Race week review
The start of the new season had everyone waiting in anticipation for what might come about. With the three days of testing Aston Martin looked a threat and Red Bull looked as dominant as usual. But that was just testing.
When it came to free practice on Friday and Saturday where the veterans and the rookies took to the Bahrain International Circuit, the Red Bulls and Ferraris showed pace, along with the Aston Martins. Mercedes seemed to struggle slightly on the Friday but picked up the pace on Saturday. Lance Stroll was one to watch over the weekend as he had been cleared to race after his mountain biking incident which saw him miss pre-season testing.
Teams across the paddock, including Red Bull who already seemed like front runners, had their eyes on Aston Martin as the Silverstone based team impressed and looked a threat for qualifying; maybe even pole.
Qualifying saw Gasly unexpectedly fail to make it out of Q1 and plum last in his first outing for Alpine. Following him out in Q1 was De Vries, Piastri, Magnussen and Sargeant. Sargeant set the exact same time as Norris for P16, but did not make it out of Q1 because Norris set the lap time first.
Hulkenberg was impressive on his return to the F1 grid, launching his Haas into Q3. With not enough pace in his car and just missing out on the top 10 shootout was Norris in P11, followed by Bottas, Zhou, Tsunoda and Albon, who backed out of setting a lap time.
Verstappen and Perez stormed to 1st and 2nd on the timesheets; with Leclerc settled for 3rd, only doing a single flying lap and leaving him an extra set of soft tyres for the race (a strategic call by Ferrari) and Sainz locked out the second row with his teammate. Alonso impressed in P5; ahead of both Mercedes in P6 and P7, Russell ahead of Hamilton; and Stroll, Ocon and Hulkenberg rounded up the top 10 for the season opener.
Race report
Red Bull did what they do best. Max Verstappen led Sergio Perez home for a dominating victory and a brilliant 1-2 finish for the team. It was all quite simple for Verstappen, who was never really in doubt from lights out. After being overtaken by Leclerc at the start, once Perez caught up to the Monegasque during the race, he too, was a sure thing.
Aston Martin started off the season with brilliant racing and even better results. Fernando Alonso claimed a long awaited podium in P3 when he overtook Sainz and Hamilton in the latter stages of the race, earning his new team the second podium in their history. Lance Stroll, who only recently came back from injury had a stellar performance and finished in P6, in between the two Mercedes.
‘Twas sad day for Ferrari, and not the start to the season they would have wanted. Beginning the race in promising positions, it seemed likely that they could get some good points and a podium, but when Leclerc’s engine lost power, his race was over early. Sainz seemed to struggle with tyre degradation towards the race end, an issue Ferrari are commonly known to battle. The Spaniard couldn’t keep Alonso behind him so he settled for P4.
Mercedes will return to Brackley, with the hopes of finding the necessary pace to compete with their rivals. A good start for Hamilton saw him overtake Russell but when the chance came to get past a struggling Sainz near the end of the race, the car could not deliver. Russell was beaten by Stroll who overtook him easily after his final pitstop; it was not a weekend Mercedes will have fond memories of.
The Frenchmen of Alpine had very different races. Gasly, who started last, worked his way through the pack and found himself in a very respectable P9 for Alpine in his first race for the team. Meanwhile, Ocon had a miserable race as he was plagued with multiple time penalties and later retired from the race.
McLaren had a woeful time at the Bahrain GP. Oscar Piastri retired on his F1 debut due to an electrical issue. Norris completed the race, two laps down on Verstappen in P17, with a pneumatic pressure leak in his car which meant he had to pit six times in order to make it to the end.
AlphaTauri wont be disappointed with their result at the Bahrain GP. Tsunoda had a reasonably good race and unfortunately just missed out on points with an 11th place finish. De Vries on his AlphaTarui debut finished in P14, a decent result considering he started the race in 19th.
Alfa Romeo’s Bottas scored some nice points and had a strong drive to give him P8. It was not the best of days in the office for Zhou as he finished P16.
Haas’ strategy for Magnussen didn’t pay off but the Dane benefited from Zhou’s late pitstop and finished 13th. Hulkenberg, on his return to F1 placed 15th curtesy of a five second penalty.
Williams will be happy with this weekend’s results: Albon snatched the final world championship point after his 15th place start; while Sargeant was the highest finisher of the 2023 rookies in 12th.
The Saudi Arabian GP takes place from 17-19 March. Stay tuned for more articles and updates before then. Make sure you are subscribed to the blog and are following all social media channels for the latest news and more!
The Fastest Sector 