Vasseur was referencing the tyre-wear characteristics of his team's SF-24, a heavily updated version of the car which took seven pole positions last season.
But that qualifying pace did not translate into race results, with tyre degradation largely to blame for the team's record of just one win and eight other podium finishes across the season.
Most F1 neutrals will be hoping the new car, in the capable hands of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, can take the fight to Max Verstappen, winner of 19 of the 22 races in 2023 for Red Bull.
The early signs are promising, with Sainz setting the overall fastest lap of the test and Leclerc topping the time sheets in a qualifying simulation on the final day.
Most paddock insiders believe the reigning world champion will remain the man to beat, at least before the European part of the calendar kicks off in mid-May, but Verstappen is unlikely to have things quite so much his own way.
Mercedes and McLaren are likely to once again feature as the other teams with ambitions for podium finishes and perhaps the occasional victory, with Aston Martin making cameo appearances at the front on tracks suited to the green machine, piloted once again by the irrepressible Fernando Alonso.
Unusually, the grid will line up in Bahrain with the same 20 drivers in the same 10 teams that ended last season, albeit with Red Bull's sister team AlphaTauri now known as RB and Alfa Romeo reverting back to its Sauber badging.
The bookies are cautious in opposing Verstappen for Saturday's race, pricing the world champion at a prohibitive 2/7 to continue his winning streak.
Leclerc looks appealing at least as an each-way bet at 9/1 given his headline times in testing and the solid race simulations put in by both Ferrari men last week.
Sergio Perez, in the other Red Bull, is third favourite at 14/1, but the Mexican hasn't won a race in nearly a year despite the machinery at his disposal.
The two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton 20/1 and George Russell 25/1, sandwich Sainz 22/1 in the betting, but their long-run pace is something of a mystery given they failed to complete race simulations in testing.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are 28/1 and 50/1 respectively for McLaren, with Alonso 40/1 on what will be his 378th F1 race start in his 22nd season.
Further down the grid, look to Alex Albon to take a points finish at 5/2.
The British driver's long-run pace looked stronger than the RBs and the Alpines and even quicker than Piastri's McLaren, which suffered with heavy tyre degradation.
Albon has been quietly impressive in his Williams career and is on the radar of the top teams for when the grid will be reshuffled next year.
He finished 10th at this track last year and a similar result looks on the cards to kick off his 2024 campaign.
