Formula 1 returned last weekend with the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix after a drama-filled off-season which saw Lewis Hamilton announce his departure from Mercedes and the scandal surrounding Red Bull team principal Christian Horner continue into overdrive.
As the Horner controversy rumbles on, F1 switched attention back to the track as Max Verstappen cruises to a first grand prix victory of the season in Bahrain.
The season-opener in Bahrain proved that Red Bull will once again be the team to beat with Verstappen targeting a fourth-straight drivers’ championship. Their closest rivals seem to be Ferrari, who Hamilton is joining for 2025, after Carlos Sainz sealed third place behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. Sainz is ill, however, and has been replaced by British 18-year-old Ollie Bearman on Friday.
Mercedes and McLaren were the next best of the rest, sealing positions fifth to eighth, while Aston Martin secured ninth and tenth for three championship points in a race where all 20 drivers finished. Will it happen twice in a row, though, ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah?
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