Mika Hakkinen Preview - 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Pre-season testing showed that Max Verstappen’s new car is going to continue giving him the performance advantage which he enjoyed in 2023.  In fact, the new Red Bull car looks to have the potential to even quicker!  But the big question is going to be the identity of the team which challenges Red Bull’s dominance.  

Based on what we saw in testing last week that looks like being a battle between Mercedes and Ferrari and the person who is going to be watching that very carefully is Lewis Hamilton.   After all, he has contracts with both teams; an existing one at Mercedes and his next one at Ferrari.

Mercedes, the team with which he won six of his seven World Championship, comes to Bahrain knowing that this is the start of Lewis Hamilton’s final season with them.  Lewis desperately wants to win an eighth World Championship, partly to avenge what happened in Abu Dhabi at the end of the 2021 season, partly because he wants to end his relationship with Mercedes on a high.

Ferrari will be Lewis’s new team in 12 months time, when he will have already turned 40 years of age.  As a result, this year, I am sure he is going to be pushing like crazy to win for Mercedes while, at the same time, watching and hoping Ferrari is making enough progress to give him a winning car in 2025!   However, let’s remember, Lewis loves winning and will be super focused on making the most of his final year in the silver Mercedes - before his world turns red.

Take Note

It’s incredible to think that this is the 20th Bahrain Grand Prix, and it’s worth looking at who has been successful at the 5.4kms circuit situated in the desert outside Manama.  The Brawn Grand Prix team won this race back in 2009, while Renault won here twice with Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006.  Red Bull have won three times, twice with Sebastian Vettel and once, last year, with Max Verstappen.

The rest of the time this race has been split between two teams, Mercedes winning six times, one less than Ferrari.  The Italian team won the first Bahrain Grand Prix thanks to my old rival Michael Schumacher, and since then there have been victories for Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and, in 2022, Charles Leclerc.  

Ferrari looked good in testing last week, particularly over a race distance, so it’s really worth watching to see whether the Italian team can continue its good record in Bahrain.  In 2023 we saw that Charles and team mate Carlos Sainz could be very quick in qualifying, the big question is whether they can maintain a good enough pace during the Grand Prix, particularly on an track which is very abrasive and hard on tyres.  Speed is one thing, consistency is another.

Mika’s Tip

I am going to cheat a little bit and give you two tips.

The first is to sit back and enjoy the first Grand Prix of the long 2024 World Championship season, its 24 races stretching out in front of us.  The new cars look fantastic, everyone seems to have made an improvement, but we won’t know what really happening until the lights go out!

Also, make a note that the first two Grands Prix of the new season are being held on a Saturday, so make sure to follow practice on Thursday and qualifying on Friday!

My second tip, particularly If you want to look for a potential surprise, is to watch out for Alex Albon in the Williams.  The team made good progress in 2023 and, based on pre-season testing times, the new Williams looks to be a good step forward - at least in the middle of the pack.  Alex is quick and is enjoying being the team’s leading driver, scoring points in seven races last season.

Credits:
Written by: Mika Hakkinen, publishing origin: Unibet
We would like to thank the team at Unibet for sharing this post with us.
To read more from Mika and Unibet visit their website - https://www.unibet.co.uk/blog/author/mika-hakkinen