Verstappen begins F1’s ’24 season with a rout
SAKHIR, Bahrain — The ongoing drama around Red Bull’s two-car Formula 1 racing team had no effect on its threetime reigning series champion Saturday, when Max Verstappen routed the field by 22 seconds in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Verstappen started in pole position at the Bahrain International Circuit and was never seriously challenged on his way to a commanding one-two finish for Red Bull with Sergio Perez. Embattled team principal Christian Horner was joined before the race and during the podium celebration by his wife, singer Geri Halliwell.
“Today went even better than expected. It was a lot of fun,” said Verstappen, who added that he felt “one with the car.”
Carlos Sainz Jr. was third for Ferrari after fighting hard with teammate Charles Leclerc.
At the start of what is scheduled to be the longest ever F1 season at 24 races, Verstappen already shows signs of repeating the dominance that allowed him to be nearly perfect 2023, when he won 19 of 22 races as Perez won twice and Sainz won once.
Bahrain was the eighth win in a row dating to September for the 26-year-old Dutch driver, who set an F1 record of 10 consecutive wins last season.
The F1 paddock’s focus had firmly been on Horner leading up to the race, with Verstappen saying on Friday his boss was “probably a little bit distracted.”
“Obviously, it’s not been pleasant, some of the unwanted attention, but the focus is now very much on the cars,” Horner said. “My focus has very much been on what’s going on on track, and the result today, I think, demonstrates where the whole team’s focus is and we move onwards.”
The race came after Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of the FIA sanctioning body for F1, said the turmoil around Horner was “damaging the sport,” in comments to the Financial Times. On Wednesday, the team’s parent company dismissed a complaint of alleged misconduct by Horner toward a team employee. A day later during practice in Bahrain, a file alleged to contain evidence against Horner was emailed to nearly 200 people in the F1 paddock.