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The 2024 F1 pre-season test is now done and dusted and it ended with Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari at the top. The 24 hours of testing available to the teams were used quite judiciously by everyone. None of the teams suffered major reliability issues and in fairness, the reliability issues were more on the side of the track with the curb getting disintegrated.
While Leclerc finished the session on top, Red Bull's Max Verstappen was right behind him. Unlike the Ferrari driver who did his lap on a set of softs, Verstappen did his on a set of mediums, thus exemplifying the level at which Red Bull was performing.
In testing, it's often said that times are irrelevant. Well, they can be but only without context. You add context to these times and you can glean something from it. So what could we glean from the 2024 F1 pre-season test? What were the key takeaways? Let's take a look.
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2024 F1 pre-season testing: Key takeaways
#1 Red Bull could do a 2023 again
Yes, you heard it right. By the looks of it, not only does Red Bull have an advantage over the rest of the field, but the advantage is almost as big as it was last season.
What it means is not only the title battle might just be over before it began, but there's potential for a repeat of last season.
Not that's something that might worry the fans but that is something surely on the table for now.
#2 Ferrari leads the chasing pack
Taking the caveat forward of testing times not meaning anything without context, Ferrari does appear to be one team that's closest to Red Bull.
It does appear that the team has leapfrogged the likes of Aston Martin, Mercedes, and Aston Martin but we would still need to wait to see this happen. Ferrari looks good for now, even though this is just still an F1 pre-season test.
#3 RB is going to frustrate Zak Brown
The sister team for Red Bull has not turned the people's heads the way it was expected to as the speed has not been breathtaking. It has, however, taken a step forward for sure and that step could make drivers like Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris feel threatened by the chasing pack.
Having said that, the car seems good but with a decent baseline. If it challenges McLaren, we are in for fireworks as Zak Brown will not be able to digest that (due to his persistent annoyance at Red Bull having two F1 teams).
#4 Alpine has gotten worse
Alpine hasn't even aimed at or tried to show any kind of performance in the three days. The F1 team has continued to toil away but at the end of the day, the car just doesn't have the pace and there are no two ways around that, unfortunately.
Unless Alpine comes up with something radically different in the next week, the team will not be happy.
#5 The biggest question has still gone unanswered
The biggest question that wasn't really left unanswered was how difficult it would be to follow cars. The new developments hurt the racing ability of the cars in 2023.
With that expected to take another step forward, what we are expecting in terms of impact is a further worsening of the situation. We might have to wait for the first race to get a concrete answer to this question.
