Red Bull’s RB19 isn’t the fastest F1 car ever. It could be the most dominant.

Early in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton looked into his rearview mirrors and saw Max Verstappen lining up a move.

Just two years after going head-to-head with Verstappen in a historically toxic and controversial title fight, Hamilton knew he had no chance of keeping the navy blue Red Bull behind him. He didn’t even put up a fight.

“I’ve never seen a car so fast,” said Hamilton. As a seven-time world champion in his 17th F1 season, Hamilton knows quite a bit about the fast cars.

Verstappen’s overtake on Hamilton in Jeddah was one of many in his breezy recovery from 15th on the grid to second, finishing behind teammate Sergio Pérez. The Australian GP saw Verstappen make it three wins in three races for Red Bull, negotiating the flurry of red flags and safety cars to continue the team’s perfect start to the season.

The Red Bull RB19 car is so dominant, this year’s championships already look settled. Mercedes’ George Russell even said in Australia he thought Red Bull was “holding back,” and that the team was “almost embarrassed” to show its full potential in races, for fear the rules could change to rein in its performance. Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur noted the car has “a mega big DRS effect, bigger than everybody else,” saying, “we have to understand how they are able to do something like this.”

If Red Bull continues to ride roughshod over the field, the RB19 could enter the pantheon of the greatest F1 cars of all-time. But does that mean it’s the fastest ever?

For comparison, let’s look at two of the cars widely regarded as the quickest in F1 history: Ferrari’s F2004 car from 2004, and the Mercedes W11 from 2020. For a long time, the F2004 held lap records at a number of F1 circuits, only to be beaten by the W11 as F1’s rules (which strictly govern how cars are designed) allowed the cars to get quicker and quicker.

We could all say which is our favorite. The W11 was a beast, but the sound of the V10 in the Ferrari’s F2004 is hard to beat. Objectively, the answer is pretty clear. All three cars took pole position for their respective year’s Bahrain Grand Prix. The comparison isn’t perfect, given changes in regulations and conditions — the 2004 race was run in daytime — but it’s the closest we’ll get to a guide.

Michael Schumacher’s pole time in the Ferrari F2004 was 1m30.139s. Under that year’s rules, he had to complete Q2 — then a one-lap shootout system — with his race starting fuel, but given he pitted on Lap 9, there can’t have been a ton of fuel in the car. He was also on grooved tires; it wasn’t until 2010 F1 returned to using slicks.

In the 2020 Bahrain race, the Mercedes W11 was by then…