“We’re expecting probably a half-second deficit,” George Russell mused, moments after putting his Mercedes in third place on the Bahrain Grand Prix grid. Asked to estimate the advantage Red Bull would have in the race, Russell reckoned that it would be slightly larger than the 0.3s per lap difference seen on the timing boards between himself and Verstappen on Friday night.
Max Verstappen looked slightly surprised by Russell’s assertion. “Half a second?!” he exclaimed with feigned indignance. “I think that’s way too big. But if you say that now, then if it’s better tomorrow, then you can say, ‘Oh, it’s unbelievable, the car is unbelievable.’”
“Under-promise, over-deliver!” was Russell’s riposte, quietly hoping that Verstappen was right and Mercedes would find a stronger vein of performance in Saturday’s 57-lap race. Instead, he’d inadvertently predicted how utterly dominant Verstappen would prove to be in 2024’s season opener. The Red Bull driver often transcended that predicted half-a-second advantage in his rout of the rest of the field.
Hopes that Verstappen would face sterner tests with greater regularity had probably already been dashed after testing, where Red Bull’s RB20 looked largely unchallenged in the longer runs. Ferrari and Carlos Sainz had scrubbed up pretty well on the test’s second day in long-run trim, but there was nonetheless an expectation that the Red Bulls would turn up to the Grand Prix proper with a bit more in hand. The longer runs in FP2 also hinted towards an RB20 advantage – but the magnitude remained conspicuously veiled.
Before Red Bull could really show its hand, Verstappen had to ensure that he came up for air with the lead. He and fellow front-row starter Charles
