2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Weekend Recap

March 10, 2023

The first race of the F1 season is done! It was a crazy weekend with some shock finishes, disappointing but predictable outcomes, and many debuts. Here is your 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix weekend recap:

Practice: March 3-4, 2023

It is important to note that FP1 and FP3 were not representative of Race or Quali conditions, as both sessions were held in the scorching hot sun. Since it was during the evening, FP2 was probably the most accurate display of where the teams will be during the race. Nonetheless, the first practice sessions of the season gave us some good insight as to where each team stood. It seems like Aston Martin and Red Bull are going to be head to head for P1. Fernando Alonso, Max Verstappen, and Sergio Perez were all consistently at the top of the time charts throughout practice. Alonso’s teammate Lance Stroll was able to return to his Aston Martin after a biking accident in February, and kept a steady P6. The Ferraris and Mercedes will probably be behind Aston and Red Bull, leading the midfield. These four teams were really the only ones who gave us results worth thinking about. All of the other teams were swapping positions left and right, showing us just how close this season’s midfield fight is going to be. 

Qualifying: March 4, 2023

Q1:

• Charles Leclerc went out early and had a major lock-up into Turn 1, Red Flagging the session when his front-right wheel brow flew off. 

• After the short-lived Red Flag, the Red Bulls went out for what I like to call, the “One Lap Wonder”. This is when drivers only go out for one monster of a Quali lap in Q1 and Q2, allowing them to save their tires for Q3.

• Eliminated: Sargeant (P16), Magnussen (P17), Piastri (P18), De Vries (P19), Gasly (P20)

• Logan Sargeant tied Lando Norris’ P15 lap time, but couldn’t make it into Q2 because his time was set after Lando’s. It was a sad end to the Williams driver’s first F1 qualifying session.

• Pierre Gasly, on his Alpine debut, had his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits. He will start in dead last for the race.

Q2:

• Nico Hulkenberg made it into Q3 on his F1 comeback! While I don’t like him because he replaced Mick Schumacher, it’s still exciting for the guy to get a good result. This was also interesting because his teammate Kevin Magnussen was only able to get P17. If Haas ever has to choose between their drivers, moments like this will definitely be taken into consideration.

• Eliminated: Norris (P11), Bottas (P12), Zhou (P13), Tsunoda (P14), Albon (P15)

• Lando Norris just barely missed Q3. I am sad.

• Alex Albon went off track and had to scrap his lap, setting no time for Q2 and getting P15.

Q3:

• Charles Leclerc nearly gave me a heart attack when he drove one lap to P2 and retired his car. Naturally, everyone thought Ferrari had designed yet another unreliable car. It turns out they were just being strategic! Hooray! They decided to take a page out of Red Bull’s book, using the “One Lap Wonder” to save a pair of soft tires for race day. Hopefully, Ferrari can continue using their brains and I can continue to love Fred Vasseur for not killing my heart.  

• Verstappen secured pole position with his second flying lap while his teammate pushed Leclerc out of P2. The race’s starting grid will be a Red Bull front row lockout followed by both Ferraris. 

• I expected Alonso to do better, but he only got P5. Still, this result is great because of how far Aston Martin has come over the winter. Last season they were struggling to make it out of Q1, so being disappointed in a P5 means they are doing something right. 

• Mercedes were P6 and P7, something I never thought I would see. Mercedes' days of dominance are over for now.

Race: March 5, 2023

Everyone, except for KMag (who started on hards), started the race on soft-compound tires. Verstappen and Leclerc got away quickly, with Leclerc almost instantly taking P2 from Perez. Aston Martin had a messy start when Stroll accidentally hit the rear of Alonso, allowing both Mercedes to go through. Williams also had a good start as both of their drivers picked up three places each during the opening laps.

On board footage of Stroll hitting Alonso

On Lap 10, Pierre Gasly became the first to pit when he stopped for hard tires. Ferrari then followed and successfully double stacked Sainz and Leclerc! I was very proud. Red Bull, WIlliams, and McLaren were the only teams who pitted for softs during the first round, all other teams opted for hard-compounds. 

McLaren successfully carried out their first round of pit-stops and then everything went downhill. On Lap 13, Oscar Piastri’s F1 debut came to an unfortunate end when he was forced to retire due to electrical issues. Meanwhile, Lando Norris had a pneumatic pressure leak. The team decided to keep him going to collect data and possibly make a miracle recovery, but that meant he needed to come in every ten laps to refill. Norris ended up last in the race after pitting six times.

Lap 29 started the second round of pit-stops that were mostly for hard-compound tires. Verstappen maintained his lead and was followed by his teammate Sergio Perez, who had caught up to Leclerc a few laps earlier. 

Fernando Alonso was on a charge during this race. By Lap 37, the Spaniard was wheel-to-wheel with Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes when a snap of oversteer set him back behind the Briton again. But then, in true Fernando Alonso style, he came out of nowhere and made a shock move to the inside of Turn 10 to overtake Hamilton. Alonso was driving “like a lion”. 

Alonso (right) going down the inside to overtake Hamilton (left)

Ferrari then decided to burst my bubble of excitement when Leclerc stopped on Lap 41 with no power. We heard the all too familiar, “No no no!” and had our hearts broken once again. A virtual safety car was brought out for about two laps as they cleared Leclerc’s car and everyone but Nyck de Vries pitted. Leclerc’s DNF promoted Sainz to P3, but Alonso was still driving “like a lion” and on Lap 45, he got DRS and overtook his compatriot. The Ferrari didn’t really put up a fight because he had older tires and was worried about his car’s reliability. I guess Ferrari randomly DNFing is going to continue to be a normal occurrence this season.

Shortly after Leclerc’s DNF, Alpine decided to retire Esteban Ocon. The poor Frenchman had a horrendous, penalty-ridden race and it just wasn’t worth driving anymore. He got five-seconds for a starting procedure infringement when he lined up in his grid slot incorrectly, then an additional ten-seconds for serving that penalty wrong, and another five seconds for speeding in the pit lane during his second penalty. In the end, Ocon’s engine was starting to overheat because of the long pitstops and the team decided retiring would be better than continuing at the back of the pack. It’s funny because while Ocon was having the worst race of his life, his teammate Pierre Gasly may-as-well have been in his best. Gasly made up eleven places when he went from P20, last on the grid, to P9 during his Alpine debut! I guess wearing my Pierre Gasly shirt during the race must have been good luck. 

The race ended with a Red Bull 1-2 and Verstappen 11.987 seconds in the lead. Alonso stayed ahead of Sainz after that overtake on Lap 45 and grabbed a podium for Aston Martin in his first race with the team. Aston Martin really wasn’t lying when they said they would be on top this season. Sainz came in P4 as the only Ferrari still on track. Then, came the Mercedes duo split by Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin in P6. It was also a good day for Alfa Romeo as Valtteri Bottas took home three points with a P8 finish and Zhou Guanyu got a point for fastest lap. Pierre Gasly’s crazy drive secured him two points for Alpine and Alex Albon grabbed the final point for Williams. 

The 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Podium

Honorable Mentions:

• Nico Hulkenberg was stuck in P15 after a penalty for exceeding track limits. This is what he gets for replacing Mick Schumacher. The fact that Mick has had many penalties for tracklimits doesn’t matter. It’s still karma and I’m still mad at Hulkenberg. 

• Ahead of the race on Sunday, Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari needed a new energy store and control electronics. Ferrari only gets two such parts for the season and exceeding this limit will bring about grid penalties. Something must be seriously wrong with the Ferrari if they already used a set of those parts before the first race even began.

• Lance Stroll missed February’s pre-season testing after getting injured in a cycling accident, and it was unknown if he’d be able to race in Bahrain. He had multiple fractures in both wrists, a partial fracture in his left hand, and a broken toe. Twelve days before the race, Stroll had surgery on his right wrist and somehow managed to recover enough to race in Bahrain. He isn’t 100% healed, but to miss pre-season testing, recover from major injuries and surgery in twelve days, and still get P6 with fractured wrists and a broken toe is an impressive feat. Kudos to Lance Stroll. 

This weekend was a great start to the season. We saw how close the field is, how dominant Red Bull is, the speed of Aston Martin, and the unreliability of Ferrari and McLaren! As a fan of the orange and red cars (the team names don’t deserve to be uttered), my heart has been ripped out, thrown on the ground, and stomped on. Both teams better get their act together. Mercedes also needs some major improvements because they were only able to get as far as P5 this weekend. There is a lot of work to be done for every team, so I am excited to see how the cars evolve throughout the season.

That’s all for now! I’ll be back next week for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

- Divya

Where I got these

from:

• https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1141/bahrain/practice-1.html

• https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.fp1-perez-leads-alonso-in-first-practice-session-of-the-2023-f1-season.5NmIPQsiGamM1PEyzgmjKy.html

• https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1141/bahrain/practice-2.html

• https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.fp2-alonso-leads-verstappen-during-second-practice-in-bahrain-as-track.7kPlXQVCBGOMQKwkbChJjq.html

• https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1141/bahrain/practice-3.html

• https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.fp3-alonso-narrowly-leads-verstappen-and-perez-in-final-bahrain-practice.3g2PIfWuuxWBNSeKvLxS2c.html

• https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1141/bahrain/qualifying.html

• https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.verstappen-beats-perez-to-pole-for-2023-opener-in-bahrain-gp-qualifying.7uUD1G7MdhjrS7FTxz2P2.html

• https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1141/bahrain/race-result.html

• https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.verstappen-leads-1-2-in-bahrain-season-opener-as-leclerc-retires-and-alonso.40788dU0VkiLz0gxRPo7n1.html 

• https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-explain-lando-norris-six-stops-bahrain/ 

• https://www.planetf1.com/news/lance-stroll-cycling-crash-recovery/ 

Pictures:

• https://media.formula1.com/image/upload/content/dam/fom-website/sutton/2023/Bahrain/Sunday/1471440320.jpg 

• https://preview.redd.it/2023-bahrain-grand-prix-qualifying-results-v0-2e2st5rrzqla1.jpg?auto=webp&s=12c8c0f213bc717976d052ef4e9e9ac8b12db280 

• https://static.daktilo.com/sites/1224/uploads/2023/03/07/stroll-toca-alonso-bahrein-69.jpg 

• https://news.italy24.press/temp/resized/medium_2023-03-09-76d893634c.jpg 

• https://f1chronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1019514044-lat-20230305-gp2301-165448177a4622-1280x720.jpg