F1. Bahrain 2023 review

By Gavin Huet, Chelsea Wintle and Aiden McLaughlin

Driver of the day

Gavin – only one candidate, Fernando Alonso. Taking an Aston Martin onto the podium in his first race for them, and he did it by overtaking which according to the naysayers no longer happens in F1.

Chelsea – There’s no going past Fernando Alonso. What a delight it was to see the two oldest men on the grid duking it out for position. I started watching F1 in 2016, so have never known Alonso at his best – but this was a real snapshot of how great he can be. I’m a Ferrari fan, but wasn’t at all disappointed to see him usurp Carlos Sainz for that third spot on the podium.

Aiden – Fernando Alonso. His 99th podium, but only his second in his last 122 Grand Prix. It was a superb start to his Aston Martin career and you could see his sheer joy and excitement post race – you could have been forgiven for thinking the 41-year-old had achieved his first podium.

 

Moment of the weekend

Gavin – it has to be the Fernando overtake to get past Lewis, and it was not a one off as he then motored past Carlos Sainz. Sebastien Vettel must be thinking he retired a year too early. Whatever Aston Martin have done over the winter months has worked.

Chelsea – The dark comic in me couldn’t get enough of Esteban Ocon’s chain of penalties. First he gets five seconds for starting out of position, then he gets ten seconds for not serving the five seconds correctly, then he gets 15 seconds for speeding in the pit lane to serve his ten seconds. I like Esteban but you have to laugh at anyone having a run like that. A race to forget for him, for sure.

Aiden – See above. Away from that, Lance Stroll overtaking George Russell late on to secure 6th place. From a broken wrist a fortnight before, to a first lap collision with his Aston Martin teammate, he’s had his back against the wall, so to grind it out and score good points was an awesome effort.

 

Hot take of the weekend

Gavin – McLaren seem to have taken a step backwards and are making Ferrari look decent. Daniel Ricciardo was the real winner and he is not even a F1 driver any more. That kind of showing at the first race will be tough on those drivers, I hope this does not break Piastri who will not be used to the struggles of mid table teams.

Chelsea – I’m no fan of Lance Stroll, but to fight back from that cycling injury to overtake George Russell and take sixth position – fair play to him. The Aston Martins are clearly shining this season but I didn’t expect him to finish that well. My hot take is: maybe Lance Stroll is actually pretty good?

Aiden – Logan Sargeant to be the most successful rookie of 2023? Early days, but the Williams is looking good, especially vs the McLaren of Oscar Piastri and the AlphaTauri of Nyck de Vries.

 

Cold take of the weekend

Gavin – Ferrari have the same problem as last year in that they have qualifying pace but not race pace. Coupled with reliability issues, and they will probably end up with a penalty at some stage for changing engines too often, this will not be their year. Can they not just buy Aston Martin and spray the cars a lovely red?

Chelsea – Seeing Lando Norris pit for the fifth time gave me a bad feeling. Sure, it’s a long season and McLaren have indicated we could see weak performances in the first few races, but Lando doesn’t belong all the way back there. He’s currently locked in with the team through to 2026, but I wonder how long it will be before he starts to explore escape clauses.

Aiden – It’s a concern for F1 that Red Bull have started where they left off in 2022. The powers that be need more competition and fast, to avoid 2023 being a procession.

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