Tthree days of testing to acclimatise: at the dawn of a record 23-race season, Formula 1 returns to the track for pre-season testing from Thursday to Saturday in Bahrain, the scene of the first Grand Prix of the year March 5.
As in 2021, the testing period before the first race has been shortened to three days – down from a total of six days in 2022 and even longer before. The teams only have one car for two drivers, so each will only have one day and a half of testing to assess the technical changes made. And in particular the top speed because several Grands Prix will have an additional DRS zone favoring overtaking. This is the case of Australia where a top speed of 340 km/h is expected!
If all the drivers have already been able to test their 2023 car in recent days during a “shakedown”, a run limited to 100 km, the stakes will however be high for the new ones, the “rookies” – Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri), Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Logan Sargeant (Williams) – who are competing in their first full season in the top class of motorsport.
Gasly as a false beginner
For others, like the double world champion Fernando Alonso, it is within a new stable that it is necessary to take its marks.
“I am aware that I will not be 100% in Bahrain or Jeddah (the second round of the season), and perhaps not in Australia”, third stage of the season, recognized “Nando”. And to explain: “I think F1 is the only sport in the world where you only do a day and a half of testing before competing in a world championship. »
After two contested seasons at the wheel of an Alpine, the 41-year-old Spaniard joined Aston Martin, replacing four-time German world champion Sebastian Vettel. He is now teaming up with Lance Stroll (24), who, victim of a bicycle accident, will miss these three days of testing. The Canadian will make way for Brazilian Felipe Drugovich, one of the team’s reserve drivers.
Like Alonso, Pierre Gasly is also embarking on a new adventure, with Alpine, where he will form a 100% French duo with his former karting opponent, Esteban Ocon.
“It’s a big change, there is a lot of work done this winter,” said the 27-year-old former AlphaTauri pilot, who assures “trying to do what is necessary to reduce [s]on temps d’adaptation ».
German Nico Hulkenberg returns to F1 with Haas, four years after his last full season with Renault.
Warm-up towers
At the stables, Ferrari, led by its new boss, the Frenchman Frédéric Vasseur, intends to begin its return to the top of the hierarchy. The Scuderia had the initial potential to fight for the title in 2022, with great battles between its driver Charles Leclerc and the Red Bull of world champion Max Verstappen at the start of the season, but it did not keep up the pace due to difficulties. racing strategy errors and engine reliability issues.
Unlike last year which saw new technical regulations arrive, this season “the concept of the car is the same, the regulations are the same […], only Bahrain will tell us where we are in terms of reliability and performance,” assured Vasseur. With only a few days between practice and the GP, “it will be difficult to react in the event of a problem” with the car.
These tests will be of paramount importance for Mercedes, 3e in the championship last year behind Red Bull and Ferrari, which tried somehow to get rid of concerns related to the aerodynamics of its single-seater. If its British pilots Lewis Hamilton, in search of an 8e record title, and George Russell made their first laps with the new W14 last week at Silverstone (England), difficult for the moment to know if the German manufacturer has got rid of the problems which hampered its performance in 2022 .
“We know that pre-season testing in Bahrain will be the first real tests of the car,” assured Russell.
F1 also wants to see other title contenders. Starting with Alpine, 4e in the constructors’ championship last year, which hopes to be close to the first three places among the constructors.
