With his new trainer Rupert Manwaring, Max Verstappen started preparing for a new, tough Formula 1 season on Monday. Less than six weeks later, the test days in Bahrain are scheduled.
In that month and a half, Verstappen will regain his target weight and continue to physically prepare himself as best as possible for a historically long premier class year. This season, 24 races are scheduled. Starting on Saturday evening, March 2 in Bahrain and ending in Abu Dhabi on December 8.
“I actually like not thinking about training for a month and then again in January full throttle to go. To lose weight and also to get completely fit again. I like to torture myself a bit,” said a very fit Verstappen last year during the flawless test days in Bahrain; the prelude to a unique and unprecedentedly successful season.
He and Manwaring, previously the personal trainer of Verstappen’s old teammate Carlos Sainz, start the preparations Blue Monday but it certainly won’t make the three-time world champion depressed.
Fear of competition
Manwaring is the replacement for the departed Bradley Scanes, who assisted Verstappen for the previous four seasons. It will be his tenth year in Formula 1 for the Limburg driver and even the twentieth season for his employer Red Bull Racing.
Virtually nothing has changed in the (technical) regulations compared to last year. In advance, Red Bull is once again the team to beat, especially because the focus could be shifted relatively quickly to the 2024 car. The competition’s fear that Red Bull has a significant lead again would be justified at the start of the season. can be.
Red Bull’s technical director Pierre Waché and his team will probably have something in store for the RB20, the new car of Verstappen and teammate Sergio Pérez. Waché is, to the outside world, perhaps somewhat anonymous, the brain behind the recent success cars. A lot of attention always goes to the legendary designer Adrian Newey, who nowadays acts more as a sounding board and is still present at most races, but is certainly no longer working full-time on the energy drink manufacturer’s Formula 1 project.
Odd man out
It is also important for Verstappen that it is now clear that top advisor Helmut Marko will remain involved with the team for another three years, an absolute condition for the Dutchman. As far as the most important people around him are concerned, apart from his trainer, everything remains the same, just like his permanent team of engineers. Given the many changes in key positions at almost all racing stables in recent years, Red Bull is also the odd one out in that regard. Of course, (important) forces have left there too, but the most important people have always remained on board.
There will be no new races on the overflowing calendar this year. Formula 1 will return to China for the first time since 2019. The first sprint race of the year will also be held there. That format is being overhauled again, although a final blow should be given later this month or in February. Normally on those weekends, qualifying moves from Friday to the normal location on Saturday afternoon and then the only free practice and sprint qualifying are scheduled on Fridays, followed on Saturday by the standalone sprint race and then only qualifying for the Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Ramadan
Due to Ramadan, the first two races of the year are in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, on March 2 and 9 respectively, both on Saturday evening. Then competitions in Australia, Japan, China and Miami await until the beginning of May, each with a weekend without a race in between. In February, testing will first take place in Bahrain for three days, starting from February 21. In the weeks before, all teams present their new cars.
The drivers themselves hardly need any introduction, because the same twenty drivers who competed in the last race in Abu Dhabi last year will be back at the start in Bahrain on March 2.