Bahrain Race Reaction
Image: Aston Martin F1
The opening round of the 2023 Formula One season proved to be an exciting start to the 24-race-long campaign. With a lot of surprises up and down the field, let’s delve deeper into some of the race’s key points.
Max wins yet again
Max Verstappen took his 35th win in Bahrain with a gap of over ten seconds to his teammate Sergio Perez, who did well to keep his Red Bull in P2. Verstappen had to fend off Leclerc, Perez, and Sainz at the start as the Ferraris had a much better launch off the line compared to the Red Bulls. However, the overall pace of the Red Bulls started to show and by the tenth lap, Verstappen already had built his advantage over Leclerc to an astonishing seven seconds.
Today wasn’t much of a struggle for Red Bull as Sergio Perez managed to clear Charles Leclerc in the early stages of the race and was on an alternate strategy to Verstappen and it proved successful. Verstappen did report locking of his rear wheels when downshifting and complained about it throughout the race. Despite this issue, however, the Dutchman didn’t need to pull any risky overtakes to keep what was a very good day in the office.
Not again Ferrari!
Although the initial stages of the race worked really well for Ferrari, everything started to fall apart as both drivers failed to match the overall pace of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull. The strategy was something not to worry about this time for Ferrari — which was new.
The fall of Ferrari came in the closing stages of the race when Charles Leclerc suffered an engine issue and was forced to retire after having a guaranteed P3 finish for the Scuderia. Following a short period under the Virtual Safety Car, Sainz inherited P3 and tried to hold onto it whilst a speedy Fernando Alonso and a rapid Lewis Hamilton were both right up the Spaniard’s gearbox. Sainz was eventually passed by his compatriot Alonso and held onto P4, defending from Lewis Hamilton.
This was definitely not what Ferrari envisaged after Saturday’s qualifying results.
Alonso is back!
Fernando Alonso claimed his 99th podium finish today, with many fans praising the Aston Martin driver for pushing the car to an incredible level.
Although, Alonso’s race didn’t really start the way he wanted it to. He was hit by teammate Lance Stroll and lost a position due to the collision, placing him in P7 after Lap 1. Alonso drove brilliantly to fight his way back up toward the front of the grid, engaging in multiple battles with Russell and Sainz, which eventually landed him a podium finish.
Image: Aston Martin F1
The moment of the race was when Fernando Alonso tried to make a move on Hamilton into Turn 4 and caught a lot of oversteer on the exit. This allowed Hamilton to slip back through to P5 and maintain his position ahead of the Aston Martin. This wasn’t going to stop the 41-year-old. Alonso and Hamilton provided brilliant wheel-to-wheel racing and pushed each other to the absolute limit.
Alonso dived down the inside of the Mercedes in the tricky Turn 10, where overtakes are generally rare to see. Hamilton respected Alonso’s move and that move allowed the Spaniard to eventually claim a podium.
Considering this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix marked Aston Martin’s 50th race start in F1, one has to wonder what it plans for the next 50 race starts. You might want to keep a keen eye on this team.
Other Highlights
This race also revealed that the pecking order of the rest of the field is largely unknown. This was evident today in the sheer volume of battles that took place for all sorts of positions and points.
There were a few drivers who drove a silent yet sensational race today. Pierre Gasly, after starting P20 on the grid, fought his way back up to P9 to salvage some points for Alpine, showing encouraging signs in his first race away from the Red Bull driver program.
Valtteri Bottas did a great job to put his Alfa Romeo Sauber into the points, perhaps surprising the midfield after a mediocre few days of testing.
Williams driver Alexander Albon also put in a great performance today to nab P10 from Tsunoda, who were separated by just over a second at the chequered flag. This is encouraging for Williams as the British team aims to score points on a regular basis in 2023.
A special round of applause is in order for Lance Stroll who, just 12 days after surgery, was able to pull off a P6 finish, holding George Russell in the competitive Mercedes.
The biggest losers from this race were both McLaren drivers and Esteban Ocon. McLaren had a nightmare start to the season with Piastri suffering an electronics issue which forced him to retire by only Lap 15 of the race. Not the start the Aussie wanted for his Formula One career. McLaren’s night in hell wasn’t going to end there. Norris had an issue with the pneumatic air system, which is in charge of providing compression for the engine’s combustion, and needed to be topped up every few laps.
This issue relegated Norris to last place and resulted in him pitting six times over the course of the race including tyre changes and the topping up of his pneumatic air system. Surely it can’t get much worse at McLaren?
Esteban Ocon might’ve been the unluckiest driver in today’s race. He initially received a five-second time penalty for positioning his car on the start grid incorrectly and when serving that penalty in a pitstop, earned himself another ten-second time penalty for failing to adhere to the first penalty.
Although, this was the mechanic’s fault, not Ocon’s, he still had to serve that time penalty. To add further injury, he was slapped with another five-second time penalty this time for speeding in the pitlane. Taking his teammate’s stunning drive to P9, Ocon’s retirement from the race was the final straw.
Key Takeaways
Alonso’s pace was on par with what many predicted following pre-season testing. He could be a nuisance to the top drivers and might challenge for more podiums and even a win given the right circumstances.
Ferrari still needs to work on closing that gap to Red Bull and will most likely bring a few upgrade packages to help them. That being said, Ferrari looks comfortably clear of Mercedes, who will want to keep an eye on the Aston Martins too.
The main thing we learned today was that Red Bull is going nowhere anytime soon whether you like it or not. Verstappen and Red Bull are clearly the favorites for the championship but with 23 races still to complete, it’s looking to be a crazy marathon.
Who knows what’s in store for us next race weekend in Saudi Arabia?
All we know is that we’ll cover it all here on Race Reaction.
