Formula 1: ‘The fastest car I have seen’ – rivals marvel at Red Bull

In F1, it is rare that a team that starts with such an advantage is ever caught during the season in question. Few expect this year to be any different. But there are other factors at stake that are giving Red Bull’s rivals at least some hope.

Part of the major package of rule changes that was introduced in 2022 with the aim of closing up the field – which, on that front at least, have clearly failed – was a sliding scale of aerodynamic research.

The most successful team of the previous season is permitted the least amount of R&D time the following year, and the least successful the most. The positions are reviewed at half-distance of a given championship to reflect the standings at that time.

So Red Bull have less opportunity to develop their car than anyone else, and have the extra hit of a 10% further reduction as part of their penalty for being found guilty of exceeding the budget cap in 2021.

“It was so critical for us to come out of the blocks competitively,” Horner said. “The wind tunnel reduction has applied since last October, so we couldn’t afford to miss the target, because you’d never be able to engineer your way out of it with that handicap.

“To be one point off a maximum score, I don’t think we could have dreamed of that.”

Alonso, who has been the surprise of the season so far with a team who finished seventh last year, has no delusions about regularly challenging Red Bull. But he does scent the possibility of a win, which would be his first for 10 years.

He pointed out that, sooner or later, reliability or other problems are bound to hit Red Bull in one race or another, as they did Verstappen in qualifying in Jeddah.

“We need some help from them,” Alonso said. “But it will happen eventually. They cannot always finish first and second. At some circuits maybe reliability or whatever could help us and hopefully in those races we take the opportunity.”

As for Mercedes, having accepted they made a mistake in sticking with their current car concept, they have fashioned a new development direction since the first race, and Wolff is already talking about the team finding “really big steps” and being in a position to win by the end of the year.

Is that really realistic, he was asked?

“No,” he said, “it is not realistic. But we just want to give it all we have and see what the outcome is. We have been able to catch up a lot last year and won a race and got close to them and that needs to be the aspiration.

“It is our duty. We will put all we have to catch up and fight these guys.”

But it was Leclerc who summed up the most likely reality for anyone not Red Bull.

Leclerc qualified second to Perez, but was demoted 10 places for a penalty arising from his engine failure during the race in Bahrain. He finished seventh, having got as far in his comeback drive as the back of team-mate Carlos Sainz before getting stuck.

“I don’t think there was much more in the car today,” Leclerc said. “We just need to work to find some pace.”

How much work is there to do?

“A lot,” Leclerc replied. “Really a lot.”