F1 Afterthoughts: 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix
via Red Bull Content Pool
SAKHIR, Bahrain (PSF) — Well that was fun. Fun if you are a Red Bull fan or Fernando Alonso fan. Not so fun if you are a Ferrari fan, Mercedes fan, or McLaren fan. Let’s take a look at some of the key takeaways from the opening round of the 2023 Formula One Season.
Red Bull Is A Tier Above All
Max Verstappen opened the season picking up where he left off with a dominating win in Sakhir paired with a second place finish from teammate Sergio Perez to give the team a coveted 1-2 finish. Red Bull’s RB18 car that took home 17 wins last season was good. This season’s RB19 may be better. The pace and balance of the car was just so good and kudos to the Red Bull team because they have done an amazing job. After Round 1 last year you could argue that the Ferrari was the best car on the grid. Now after Round 1 this year, there is nobody close to the pace of the RB19 as the third place finisher came across the line 38.637 seconds after Verstappen saw the checkered flag to take home the victory. This level of dominance has left the rest of the grid extremely discouraged. It even led to Mercedes’ driver George Russell predicting that Red Bull will win every single race this season. It will be interesting to see if any team can get close to the performance of Red Bull this year, but early readings tell you not to count on it.
Aston Martin Will Fight For Podiums All Year
The team that turned the most heads during this year’s pre-season testing was Aston Martin. The suspicions and rumblings from testing were confirmed to be true and perhaps exceeded the expectations of many. The race pace of the green machine was the second best on the grid. That’s right, second best; not third, not fourth, but second. Fernando Alonso’s debut race with the team was a dream start as he took home a podium with a P3 finish. Lance Stroll also took home some good points with his P6 finish after missing all of testing due to a cycling accident that led to him having surgery on his wrists. Alonso finished ahead of both Mercedes and Ferrari cars after Charles Leclerc’s engine failure while sitting in P3 and overtaking Carlos Sainz on pure race pace. Stroll’s result was impressive because he finished ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell after not being in the car as long as every other driver while showing the ability to keep composure and bring the team a good result. I am not sure if I am ready to state that Aston Martin has graduated from the midfield just yet, but if they pull out a similar result during Round 2 in Jeddah then I will be ready to give them this designation.
McLaren Is As Bad As Suspected
The other team that made the most noise around pre-season testing was McLaren. Except it was for all the wrong reasons. They were extremely off of the pace of other midfield teams and the car was extremely unbalanced. The suspicions were confirmed as the team fielded cars that saw rookie Oscar Piastri have to retire 13 laps in finishing dead last and team leader Lando Norris being lapped twice and finishing P17 (which was last of all the drivers that finished the race). Looking at Piastri’s (brief) debut race, it was already a bad start for him qualifying in 18th place, and it got even worse for him as he was complaining over the radio about his steering wheel leading to a premature pit stop. During this pit stop they replaced his steering wheel, but an electrical issue forced the young Aussie to retire from the race. With Norris’s race, it must have been agonizing to be in the cockpit or in the Norris garage watching this one. After narrowly making Q2 logging the same exact (!) time as the Williams of American rookie Logan Sargeant, he was able to move on due to the technicality that Norris logged his time first. Norris, however, was unable to make it through to Q3 and was set to start the grand prix in 11th. Norris from lap 1-55 (the last lap he completed) showed that he did not have the pace to even think about fighting for any sort of points. There was a clear fueling issue that led to Norris pitting a total of six times during the race, which was three more times than the next most pitted car. This essentially ruined his race and made him watch the winning car of Verstappen pass him twice and prematurely ending his race after 55 laps instead of 57. Something has to change if McLaren wants to hold onto Norris after this season
Ferrari Still Have Internal Problems
Although Ferrari’s 2022 season was a big improvement from 2021, it didn’t make it any less of a headache of a season for Ferrari fans. The main stressor was the internal disfunction from a strategy making standpoint to a reliability standpoint. With Ferrari canning former Team Principal Mattia Binotto and bringing in former Alfa Romeo boss Frederick Vasseur, the team hoped they could turn a new leaf in 2023. However this season, so far, seems no different. The chaos started pre-race as the team had to place a new energy store unit in the car of Charles Leclerc meaning that they could not place another in the car in the future without taking a penalty. During the race, Leclerc was sitting pretty comfortable in a podium position at P3 until on lap 40 he was forced to retire after his engine failed. After investigation, it was found that the component that failed was in fact the energy store unit that was just placed into the car. Now Leclerc is facing a grid penalty for when they inevitably have to place a new energy store unit in the car. For the other Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz was looking all set to come home to a P3 finish after he was tailing Leclerc and took the position with Leclerc’s engine failure. It was all set in stone until the tire degradation of the car significantly decreased the pace of the Ferrari leading to the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso taking advantage and stealing the podium from Sainz. It was a nightmare start for the Italian team and they need to figure out the internal issues quick before fans completely sour on them.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back For Mercedes
Last year we saw the evolution of the Mercedes W13 car go from third fastest on the grid to second fastest and even giving the team a race win in Brazil at a time when Red Bull was dominating every race. They definitely have not picked up where they left of so far. They don’t even seem like the third fastest team. They are the fourth fastest behind Red Bull, Aston Martin, and Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes car saw him take P5 behind both Red Bulls, one Aston Martin, and one Ferrari (would have been two if not for Leclerc’s failure). George Russell on the other hand finished P7 which was behind the same cars as Hamilton except both Aston Martin cars finished ahead of him. Nothing about the Mercedes car seemed all too dangerous or threatening. For a team that showed so much promise coming out of the 2022 season, a return to form is likely going to have to wait yet again. The current outlook for the team is that they hope they could maybe sneak their way onto the podium in the future, but fighting for wins seems far fetched.
