The start of the 2023 F1 season is here, and this year is already proving to be an exciting one! The first race in Bahrain seems to indicate that thus far, the cars are quite closely matched in laptimes, as visible on Saturday in Q1, when the first and last driver qualified only 0.886 seconds apart.
But for now, let us take a closer look at the performance of the drivers and teams and hand out some report cards. From impressive podium finishes to disappointing struggles, there’s a lot to cover in this report. Let’s dive in!
Top of the class:
Fernando Alonso – Qualifying: 5th | Race: 3rd
Throughout testing, whispers of Aston Martin having built a solid race car were floating around the paddock, but as the big guns often do a bit of sandbagging during testing, nobody was expecting for Aston Martin, or Alonso at least, to be THIS quick.
Qualifying already looked strong, with the Spaniard qualifying 5th. On Sunday, there was a minor incident with his teammate Lance Stroll just after the start of the race (if Stroll had braked a millisecond later, it would have made for a very bad weekend for Aston Martin but a very exciting episode of Drive to Survive next year), but Fernando Alonso managed to regain his rhythm quite quickly and started picking up pace soon after. The Spaniard battled fiercely against both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz, ultimately emerging victorious against both. The battle with Hamilton is worth being highlighted, as this one was a real diamond, leaving fans to hope for more of these battles to follow in the near future.
Alonso’s podium finish, whilst aided by Charles Leclerc’s DNF, was well-deserved and marked an impressive (and long-awaited) return to the front of the grid. He was also voted as the driver of the day, quite convincingly, as he received 53% of the votes. I have to agree, which is why the Spaniard also earns himself top marks for this report card.
Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen – Qualifying: 1st | Race: 1st
Sergio Perez – Qualifying: 2nd | Race: 2nd
While Red Bull Racing didn’t seem to be on the ball during practice, Max Verstappen showed his dominance throughout the rest of the weekend. After nabbing pole on Saturday, he got away cleanly on Sunday, immediately pulling a significant gap to the rest of the pack, which he maintained until the end of the race. It was an excellent start to the season, something which most definitely must have been a breath of fresh air in comparison to his start of the season last year.
The Mexican didn’t look as strong as his Dutch teammate, but he did what needed to be done and qualified second. During the race, Sergio Perez briefly lost his second place to Charles Leclerc but was able to regain it later on. All in all, a solid start to the season for the charging bulls, now we just need to wait and see if they can keep up this charge for the races to come.
Pierre Gasly – Qualifying: 20th | Race: 9th
The Frenchman had a challenging start to the weekend as he qualified last on the grid on Saturday. Not to worry, though, as he made an incredible comeback on Sunday. After being the first to make a pit stop, he executed a remarkable second stint, steadily climbing in the rankings. Gasly overtook Alex Albon at turn 1 after the virtual safety car to secure himself 2 points, but unfortunately, he was unable to catch Valtteri Bottas, meaning he ended up finishing in a solid 9th position.
Then for honourable mentions…
First up for the honourable mentions is Lance Stroll. He had to miss testing due to a cycling accident where he broke a toe and both his wrists. So, the Canadian found himself back in the car this weekend after having had surgery to mend his wrists with pins. You’d expect for him to have a clear disadvantage, and whilst Stroll did seem in pain, he pulled a superb performance out of the bag. He finished the race in 6th after starting 8th and earned himself some valuable points. His performance is encouraging for Aston Martin, because when Lance’s wrists are fully healed, they could have two drivers capable of challenging Ferrari and Mercedes.
Another driver to earn himself an honourable mention is Alex Albon. The Williams team has made incredible gains in car development over the winter, and whilst qualifying wasn’t quite it, the FW45 looked better than expected during the race. It has to be said that Albon lost out to Gasly on the virtual safety car restart, but he held off Yuki Tsunoda for the rest of the grand prix. Overall, it was a solid performance for the supposedly slowest car from testing.
Struggle Bus:
McLaren
Oscar Piastri – Qualifying: 18th | Race: DNF
Lando Norris – Qualifying: 11th | Race: 17th
McLaren really put the ‘struggle’ in Struggle Bus this weekend. Whilst Williams might be faring better than expected, McLaren had quite a disappointing first outing in 2023. Both drivers struggled to make an impact and were less than impressed by the MCL60.
Rookie driver Oscar Piastri had to retire from the race due to an underlying electrical problem. Lando Norris, on the other hand, did manage to make it to the finish line, but not without difficulties. The team had to ask the Brit to make six pit stops so they could top up the pneumatic oil continuously, indicating that reliability issues are taking root. Whilst their speed looks competitive, they’ll have to work on their reliability issues to make any of it stick. Otherwise, they’ll be finding themselves back in the Struggle Bus section of the Report Cards for the rest of the season.
Ferrari
Charles Leclerc – Qualifying: 3rd | Race: DNF
Carlos Sainz – Qualifying: 4th | Race: 4th
Charles Leclerc had a bit of a nightmare weekend, or perhaps ‘a bit’ is understating the utterly disappointing start of the season where they are planning and hoping on becoming World Champions. Then again, Red Bull Racing found themselves with a double DNF here last year, and they won the Championship, so perhaps it’s just tradition? The Tifosi can only hope.
On race day, a precautionary energy store change meant the Monegasque was on his second of two components for this season, and any more replacements will lead to grid penalties. While he managed to overtake Perez for P2 on Sunday, he couldn’t maintain the position as the Red Bull simply looked to be the quicker car, meaning the Monegasque dropped back to P3. A power issue then forced him to retire, leaving him understandably disappointed.
Carlos Sainz fared better, but let’s not pretend he was setting the track on fire. Carlos was unable to make it to the podium despite Leclerc’s retirement. Alonso overtook his fellow Spaniard quite easily, and Sainz admitted to being concerned about Ferrari’s gap to Red Bull and Aston Martin pace-wise in post-race interviews.
Esteban Ocon – Qualifying: 9th | Race: DNF
Esteban Ocon’s race at the Bahrain Grand Prix was nothing short of a comedy of errors. Not only did he overshoot the grid-box at the start, but he also received a 5-second penalty for it, which Alpine didn’t serve correctly. This resulted in a 10-second penalty and added more pressure to an already difficult race.
Things went from bad to worse when Ocon was caught speeding in the pit lane while serving his second penalty, resulting in another 5-second penalty. The continuous stream of penalties made it almost impossible for Ocon to have any chance of a decent finish, but the worst of it is, that in the end he didn’t finish at all.
Then for dishonourable mentions…
The first dishonourable mention goes to Nyck De Vries. The Dutchie finished the race in 14th after qualifying in 19th place, which is commendable given the circumstances. Still, it has to be said that three of these places were gained due to other drivers DNFing. On the other hand, what also has to be said is that the team left him out like a sitting duck during the Virtual Safety Car period, which didn’t help his cause. All in all, perhaps not the start with Alpha Tauri which Nyck was hoping for, but he deserves time to adapt to the car, and it’s too early to make a final judgment on his results.
The second dishonourable mention goes to Nico Hulkenberg. He had a positive start to his first race weekend with Haas, making it to Q3 while his teammate Kevin Magnussen was out in Q1. The Sunday didn’t pan out the way the German hoped, as contact on the opening lap damaged his front wing, leaving him to struggle during his first stint and eventually dropping out of points contention. The rest of his race was rather anonymous and picked up a penalty for track limits which isn’t an ideal end to his
It’s worth mentioning that Hulkenberg has been out of the car for a while, so outperforming his teammate in qualifying by a significant margin is impressive. He will have the opportunity to develop over the next few races while Haas works on getting their race pace up to par.
And that concludes this set of report cards! We’ll have one week off before the F1 circus returns, so be sure to mark your calendars for the next race on Sunday the 19th of March at 5pm British Standard Time, taking place at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, the fastest street circuit at which F1 has ever raced.
