A flawless drive and masterful show of sangfroid from Max Verstappen ensured Red Bull enjoyed a stunning start to the new F1 season, picking up where they left off in 2023 and, temporarily at least, eased the pressure on Christian Horner.
But even as they celebrated a perfect one-two, Horner’s position as team chief and Red Bull’s as standard-setters was the focus of renewed speculation – thanks to comments from Verstappen’s father Jos.
AFP Sport looks at three things we learned from Sunday’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix:
– Horner crisis overshadows Verstappen dominance –
Rarely can a team have crushed their rivals as comprehensively as the champions did on Sunday — only to be rocked by claims of an imminent implosion if their principal is not relieved of his duties.
According to Jos Verstappen, father of three-time champion Max, the team will “explode” if Horner stays.
This follows the circulation of a batch of messages allegedly sent by Horner to a female employee, released by an anonymous source 24 hours after the Briton, 50, was cleared by an internal probe of allegations of misconduct.
“There is tension while he remains in position,” said Verstappen senior, as quoted by a British newspaper. “The team is in danger of being torn apart. It can’t go on the way it is. It will explode”.
Verstappen’s 55th career win and eighth in consecutive races was dominant, but not sufficiently to convince that Red Bull will again be all-conquering.
The chasing pack, led this time by Carlos Sainz, showed the speed, if not the consistency, to close the gap.
Verstappen himself said he had seen this in the performances of his rivals even if Sunday’s outcome on a high-degradation circuit suited Red Bull so emphatically.
During a stressful weekend for the team, he noticeably declined to offer emphatic personal support for Horner.
“He has been an incredible team boss,” said the three-time world champion. “From the performance side, you can’t question that so that’s what I am dealing with.
“We focus on that and that’s how we work together.”
For quite how much longer, if his father’s views hold sufficient weight with the parent company’s share-holders, remains to be seen.
– Ferrari improve as Mercedes rue mistakes –
Ferrari team chief Fred Vasseur said he was proud of his team’s improved pace and performance but recognised they have a gap to close as they lead the chase to catch Red Bull.
Sainz, who gives up his seat at the end of the season to Lewis Hamilton, came home third, 25 seconds adrift of Verstappen, but less than three behind Sergio Perez, while Charles Leclerc managed brake problems to come home fourth.
“Mixed feelings,” said Vasseur. “We compressed the gap to Red Bull by 50 per cent compared to a year ago, but it isn’t enough. And again, we had too many issues.”
Like Ferrari, Mercedes were upbeat if frustrated after cooling problems undid their hopes, having been fastest in Thursday practice.
“We faced similar problems,” said George Russell, who finished fifth, two places ahead of Hamilton. “We made a mistake in our forecasts.”
McLaren and Aston Martin were also unable to produce their best at the Bahrain track which is widely seen as a‘one-off’.
– Chaos at Alpine –
The Enstone-backed Alpine team slumped to the back of the grid with a poor show in qualifying and after a period of upheaval appears to be under pressure again.
The resignations of technical director Matt Harman and aerodynamics boss Dirk de Beer in February came before Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly qualified on the back row.
They went on to finish 17th and 18th respectively.
Former team boss Otmar Szafnauer, who was dismissed last July, observed on Saturday that “the stop watch doesn’t lie and it (the car) doesn’t look very competitive. It’s a hard game, F1. You have to do a lot of things right and if you get them wrong, it bites you.”
