Max Verstappen wasted no time asserting his dominance in the 2024 Formula One season. The reigning champion secured a convincing victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 2nd.

Despite Verstappen’s dominance, the season opener still had its drama. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, initially set for success, faced brake issues, while other teams hinted at internal struggles and surprising strengths. This dramatic season opener sets the stage for a fiercely competitive season with plenty of questions left unanswered.

“I had hopes that Ferrari could be closer than last year to Red Bull but this first race proved that Red Bull is just the most dominant and perfect team,” Senior Miguel Tamayo said. 

Although a Red Bull victory was expected, during practices, they did not perform as well. In the 3 practices, they only achieved one podium position, when Verstappen placed 3rd in free practice 3. 

“⁠I think it’s the reason none of the results mirrored the race pace, it’s the first practices of the season so the teams are still developing the base cars and, on top of that, doing the circuit spec so they would be “sandbagging,” as many call it, since they also don’t want to risk damaging the car for the race,” Tamayo said.

But how dominant were the results in Red Bull this season? Is it the car or the driver? Well, at one point in the race, Verstappen had a 17-second lead from Checo, who was the second driver on the grid, Verstappen was easily lapping the last 5 cars each race, and this was since RedBull’s car had a better performance on the track.

 “This race it was more evident that it was more the car, the car is in a league of its own, to the point that even Checo was able to build a 6-second gap, but also you can see Max’s talent since he did a perfect race to the point that he only shows up once or twice on camera when he was lapping the rest of the grid,” Emilio Medina, Grade 11, said.

Seasons are very long, and normally, it is evident how a team’s performances either improve or deteriorate, yet Red Bull has dominated the last 2 consecutive seasons, and there is no plan to change. 

“I believe that their car is by far the fastest, and their pilots are the quickest. So yes, they’re going to keep up this pace,” Medina said.

Simultaneously, upgrades will come as the season progresses, and most of the time propel a team to the top or have no significant change; Red Bulls chief technical officer Adrian Newey has had a history of bringing successful ideas to the team.

 “Adrian Newey has hinted at new updates in Imola and Japan that, if he says will break the grid that means the whole sport is about to change,” Tamayo said.

It’s early in the season, but both fans and haters agree that Verstappen may achieve a perfect season this year. 

“By the looks of it Verstappen will have a perfect season and break all of his records. It is a tough pill to swallow, while being a diehard Ferrari fan and wanting to see other drivers succeed and have a more interesting season. But Red Bull is just in a league of its own,” Tamayo said.