GEORGE RUSSELL is in little question who will win this 12 months's F1 title.
In truth, he thinks Max Verstappen's Purple Bull will win ALL 23-races such is the prevalence of the Dutchman's automobile.
"Purple Bull have gotten this championship sewn up," mentioned the Mercedes man after Verstappen gained in Bahrain and he completed seventh.
"I do not assume anybody might be preventing with them this 12 months. They need to win each single race this 12 months, is my guess.
"With the efficiency they have. Their tempo appeared weaker this weekend than it was in testing, however they have it simple in the mean time.
"They will do what they like. They won't be on pole on a regular basis as a result of we all know Ferrari are very aggressive in qualifying, however in relation to race tempo they're in a really robust place."
Let's take nothing away from Christian Horner's staff who, due to the pen of designer Adrian Newey, have an absolute rocketship of a automobile.
It's an enchancment on final 12 months's mannequin - which the cynics are suggesting is remarkably like this 12 months's Aston Martin, which propelled Fernando Alonso to third-place on the Sakhir Circuit.
However the actuality for F1 followers tuning into this season's opening race with such expectation is that it may flip into an extended, laborious watch.
That might show to be an issue for Components One, who till final 12 months at the least had been handled to some pulsating battles to maintain issues attention-grabbing.
F1 does have a historical past of seeing a staff dominate.
Ferrari, Purple Bull and Mercedes have dominated for spells within the fashionable period.
Nonetheless, the distinction is now the game is having fun with a booming spell of recognition and the query is whether or not this new era of followers, transformed by the Netflix sequence, will stay suitably entertained.
If Verstappen is profitable week after week by a substantial margin, and Ferrari and Aston Martin are alternating for third place, the novelty will quickly put on off.
Make no mistake, Purple Bull's benefit is big.
Not even a cost-cap penalty of a £7million wonderful and a discount in wind tunnel testing has slowed them down.
If something, they're faster by advantage of Mercedes' dreadful design that has been produced after pigheadedly sticking with a failed idea, which has now been consigned to the bin.
And whereas Ferrari seemed to supply some hope they might put Purple Bull beneath a little bit of stress, their previous Achillies heel proved to be their weak spot when Charles Leclerc pulled over with an engine situation and failed to complete the race.
There have been uncommon moments of pleasure.
Two-time world champion Alonso battled with Lewis Hamilton on lap 38 with the Spaniard getting previous the Brit with a wonderful piece of driving via turns 9 and ten.
In fact, Hamilton, who was fifth, was a sitting duck as he delivered his evaluation after the opening race of the 12 months.
He mentioned: "We're miles away. There was a Ferrari that may've been forward of Alonso so we might've actually been sixth, the rostrum was nowhere close to.
"We have simply obtained quite a lot of work to do, we have simply obtained so as to add downforce to the automobile, we're simply missing quite a lot of downforce."
Alonso then swooped previous Carlos Sainz on lap 45, to take a spot on the rostrum for the primary time for the reason that 2021 Qatar GP.
Esteban Ocon offered some gentle aid with a surprising efficiency that at the least made us giggle.
He was penalised for being out of place on the startline.
He then did not serve the five-second time penalty appropriately, triggering one other sanction.
And in making his pitstop, he was penalised for dashing within the pitlane earlier than ultimately retiring from the race.
Aside from that, it was all pretty routine for the remaining, other than McLaren who're in a disaster.
Oscar Piastri was compelled to retire on his debut GP with a gearbox drawback and team-mate Lando Norris got here final after stopping SIX TIMES.
The saving grace is the stat that since 2016, no driver who has gained the primary race of the season has then gone on to raise the title.
That's prone to change this 12 months.
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