of the grid’s second-best team. Mercedes faced some cooling issues during the race, which may have masked their true speed. Yet even without this setback, Red Bull maintained an air of invincibility.

The Ferrari drivers provided some entertainment as Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc engaged in a tense battle for position for a few laps. Sainz, who finds himself out of favor and out of contract with Ferrari, is driving for himself in his final season with the team, pushing the limits and flirting dangerously close to the edge.

Nevertheless, it’s becoming increasingly evident that the 2024 F1 season is shaping up to be another demonstration run featuring Max Verstappen and the Red Bull RB20. Despite the Bahrain Grand Prix offering rival teams an opportunity to showcase their progress and readiness to challenge Red Bull, they seem to be in retreat, lacking the ingenuity to engineer a ground-effect car capable of surpassing the lofty standards set by Adrian Newey’s RB20.

After just one race, it is evident that Verstappen is poised to claim his fourth drivers’ championship. The long season ahead appears to be a mere skirmish for the runners-up positions.

2024 Bahrain Grand Prix: Race Results

1 Max VERSTAPPEN 1:31:44.742 57 laps

2 Sergio PEREZ +22.457

3 Carlos SAINZ +25.110

4 Charles LECLERC +39.669

5 George RUSSELL +46.788

6 Lando NORRIS +48.458

7 Lewis HAMILTON +50.324

8 Oscar PIASTRI +56.082

9 Fernando ALONSO +74.887

10 Lance STROLL +92.900

11 Guanyu ZHOU +1 lap

12 Kevin MAGNUSSEN +1 lap

13 Daniel RICCIARDO +1 lap

14 Yuki TSUNODA +1 lap

15 Alexander ALBON +1 lap

16 Nico HULKENBERG +1 lap

17 Esteban OCON +1 lap

18 Pierre GASLY +1 lap

19 Valtteri BOTTAS +1 lap

20 Logan SARGEANT +2 laps