27/02/2024
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: I am looking forward to the weekend ahead in Bahrain. We had a good few testing days and learned a lot from the car. Of course, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves and we still need to make sure we do everything right to have a strong first weekend. Everyone has done plenty of laps here in Bahrain, so hopefully shouldn't encounter too many surprises in terms of set up direction for the week ahead. All in all, I am excited to get the season underway and start racing again.
Sergio Perez: It's finally time to go racing and I am really looking forward to this weekend. We had a solid week of testing, we maximised everything we possibly could and the car felt really good, I was happy with it and we feel the reliability is there. It's always interesting to see how things change on the first weekend, going into qualifying and then race day with a lot of new concepts on the grid, a lot of other teams look strong but it's so hard to tell from testing. We have taken a new direction with the RB20 and I am excited to jump in the car in a competitive environment and see how we match up. I am not looking too far ahead, I want to get comfortable with the car and take things race by race, I am expecting 2024 to be a close battle between teams, which could make things fun!
• Max's victory in the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix was the first time he'd won the opening race of a Formula One season.
• Checo's runner-up finish in the 2023 Drivers' Championship was not only his best season finish, but the first time the Team's drivers finished 1-2 in the final championship standings.
• Last year saw Max become only the third driver in F1 history to complete every racing lap in a season, following on from Michael Schumacher (2002) and Lewis Hamilton (2019).
• Max and Checo qualified and finished the race 1-2 in Bahrain last season and have a good track record at the circuit. Both have had race victories at the venue and have the same number of career podium finishes here (three).
• The 2024 season marks the beginning of Oracle Red Bull Racing's 20th season in F1. Since its debut at the 2005 Australian GP, the Team has amassed 113 victories, and the next win will equal Williams for fourth on the all-time list. The Team has also won an unprecedented 31 of the last 33 GPs. This total on its own would be the ninth highest total for any constructor in F1 history.