Hot Topic

The first race of the season in Bahrain confirmed that Red Bull’s new car, the RB20, has helped the team to maintain its advantage over everyone else.  While Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin and McLaren have improved, Red Bull have also made a step forward.

At the moment it seems very likely that World Champion Max Verstappen will continue to dominate Formula 1, and with team mate Sergio Perez finishing a strong 2nd in Bahrain it was – like in 2023 – a perfect start to the 2024 World Championship.

Of track, things are less clear and that has the potential to disrupt Red Bull Racing’s season.

It is not for me to go into the stories surrounding Team Principal Christian Horner and the politics within the wider Red Bull organisation. No one outside of the team really understands what is happening, it’s a private matter which the public and media are watching carefully.

What I do know is that stability and harmony are essential in any team wanting to keep its position at the top of Formula 1. You need good, strong leadership and fantastic team work, everyone pulling together, solving problems, beating the competition.  The moment the leadership, drivers or team becomes distracted, the focus becomes more difficult to sustain.

The longer that Red Bull Racing faces uncertainty, the more this will help the competition.  Formula 1 is not only a sport of high technology, it’s also about people and how they work together.  At McLaren I had great support from my team, and in return I gave the team 100% of my commitment to win the World Championship.  Winning demands focus and harmony.

Take Note

This is our third visit to Saudi Arabia and the very fast Jeddah Corniche Circuit.  It is a street circuit, but a very unusual one!  Anyone who knows me realises I liked to have a ‘flat out’ mentality, and the Jeddah circuit is like that – flat out, a maximum speed of around 330kph, three corners taken at 300kph and the largest number of corners of any F1 circuit, 27.

Speed means risk, and increased risk means that accidents happen and cars can suffer failures. Last year Max Verstappen’s car broke a driveshaft in qualifying, so it was team mate Sergio Perez who qualified on pole position and won the race. Max qualified 15th, but still finished an incredible 2nd, showing how well a strong team can respond to problems.

Based on the previous Grands Prix held on this circuit a Safety Car is certain.  We have even had two red flags in previous years, so we need to expect incidents, accidents and unpredictability..

The teams plan for that, they simulate not only the perfect race but also the incidents that can occur, from safety cars to bad pit stops and the impact of any damage.

Mika’s Tip

We will see a stronger race performance in Jeddah from Mercedes.  They lost a lot of lap time in Bahrain because they had to increase the cooling on their cars, something which also affected to two Mercedes-powered Williams.

Lewis Hamilton took pole position and won the first Saudi Arabian Grand Prix back in 2021. While we fully expect Red Bull to remain at the front, watch out for Mercedes as they unlock more race speed and take the fight to Ferrari. The great news for Lewis and team mate George Russell is that their new car is much more predictable to drive, a good step forward after the disappointments of the last two years.