With just 27 days to go until F1 pre-season testing begins in Bahrain, let’s take a quick look at why the testing period is so crucial for teams!
Source: RacingNews365.com
Over the winter break teams finish building the cars they will use to compete in the following season. With regulations staying mostly the same in 2024, teams already have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t, but testing is just as important! Having spent a year working with one car, testing provides a vital opportunity for drivers and teams to get to know the new car and what it is capable of before taking it to the first race on March 2nd.
The day is normally divided into 2, with a morning and afternoon session of track time where teams can send out one driver at a time. Drivers become accustom with the car they will be spending many hours in over the following months! Testing also allows teams to test the reliability of their new cars as well as any new design features. They can assess the data and figure out how to get the best performance from their car and drivers.
Source: AutoRacing1.com
Testing is typically the place where rookies get their first proper go behind the wheel of the car they will be responsible for. It allows them to get better acquainted with the extreme speed of the car and understand the technology the teams have in place. In a rare occurrence for F1, the 2024 grid remains the same as the grid competing at the end of the 2023 season, meaning drivers have a minimum of a year of experience behind them.
While the drivers are out on track, the engineers will be collecting data to ensure it matches with the simulations they have been working with in wind tunnels and driving simulators. It also gives the pit crew a chance to practice the all-important pit stops with the new car. Over the course of the weekend, you might see some strange things! For example, teams will put devices and special paint on the front of the cars to measure the air flow around the car to report back to the aerodynamics teams!
Source: PlanetF1.com
Testing is being held in Bahrain in 2024 meaning teams can gather data and practise driving the circuit before the first race is held there the following week. It should be a great first race given the amount of track time the cars and drivers will have had in the space of 7 days!
F1.com will run live text commentary throughout the testing weekend so fans can keep up to date with everything going on! Not long now until F1 is back on our screens!
We’re back with another install of most memorable races and this time Lizzy takes the stage:
I’ve been watching F1 for a few years now and I have a few races that have stuck in my head and are very special to me.
Monaco 2017
This was the first race that I watched the whole way through live, before this I had watched the highlights of races and short clips. It was an average race with a Ferrari 1-2 and Daniel Riccardo finishing 3rd. The most memorable part of the race was Pacal Wehrlein’s crash with Jenson Button that left him lent against the barriers, as this was my first race this was my first live crash, and it did make me realise just how dangerous the sport could be.
Monza 2020
Monza is always home to amazing and unexpected races. In 2020 Vettel went through the polystyrene signs after his brakes failed, the safety car was sent out after Magnussen’s Haas stopped on the track, Charles Leclerc crashed heavily into the barriers which caused a red flag, Hamilton had a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for using the pitlane while it was closed, and Pierre Gasly took his first ever F1 win. Watching the race was like a fairy tale, especially watching Gasly’s emotional post-race celebrations. I still have the famous picture as one of my lock screens that I rotate through the year.
Qatar 2021
Being a Fernando Alonso fan, I have to say this race. Seeing him back on the podium was amazing. Also seeing Esteban Ocon defending ‘like a lion’ was great.
Bahrain 2023
This year has already given us some great races and we’re only 3 rounds in. Alonso is 3 for 3 in 3rd places and I hope it continues and gets better. Bahrain was the first look into what this year’s Aston Martin could do but Alonso getting a podium wasn’t the only good thing about it, watching the resilience of Lance Stroll was inspiring and he finished p6 with two broken wrists and a broken toe.
Hope you enjoyed this instalment of most memorable races, we’ll be back soon with more content that you’ll definitely enjoy.
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.
Source: Uksport.news
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.
Source: Mark Sutton LAT Images via F1 Chronicle
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.
Source: Peter Fox Getty Images
‘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 anticipation building up to the start of the 2022 season was immense. The little moments of action in testing had everyone on edge, waiting for the real spectacle to take place. With new race directors, new regulations and new teams and teammates, this new era of Formula 1 was about to begin.
Excitement roamed the paddock, particularly in the Haas garage because the car looked relatively good. Gunther Steiner, famously known for kicking off many times on Drive to Survive was visible happy to have the new pairing of Magnussen and Schumacher lining up for them. With everyone making predictions on how the constructor’s championship would go, they were definitely right up in the mix.
Source: motorsportmagazine.com
Daniel Ricciardo, after missing the three days of testing in Bahrain for McLaren was rejoining the team, slightly on the back foot; nevertheless, ready to work. There were previously slight mentions of McLaren placing behind the top 3 of Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull, but a race weekend in Bahrain looked to cut those rumours short.
At the beginning of the race weekend, Aston Martin announced that four time world champion, Sebastian Vettel had tested positive for Covid-19 and would not race in Bahrain. He would go on to be replaced by their reserve driver Nico Hulkenburg.
Source: motorsport.com
Friday practice allowed the teams to become even more familiar with the circuit with the new cars. Pierre Gasly topped FP1 with his AlphaTauri while certain other teams were dealing with their own problems. McLaren we’re trying to make up for lost time in testing during the session. Seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes were a little off the pace, trying new things with the car.
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen topped the charts in FP2 followed by the two Ferrari’s, who were constantly showing that they had the pace.
Verstappen again finished P1 in FP3, with Leclerc and Perez second and third. Mercedes had much better running in the final session, finishing fourth and sixth.
Qualifying had everyone’s hearts racing; the first qualifying of the season was nothing short of a show stopper.
The two Aston Martin cars were both out in Q1, along with Tsunoda, Latifi and Ricciardo, who was not having a good start to the season.
The new signing for Williams, Alex Albon, was knocked out in Q2, his smiles and radio message to the team showing he was happy to have made it that far. Rookie driver Guanyu Zhou was also knocked out in Q2, along with Mick Schumacher (his highest qualifying position-12th), Esteban Ocon and the second McLaren of Lando Norris. It was not looking like a good day for the papaya team.
Impressively, Bottas and Magnussen made it to the top 10 shoutout. They qualified in sixth and seventh respectively. After the first round of runs, Carlos Sainz was on provisional pole but when it all came down to the final flying lap, Charles Leclerc edged out Max Verstappen for the first pole of the season in emphatic fashion.
Hamilton qualified fifth, behind Sergio Perez, while George Russell could only muster ninth place on his first outing as a Mercedes driver, something he’d have to make up for in the race.
Source: racingnews365.com
The first race of the season, as you’ll see below in greater detail, was one you couldn’t miss. With lots of overtakes, interesting strategy calls, and all round great racing, we crowned our first race winner of the new era of F1. And he wore red.
Source: skysports.com
Race report
We the fans were made a lot of promises before 2022. Formula One promised us that the new cars would be able to follow each other and race better. Ferrari promised us that they would be back. Steiner promised us that better things were on the horizon for Haas.
I, for one, think that every promise was delivered on.
The 2022 season opener was one of the most incredible we’ve seen in a long time. Pole sitter Charles Leclerc was able to convert his excellent Saturday work into a win for Scuderia Ferrari, and teammate Carlos Sainz pushed to make it a 1-2 finish for the team. 5th place starter Lewis Hamilton rounded off the podium in third place, with his brand new teammate George Russell finishing in fourth.
Source: fia.com
It was a dismal day for the Red Bull powered teams. Reigning champion Max Verstappen, who started 2nd and fought Leclerc for almost the entire race, wrestled with the steering on a difficult RB18, eventually retiring the car. Teammate Sergio Perez also spun into retirement at the end of the race, suggesting that the issue he faced was extremely similar to that of Verstappen.
Source: firstsportz.com
While the race ended happily for Alpha Tauri driver Yuki Tsunoda, starting his second season in the sport, the same could not be said for teammate Pierre Gasly. On lap 46, the Frenchman’s car overheated and caught on fire, causing an immediate retirement for Gasly and bringing the safety car out on track for the first time in 2022.
Source: formula1.com
It was a struggle of a weekend for Mercedes, who have in previous years been indisputably strong. This weekend the best the team could achieve was a 3rd place podium for Lewis Hamilton and a 4th place finish for George Russell. Hopefully the team will be able to improve the car in the coming weeks!
American-based team Haas had the opposite weekend – after a couple of years of misfortune, the team came barrelling out of the gate with a brilliant package. Returning driver Kevin Magnussen brought home a fifth place finish for the team, with teammate Mick Schumacher finishing in eleventh place – although it would be fair to assume that that will improve as the season goes by.
It was a double points finish for Alpine, with Ocon in 7th place and Alonso in 9th, with the car showing significant promise. The continuation of this strong driver lineup can only be good for Alpine, who will no doubt be regular points finishers once again throughout 2022.
Another team which showed significant strength this weekend was Alfa Romeo. After starting 6th, Valtteri Bottas was able to finish the race in the same position for his new team, whereas rookie teammate Zhou Guanyu was able to score a point in tenth place on his debut race, an excellent achievement for the sport’s first full-time Chinese driver.
Source: f1chronicle.com
However, while some teams were able to produce excellent results, some were not. McLaren found Bahrain to be incredibly difficult with neither driver able to score points. Daniel Ricciardo finished the race in 14th place after failing to leave Q1 on Saturday, ahead of teammate Lando Norris who finished the race in 15th place.
It was similarly disappointing for Aston Martin, with both Lance Stroll and reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg finishing the race towards the back of the pack, with Stroll in 12th place and Hulkenberg in 17th. It is expected that Sebastian Vettel will return to the team next week if testing negative for Covid-19, so it will be interesting to see how he is able to perform in the car.
Both Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi of Williams had a difficult Sunday, finishing in 13th and 16th place respectively. However, it was definitely a good race result for Alex Albon after a year away from the sport, and it will be exciting to see what the Thai/English driver will deliver this year.
We move onto Jeddah for the second race of the season where we expect to see more exhilarating racing!
Source: firstsportz.com
By Leslie & Tara
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Probably absolutely nothing. But also, maybe we saw some hints as to how the season may go.
We can say that nobody has really shown their true colours because it would be a dead giveaway before the season starts and nobody wants to do that. But, there are some teams who may be struggling now and might continue to for a while.
All eyes on Mercedes?
The eight time constructor’s champions Mercedes who have dominated the competition for eight years in a row (such an impressive feat) had everyone talking at testing in Bahrain. Barcelona testing in February was not televised and many cars had changes to them, so, when they arrived at Sakhir, the “no sidepods” sidepods concept took many teams by surprise.
New driver for the team George Russell has downplayed the strength of the Mercedes car, mentioning how Ferrari were “potential favourites” ; however, Carlos Sainz says it’s “typical George and typical Mercedes” to downplay their efforts and hype up their competition.
But, seven time world champion, Lewis Hamilton also says that “Mercedes are not in the hunt for wins right now like Red Bull and Ferrari”.
So, the question is: what do we believe?
Are Ferrari really title contenders?
There was definitely pace in that Ferrari and we probably should count them in the title race, with the red car looking very stable on track. Many also wouldn’t be surprised to see them on pole on Saturday, they had that much pace.
They ran the most laps and probably looked the most consistent and reliable. According to team principal Mattia Binotto, the team has a “good basis” to build on.
What’s the situation at Red Bull?
The car looks very good on track, and with a blistering lap time to finish off testing in Bahrain, the Bulls look like they mean business.
The Milton Keynes team seemed to hide their true pace for some of testing, with many speculating they had more up their sleeve. When the upgrades came about, (with a different sidepod design) they showed their hand.
McLaren troubles?
The McLaren car looked to be good enough on track but with Daniel Ricciardo missing all three days of testing due to testing positive for Covid-19, they seem to be on the back foot and the Aussie will be lacking sufficient preparation for this race weekend.
Lando Norris took the reigns for the papaya team, getting all the data the team needed. He also mentioned how he communicated with his teammate daily to update him on the car.
Although, Norris mentioned how testing had been “less than ideal” for McLaren, leading us to wonder what the situation is with the car.
The McLaren car also had pace but struggled with break issues (for which they had to get new parts to solve this problem) that ultimately hurt their ability to run more laps.
Where do AlphaTauri rank?
Gasly and Tsunoda completed many laps (370) and did not have much to worry about with reliability. The fight for the midfield looks even closer and with this pairing showing confidence in the car, they might throw a spanner in the works for others.
Alpine: A threat to consider?
The eye-catching livery of Alpine stole even more attention when Ocon showed great pace in the car on Day 2. They finished the testing with good data and results once they had figured out how to manage their porpoising, something many teams were struggling with. They are definitely a team to keep an eye out for.
Aston Martin: What can we say about the green team?
Not much really, it is very difficult to make a decent guess about how the Aston Martin team will do this season. Testing looked to go relatively smooth for the green team. It seems are there are not any major problems for them to worry about so we’ll have to wait and see.
Alfa Romeo: Is Bottas right to worry?
With a completely new line-up of Bottas and Zhou people may not be expecting much from Alfa Romeo, but they may cause some problems for the rest of the midfield due their pace and the many laps both drivers put in.
Bottas does fear about the reliability of the Alfa Romeo but only time will tell if it will be a key factor in this season.
Williams: A year of progression?
We are wondering what kind of year we’ll have at Williams with the new pairing of Latifi and Albon who were previously been teammates before in 2018, in Formula 2. After starting well, the Williams team encountered some problems when the brakes caught on fire and they could not run again on Day 2 as they were unable to fix the car on time. Day 3 went well for them so we are left to imagine where they will fit in on the board.
Haas: A future point scoring team?
They encountered plenty of problems at the wrong time. With the team replacing Mazepin with their former driver Magnussen who had lots of experience, there was hope for the team. But with freight delays, the team were running behind schedule; and, when certain teams blocked Haas’ request for extra running on Sunday to make up for time lost, things did not look good.
With extra time to run on Friday and Saturday, Magnussen and Schumacher put in impressive lap times, bringing them high up on the table.
They may be scoring points some time soon.
We can definitely see things heating up as there were a few moments of racing during testing, meaning the drivers are ready to go. The pack seems tighter and we might see some more aggressive stuff from the guys on track when things kick off in Bahrain this weekend.
One can definitely tell it’s going to be an exciting season as we start this new era.
The Fastest Sector 