do all the ideas from the computer work?

Just under a hundred days after Max Verstappen won the last race of 2022 in Abu Dhabi, the Formula 1 world is on the eve of the 2023 season.

In a week and a half, on Sunday 5 March, the lights will go out in Bahrain for the first grand prix, but from Thursday the drivers can be found at the Sakhir circuit for three days. During the test days, the teams have the opportunity to get to know the new car.

Coming Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the drivers can test their car, in a morning and an afternoon session of four hours and fifteen minutes each. The test day starts at 8 a.m. (Dutch time) and ends at 5:30 p.m. – with an hour’s lunch break in between.

Verstappen will take to the track both in the morning and in the afternoon on Thursday, on Friday he will only be in action in the RB19 in the afternoon. Friday morning is for his teammate Sergio Pérez, just like Saturday.

Nyck de Vries makes his first meters on Thursday afternoon after teammate Yuki Tsunoda took care of the morning session. De Vries will also board the AlphaTauri AT04 on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

As every year, speed is subordinate to reliability during the test days. Whoever has recorded the best lap time at the end of the day will undoubtedly be happy with that, but it is not the most important thing that the teams are looking for.

After a winter-long test run on dry land, in the factory and in the wind tunnel, the first serious kilometers are made on the asphalt during those test days. The more laps a driver completes, the more data that generates for the teams to analyse.

A crash or technical setback means a loss of valuable time and information.

The regulations in Formula 1 have not been overhauled. Next season’s cars are further developed versions of the cars of 2022. But whether all the ideas that looked good on the computer also work in practice remains to be seen in the coming days.

See what the ten Formula 1 cars look like this season in the carousel below: