At one point in 2023, Sergio Perez was so far behind Max Verstappen that he had to go back to the factory to dig deep and understand where he lagged. It was the Qatar Grand Prix where Checo finished 80 seconds behind his teammate, almost an entire lap down in the most dominant car in the history of the sport. But he returned with a vengeance and scored some decent results toward the end of the season. However, it looks like 2024 will be another difficult season for him as Dr. Helmut Marko has already fired a subtle warning at the Mexican.

Max Verstappen seems to have maintained his strong lead at the front after the conclusion of the pre-season testing in Bahrain. However, it’s Checo yet again, who seems to be struggling in what seems to be a car miles ahead of the others. Perez was 6 to 7 tenths behind Max Verstappen on average throughout the Bahrain test, and it’s not a good sign for a driver fighting for his seat. According to a recent report from Auto Motor und Sport, Helmut Marko had this message for the Mexican driver: “Perez needs to get Max out of his head and drive his own program.”

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While there’s little surprise in seeing Max faster than Checo from the get-go, there are still quite a few interesting things to look at from the 24 hours of testing in Bahrain.

What did we learn from the pre-season testing in Bahrain?

The lap times during the pre-season test are not really representative of the actual pecking order for the season because of so many unknown variables like the fuel loads, the specific testing programs run by the teams, how much the engines are turned up, etc., etc. But there are still some things we can take away. Like if the cars look visibly more compliant or on the edge, the rear end stability when putting the power down, and stuff like that.

And so, while the Formula 1 landscape remains somewhat uncertain as of now, we shouldn’t expect any major surprises in terms of who is clearly ahead of the pack. Verstappen’s dominance is evident once again, with the emphasis on his performance rather than Red Bull as a whole. Other top teams like Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, and Aston Martin are all in close contention, but Verstappen seems to be in a league of his own.

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The new Alpine A524 has attracted attention for its poor performance characteristics. It looked like the car was overweight, aerodynamically inefficient, and lacking pace both in single-lap speed and long-run consistency. But as I said, we have to take these observations with a grain of salt.

One thing that was most impressive this season was the reliability aspect of the cars, with only one instance of a car stopping on track during 24 hours of testing, the Williams of Alex Albon. The only red flags we had in the entire testing were due to the drain cover issue and not because of the cars.

Ferrari‘s performance was also impressive, especially with the two fastest times set during testing. However, it’s important to note that these times were set using softer compound tires that other top teams didn’t utilize. Regardless, Ferrari has shown improvements in both single-lap pace and long-run consistency compared to the previous season.

Mercedes has also shown progress with a more reliable and predictable car. While they still have a lot to learn about their new package, the improvements are evident. McLaren faced some technical issues during testing, which cost them time on the track. However, we can expect them to get a handle on those issues when we arrive next week for the season opener.

What are your takeaways from the testing? Share the pecking order that you think is the most likely to emerge in Bahrain next week.