2024 Pre-Season Testing - Bahrain International Circuit, Feb 21 - 23

[f1isgood]

The secret sauce to these regulations was that final day upgrade package Red Bull brought 2 years ago. They eliminated porpoising that day and haven't looked back since.

[CaribouBread]

Don't know by how much, but the wheels are heavier this year too. Rims were changed.

Is that to prevent the tyres separating from the rim in crashes?

Not specified to be exactly that, but to prevent deformation on kerb strikes (which is strange tbh didn't hear much about that being an issue). But I suspect they have tried to resolve the rim detachment thing too.

[Muramasa666]

Leclerc seems constant now

[AR3-GP]

Don't know by how much, but the wheels are heavier this year too. Rims were changed.

Is that to prevent the tyres separating from the rim in crashes?

Not specified to be exactly that, but to prevent deformation on kerb strikes (which is strange tbh didn't hear much about that being an issue).

It was probably an issue in qatar last year.

[DGP123]

The stability of the Red Bull, even in push laps, is kinda scary. It just looks absolutely perfect out of the box.

Rapid, stable and compliant. Looks like it’s in another league.

Shame. Had a delusional thought we might have a decent season, but this now looks like another two seasons of utter dominance. This era/reg has been a disaster.

[organic]

Finally Merc have done a stint

[CaribouBread]

Can't really tell if its a run plan/weight thing, but Merc/Aston/Ferrari having similar ish times with RedB on another league is quite intriguing.

[AR3-GP]

Verstappen has just murdered a right front tire at T8.

[Luscion]

Merc have said they're not interesting in accumulating laps, but learning, it's only the first day of testing and the first part of it isn't even done yet

[Xyz22]

Last season F1 fans made up an insane amount of narratives trying to explain the RB19 was not dominant (i don't understand why).
I think the RB19 would be quicker than all 2024 cars (minus RB20 ofc) in almost all tracks in terms of pure race pace. Unfortunately is going to be difficult to prove this considering all the different conditions, tyres, etc.

[AR3-GP]

Last season F1 fans made up an insane amount of narratives trying to explain the RB19 was not dominant (i don't understand why).
I think the RB19 would be quicker than all 2024 cars (minus RB20 ofc) in almost all tracks in terms of pure race pace. Unfortunately is going to be difficult to prove this considering all the different conditions, tyres, etc.

Mclaren was there in Silverstone and Suzuka. Ferrari was there in Las Vegas and Monza. There's no way the RB19 is still ahead of the new cars from Mclaren and Ferrari.

[FittingMechanics]

Last season F1 fans made up an insane amount of narratives trying to explain the RB19 was not dominant (i don't understand why).
I think the RB19 would be quicker than all 2024 cars (minus RB20 ofc) in almost all tracks in terms of pure race pace. Unfortunately is going to be difficult to prove this considering all the different conditions, tyres, etc.

It will be easy to prove if any team beats RB20 this year.

Or if you think RB19 wouldn't suck at Singapore this year?

[Xyz22]

Last season F1 fans made up an insane amount of narratives trying to explain the RB19 was not dominant (i don't understand why).
I think the RB19 would be quicker than all 2024 cars (minus RB20 ofc) in almost all tracks in terms of pure race pace. Unfortunately is going to be difficult to prove this considering all the different conditions, tyres, etc.

It will be easy to prove if any team beats RB20 this year.

Or if you think RB19 wouldn't suck at Singapore this year?

Said "almost all tracks"

[CaribouBread]

It should be trivial to compare race pace of RB19 with this year's cars.

[f1isgood]

Last season F1 fans made up an insane amount of narratives trying to explain the RB19 was not dominant (i don't understand why).
I think the RB19 would be quicker than all 2024 cars (minus RB20 ofc) in almost all tracks in terms of pure race pace. Unfortunately is going to be difficult to prove this considering all the different conditions, tyres, etc.

I think the general discussion was relative to other dominant cars. RB19 is certainly the only car to work on almost all tracks in these regulations. Also, while RB19 had a sizeable advantage, that advantage wasn't constantly at 5 tenths a lap or more every race. The advantage varied quite a bit yet they kept winning helped by others dropping the ball. RB19 was at its strongest early season. By the end of the year I believe it was around 2 to 3 tenths quicker in race trim on average and at races like Vegas, even smaller. I think it's a relative comparison and not an absolute comparison. You cannot deny that RB have the best race operations and also the driver driving Car #1 is quite good. Also, like 5 cars surpassed the RB18 at multiple tracks, so I expect the same for RB19 -- although admittedly it's unclear if they will consistently do it across all tracks - which is RB's biggest strength in my view.