Verstappen holds all the aces but his rivals are up for a scrap

IF LAST season was predictable, the build-up to this has been anything but.

- Matt Majendie

Sure, Max Verstappen may run away with the championship when all 24 races are done and dusted, but the fervour around the sport feels like it has reached a peak with the stories off the track.

First came the news that Lewis Hamilton, having signed a contract extension with Mercedes last season, would be leaving the team at the end of 2024 to join Ferrari. And then came the bigger bombshell that Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner was being investigated by his employers over allegations of inappropriate behaviour by a female colleague.

The fact the Horner matter was supposedly resolved less than 24 hours before the cars come out on track for first practice at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix only added to the intrigue around the build-up to race one, even more so with the leaked WhatsApp messages allegedly between Horner and a female colleague which emerged late yesterday.

The racing may struggle to live up to such drama. Last season, Red Bull won all but one of the 22 races, with Verstappen taking the chequered flag in 19 of them.

Winter testing would suggest that the RB20 is quicker yet, with Adrian Newey and his technical team having extricated even more pace from the car.

It is difficult to read too much into times UBS RE Snapdrag

in winter testing but, over the course of three days, Red Bull's pace on the long runs - effectively the equivalent of their race pace - looked ominously quick and reliable.