The 2023 F1 season is a upon us. As in 2022 we start in Bahrain with 57 laps of the imaginatively named Bahrain International Circuit. The circuit is 5.412 km long. Given the accuracy of the measurement I'm disappointed we don't have centimeters detailed.
Here are the timings for UK viewers:
You may recall at last year's race we had a Ferrari 1-2, with both Red Bull cars our before the end of lap 4 with fuel system problems. We might have an exciting championship, with multiple teams vying for wins, we thought. Then Ferrari did what Ferrari's does best and slowly dissolved into ignominy, meanwhile the Red Bull car got better and better and Max Verstappen went on to romp to the title winning 15 of the 22 races. Mercedes, the dominant team of the "hybrid era" got it all wrong with the new rules and took nearly the whole season to sort their car, managing only a solitary win for new boy George Russell in Brazil.
What has testing told us? The Race website ranks the teams performances as:
1st Red Bull
2nd Ferrari
3rd Aston Martin
4th Mercedes
5th Alpine
6th Alfa Romeo
7th Haas
8th Alpha Tauri
9th McLaren
10th Williams
the-race.com
Every season some suggests that testing tells us nothing, even though every season the team that is fastest in testing goes on to win lots of races. But what the heck, let's not let reality get in the way of our hopes that 2023 won't be another Max and Red Bull walk over. The performance of Aston Martin has raised a few positive eyebrows, whilst the performance of McLaren has raised them for the opposite reason. Even McLaren have been playing down their chances, saying there is a lot to do with the car.
As always, at the start of every new F1 season I have hopes of the excitement of 1982, but without the death and injury, knowing full well that that is almost impossible. All I can hope for is that Ferrari have got closer to Red Bull, and they make fewer catastrophic tactical mistakes. I hope that Mercedes have managed to sort out the performance problems they had with their car, and that another team, whether that is Aston Martin, Alpine, or Alfa Romeo, can actively challenge for podium places even if they can't manage race wins.
Time to strap yourselves in, either to cope with the excitement or to stop yourselves falling out of you chairs as you doze off watching yet another series of processions.
Here are the timings for UK viewers:
You may recall at last year's race we had a Ferrari 1-2, with both Red Bull cars our before the end of lap 4 with fuel system problems. We might have an exciting championship, with multiple teams vying for wins, we thought. Then Ferrari did what Ferrari's does best and slowly dissolved into ignominy, meanwhile the Red Bull car got better and better and Max Verstappen went on to romp to the title winning 15 of the 22 races. Mercedes, the dominant team of the "hybrid era" got it all wrong with the new rules and took nearly the whole season to sort their car, managing only a solitary win for new boy George Russell in Brazil.
What has testing told us? The Race website ranks the teams performances as:
1st Red Bull
2nd Ferrari
3rd Aston Martin
4th Mercedes
5th Alpine
6th Alfa Romeo
7th Haas
8th Alpha Tauri
9th McLaren
10th Williams
Ranking the 10 F1 teams after 2023 pre-season testing - The Race
With Formula 1's sole 2023 pre-season test complete, here's the pecking order according to our F1 writers.
the-race.com
Every season some suggests that testing tells us nothing, even though every season the team that is fastest in testing goes on to win lots of races. But what the heck, let's not let reality get in the way of our hopes that 2023 won't be another Max and Red Bull walk over. The performance of Aston Martin has raised a few positive eyebrows, whilst the performance of McLaren has raised them for the opposite reason. Even McLaren have been playing down their chances, saying there is a lot to do with the car.
As always, at the start of every new F1 season I have hopes of the excitement of 1982, but without the death and injury, knowing full well that that is almost impossible. All I can hope for is that Ferrari have got closer to Red Bull, and they make fewer catastrophic tactical mistakes. I hope that Mercedes have managed to sort out the performance problems they had with their car, and that another team, whether that is Aston Martin, Alpine, or Alfa Romeo, can actively challenge for podium places even if they can't manage race wins.
Time to strap yourselves in, either to cope with the excitement or to stop yourselves falling out of you chairs as you doze off watching yet another series of processions.
