Three races into the new Formula One season and this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix represents something of a litmus test as to what may follow for the title protagonists. Everything points to a chance for McLaren to dominate at the Sakhir circuit but there may also be some indication if Red Bull are making real steps forward with their car.
For McLaren, Bahrain is a chance to throw off their hoodoo at the track where they have never won and at which, in recent years, they have struggled for form. This season in testing at the circuit they gave their first evidence that they had a much-improved package; one swiftly reinforced with dominant victories for Lando Norris in Australia and then his teammate, Oscar Piastri, in China.
Last week in Japan a combination of exceptionally low tyre degradation on a newly resurfaced circuit and it being all but impossible to overtake, meant track position was crucial and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen converted a stunning pole to a superb win.
The circumstances at Suzuka were very much an outlier however; in Bahrain if the McLaren is as strong as has been anticipated they can expect to show it. In hot conditions on a high degradation track its advantage in being very easy on the tyres, allied to a fearsome pace, could lead to a whitewash. If it does it would be an ominous signal of the gap the rest must bridge.
McLaren, as has often been the case this year, are playing down their chances and there is the caveat that their car can be difficult to wrangle over a single lap on low fuel, making it trickier to qualify, but in race pace Piastri conceded the MCL39 was as good a ride as he has ever had.
“This has not been a great track for us in the past couple of years, well even longer than that, to be honest,” he said. “So it will be a good test for us. But we’re as confident as we have been in my time at the team. We are in a position to win this weekend.”
For the understated Australian, those words are the verbal equivalent of ripping off his shirt, beating his chest and declaring the opposition might like to eat his shorts.
Verstappen remained optimistic that the steps his team were taking were bringing their car back into contention, having remarkably managed to stay just one point behind the championship leader, Lando Norris, with Piastri 13 points back in third. However, the numbers the Dutchman may be more interested in are how close he can stay to the McLarens in the desert. Pulling another win out of the bag on Sunday would be extraordinary.
McLaren’s major test in Bahrain then may be how best to manage their approach and the two drivers, both of whom are hungrily eyeing the title. Norris was critical of the team’s strategy in Japan, where he was second, unable to pass Verstappen on track after a conservative pit stop strategy. “Could it have been better and could we have potentially taken more risks and been a bit more attacking as a team? Yes,” he said, “I am here to win races and not settle for second, so definitely I would love to kind of go back and redo things with a slightly more aggressive approach.”
Both drivers understand and accept the team’s rationale. With 21 races to go clocking up every possible point may be crucial. But their decision not to switch drivers in Japan to allow Piastri a shot at Verstappen was questioned as demonstrating a lack of will to hurl their all into the attack.
Equally, the Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, has noted that McLaren have made their position harder by insisting on allowing both drivers to race freely. They will take points off one another and Verstappen will keep chipping away to stay on their tails.
The McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, reiterated in Bahrain his belief that having two top performing drivers was a benefit rather than a hindrance, with each pushing the other on to greater heights. Certainly in practice in Bahrain the McLaren looked absolutely formidable. Norris was on top in the first runs, two-tenths clear of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. While in the second session Piastri had the edge, a tenth up on his teammate but a full half a second ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell in third, with Verstappen, eight-tenths down in seventh.
