We finally got our first race of the year which after testing felt like an eternity away. Most of the test analysis proved to be true.
The Red Bulls did what was expected of them, and dominated the race, even a clever strategy call by Ferrari only gave them the edge for a few laps before tire deg reared its ugly head. To compound their Italian teams’ misery, they had an element change for Leclerc’s engine, which proved to be mute, and the engine gave all together making him forfeit his secured 3rd position. Ferrari seemed to have the pace for qualifying, but their race pace is poor to say the least.
Return of the King
Aston Martin lived up to the hype of being this year’s dark horse. Alonso managed to secure a podium finish purely on merit. This is a massive step forward for the Green Machine. Stroll also put in a superb result, more so given the fact he was racing in pain due to his cycling injury.
The question some may ask is, would Alonso have finished third had Leclerc not retired? Probably not, but like the old F1 proverb goes, “TO FINISH FIRST< FIRST YOU HAVE TO FINISH”
And they most certainly did finish. Fernando gave us a Bahrain 2023 to remember with some great overtakes, the most noteworthy being the incredible move on Hamilton.
Sliver Arrowories
The 8-time constructor champions found themselves to have slipped down the grid even further than last year. Toto has finally admitted that sticking with the zero sidepod philosophy may not have been the best decision for the team. This now means they either hope and pray the updates they bring add some performance or they need to switch now to their alternate design provided they do have a plan B design.
What probably hurts the most is that they have been beaten by their own customer team. This translates to Aston Martin can make the Mercedes PU (Power Unit) work better than the manufacture. That is a huge slap in the face to Toto.
Honestly, it’s not as simple as that, aero and chassis design has a lot to do with performance and is exactly where the AMG team seem to be falling short.
The Rest of the Field
Ocon got lost of camera time, for all the wrong reasons. While some where trying to pick up points he was picking up penalties, even getting more for having his car worked on while serving a penalty and speeding in the pit lane while entering to serve a time penalty. This is race he will want to forget. Haas had the potential but lost out via a racing incident which caused damaged and compromised the race.
Fittingly last is McLaren, who had a dismal race. Norris served multiple pit stops just to keep his car going by means of topping up oil for a hydraulic issue. Oscar retired early, probably to re-evaluate his decision-making capabilities after seeing the performance of his papaya tractor. All in all, the second most successful team has a mountain to climb this season.
