Bahrain GP Shakedown - Formula1-USA

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The first race of the season has answered a lot of questions about pre-season testing and where teams are in terms of race-pace and qualifying. Of course, it’s not the full picture. We won’t have that until the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi when all of the points are tallied, but at least we have a starting point. Without question, the teams will be developing their cars to shave tenths of seconds off lap times throughout the season in accordance with the spending cap and other regulations, but it’s clear that some of the teams have had a successful off-season and already have a head start in the development race.

Obviously the 2022 Constructors Championship team, Red Bull, are building on last year’s performance. They didn’t put a foot wrong in pre-season testing and finished 1-2 in Bahrain, with Max Verstappen leading the race from start to finish without anyone to challenge him. Perez had a slightly tougher battle when Charles Leclerc overtook him at the start, but he eventually regained the position and went unchallenged for the remainder of the race. Right now, it looks like Max Verstappen and Red Bull are set to ride off into the sunset with two more championship trophies. But it’s not a done deal yet.

The big surprise from last season to this one is Aston Martin. Not surprising, when looking at their pace, is that the shape of their car looks a lot like the Red Bull. That’s because Red Bull’s former head of aerodynamics, Dan Fallows, switched to Aston Martin this year to become their technical director, no doubt persuaded by Aston’s owner, Lawrence Stroll, and his deep pockets. Seems like Fallows had a pretty good memory when it came to designing the 2023 Aston. The fact that Fernando Alonso finished third in Bahrain tells it all. He managed to pass Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz on track during the closing laps of the race to claim his 99th podium. Prior to that, Charles Leclerc had been running a fairly solid third before his car suffered from power failure and he had to retire on lap 37.

Ferrari may have been sandbagging a bit during pre-season, but it looked more like they were just trying out every option. In the practice sessions before the race they sampled different rear wings, but were able to qualify in third and fourth behind the Red Bulls with Leclerc about 3/10s off of Verstappen’s time. Ferrari is close in terms of one-lap pace, but until Leclerc actually finishes a race it’s going to be difficult to tell how close. Best guess is that they are not close enough. The season may be shaping up to be a fight between Aston and Ferrari for 2nd and Red Bull somewhere off in the distance. If Ferrari are going to stand any chance at all, then their new team principal, Frederic Vasseur, is going to need to get reliability issues under control and not make the same strategy blunders as last year.

One of the biggest surprises going from last year to pre-season testing to the race was Williams. They were last at the end of 2022 and, although they appeared to have made some progress in pre-season, it still looked like they would be competing towards the back of the pack in 2023. But, Alex Albon managed to put his car in the final points paying position at the Bahrain GP even though he only qualified in 15th, and Logan Sargeant, having qualified 16th, finished in 12th, ahead of the other rookies. Most notably, ahead of both McLarens. Piastri retired from the race and Norris was plagued by mechanical issues throughout, ultimately finishing two laps down. It was clear from pre-season testing that McLaren was behind the curve, but the expectation was that they should be able to get things at least partially straightened out before the race. They didn’t

Another big race surprise was that of Pierre Gasly, who qualified last on the grid, due to a lap time being deleted, but managed to bring the car home in 9th after a stellar performance. Gasly looked to be struggling with the car at his new team early on and it appeared that it was going to take him some time to get used to it, but he sorted himself out under the lights in Bahrain. Estebon Ocon, however, who qualified 9th and looked like he was set to score some points, was so overwhelmed with time penalties for petty infractions during the race (lining up to start incorrectly, not serving the time penalty correctly and speeding in the pit lane) that the team decided to retire the car and save the engine. Alpine may have some more pace that we didn’t see because of the mistakes, but they are going to have to get past Mercedes, Aston Martin and Ferrari before they can call themselves serious contenders. They finished last year’s championship in 4th, but with Aston in the mix now they may struggle for points paying positions on race day.

Haas finished behind the Williams in 13th and 15th as you might expect. Not a bad race for them, but they obviously still have work to do. Hulkenberg qualified in 10th, which is really quite impressive, but he slipped backwards into 15th after damaging his front wing early in the race. Meanwhile K-Mag worked his way up from 17th to finish 13th. Hopefully in Saudi Arabia Haas can combine Nico’s qualifying and Kevin’s race pace for some points. And speaking of points, Valtteri Bottas was able to muscle his Alpha into 8th, truly the best of the rest. Zhou was not so lucky and finished in 16th, down one lap, but at least ahead of Norris. As for Alpha Tauri, Yuki Tsunoda managed to bring the car home in 11th, just a little over a second out of the points, and Nyck de Vries split the two Haas cars in 14th. Not bad, but most were expecting him to be faster than Sargeant and possibly even Yuki.

So it’s one down, and twenty-two to go. The Saudi Arabian GP should be a good track to show us who has the ultimate top speed. We will be looking to see if Ferrari can get Leclerc to the finish line, if Mercedes shows up with a completely different car, if Alonso and Aston Martin are for real and if Alpine can minimize the mistakes. Also, we’ll be keeping a close eye on Logan Sargeant to see if he can keep up the pace. In the junior categories he was able to move up without skipping a beat, but this is Formula one and he will need to continuously build on the foundation he has laid if he wants to succeed. Let’s hope he can. Until then, as they say, “Keep it flat out.”

Results

Verstappen (Red Bull) – 1:33:56.736
Perez – (Red Bull) +11.987s
Alonso – (Aston Martin) +38.637s
Sainz – (Ferrari) +48.052s
Hamilton – (Mercedes) +50.977s
Stroll – (Aston Martin) +54.502s
Russell – (Mercedes) +55.873s
Bottas – (Alfa Romeo) +72.647s
Gasly – (Alpine) +73.753s
Albon – (Williams) +89.774s
Tsunoda – (Alpha Tauri) +90.870s
Sargeant – (Williams)+1 Lap
Magnussen – (Haas)+1 Lap
de Vries – (Alpha Tauri) +1 Lap
Hulkenberg – (Haas) +1 Lap
Zhou – (Alfa Romeo) +1 Lap
Norris – (McLaren) +2 Laps
Ocon – (Alpine) DNF
Leclerc – (Ferrari) DNF
Piastri – (McLaren) DNF