Daniel Ricciardo went fastest in the opening practice session of 2024, albeit with a lap on the softer compound.
Within 24 hours of downplaying VCARB’s pace, Daniel Ricciardo went fastest in Bahrain FP1. The Australian finished marginally ahead of the McLaren pairing of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Although lap times at this stage are far from definitive, they can still provide early indications.
For the Faenza-based outfit, their times relative to McLaren were encouraging.
An important note is that (of the top 10), only the VCARB duo, McLaren and Valtteri Bottas, set laps on the softs.
As it stands, it seems reasonable to expect Ricciardo and Tsunoda to fight for points at the start of 2024.
Then again, there are still five teams who – on paper – are ahead in the pecking order.
One of these is Aston Martin, who is surely encouraged by Alonso’s time in the AMR24.
Fernando managed to put himself 5th on the timing sheets, the best time of anyone on the medium compound.
The Spaniard was marginally ahead of the usual suspects: Max Verstappen, George Russell, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.
As anticipated already, Mercedes appears to have more pace than their times in pre-season suggested.
Then again, technical director James Allison has been consistently optimistic about the W15’s pace.
Barely anything separated Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. Even if there were a discernable difference, extrapolating this data would be dubious at best.
Currently, the most reasonable observation from FP1 is that Ferrari and Mercedes are in the hunt.
Further down the field, Alex Albon and Valtteri Bottas set solid times for Williams and Sauber, respectively.
Alpine were also notable, though for more negative reasons.
The concerns that have accompanied the team all winter were confirmed, with the A524 proving very uninspiring.
Haas once again prioritised race simulations, with Ayao Komatsu laser-focused on tackling last year’s tyre degradation woes.
