Exactly 103 days ago since things went quiet for the end of last season, the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix weekend got underway, Round 1 of a mammoth 23-race Formula 1 World Championship; this is what teams and drivers had to say at the end of an intriguing and somewhat surprising Friday.
Fernando Alonso ripped up the F1 form book by ending the day fastest of all, the Aston Martin a meaning looking weapon in his hands and, to be hinest, Lance Stroll jumping in it and being fast out of the box, means the AM23 could be Lawrence Stroll's ticket to the top step of the podium.
It is fair to say that FP1 was relatively meaningless, and more like a one-hour extension of testing from a week ago at the venue, but FP2 provided a more representative peep pecking order which will remain a guess until everyone unleashes everything in qualifying on Saturday, Q3 will be the most telling.
Here are F1 team and driver summaries of today's action at Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, in the order they popped into our email box:
Alpine: We’re reasonably happy
BWT Alpine F1 Team started the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix weekend with a productive day’s Friday Practice at the Bahrain International Circuit, filled with further learning and data collection of its A523.
The team ran in its special BWT-inspired pink livery today for the first time of the season, which will feature on the car for the remainder of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, as well as in Saudi Arabia and Australia.
After completing 354 laps across last week’s three-day pre-season test, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly focused on building up their speed in the car today across a busy practice programme.
Pierre ended the day seventh on the timesheets after setting a 1min 31.475secs in Free Practice 2 with Esteban eleventh in the second session with a lap time of 1min 31.608secs.
Tomorrow’s Free Practice 3 begins at 14:30 local time, before Qualifying at 18:00.
Esteban Ocon: “After a busy pre-season test, I’m pleased with how the first Friday practice of the season went, and it feels great to be back on track in the environment of a race weekend. We saw today that the car has gained performance since the test and we have a clearer picture of where there are improvements to be made.
"Things are going in the right direction and we’ll be discussing at length tonight how we can get ready to have a good first qualifying of the season. There’s more to come from us and I’m feeling ready.”
Pierre Gasly: “It feels great to be back in competitive action and feeling the demands of a Friday Practice day. In testing, there’s obviously a bit more time to learn about the car and make changes, but today was a reminder of how fast paced everything is and how concise and accurate you have to be during the sessions. I’m satisfied with how we’ve worked today.
"We ran through a busy programme, and we’ve built up a good picture on car set-up in the conditions we expect to see for the rest of the weekend. I’d say Free Practice 2 was much more comfortable. The car felt good and there’s more to come from us this weekend. I’m excited for Qualifying tomorrow.”
Pat Fry, Chief Technical Officer: “We’re reasonably happy with our first Friday Practice of the season. Our main objective was to continue learning about our car in representative conditions for what we’re likely to see for the remainder of the weekend.
"We’ve spent a lot of time working through our learnings from last week and identifying a good direction to follow on car set-up, which will serve us well for tomorrow and Sunday. Free Practice 1 was challenging in the hot conditions.
"I’m pleased with the improvements we made for Free Practice 2 where track and ambient temperatures were significantly cooler. Still, there’s more hard work ahead of us and there’s definitely more to come. Our upgrades worked in line with our expectations, so credit to the entire team for their tireless work over the past couple of weeks in preparation for the first race.”
Red Bull: There's still work to do
Max Verstappen: “It was a difficult start to the day. In FP1 we couldn’t get the balance right, which was a bit odd as we didn’t experience this in testing. In FP2, the short run laps weren’t too bad and the car felt a bit more connected and with the long runs, the pace was good.
"Overall the car isn’t too bad in the long runs. Form FP1 to FP2 we went in the right direction, I just need to find my rhythm again. The Aston Martins are looking competitive, you could see that already from testing. There’s still a bit more work to do, we know we have a competitive car, it’s just about putting it all the pieces together.”
Sergio Perez: "We explored the car a bit today and generally we have a good idea on how to set-up for tomorrow. It was quite tricky out there, the temperature from morning to afternoon changes quite a lot so the only representative session was this evening.
"We have some work to do over one lap and that should automatically put us in better shape for the long run. We explored the car a bit today and generally we have a good idea on how to set-up for tomorrow.
"I think everything is close at the top, certainly Aston Martin and Ferrari look strong, and I think it is going to go down to who puts the best lap together in qualifying and who has the better race pace on Sunday.”
McLaren: It’s been a productive first day
Lando Norris: “I think it’s been a reasonable Friday. We put the car in a reasonable place, and I got a bit more comfortable with it both in low-fuel and high-fuel running. We have a lot of lap time to find to be competitive and to fight with the guys we want to fight against, but we’ll keep working hard overnight and look ahead to tomorrow.”
Oscar Piastri: “My first official Friday done. I feel like I'm making progress, which is good. There are some improvements to find but I feel like I’m getting there. I’m still making a few mistakes here and there, so I’m not 100% happy with my driving but I feel like we’re in a reasonable place. We’ll see where we are properly tomorrow but so far, it’s been good. I’ve enjoyed my first official Friday as an F1 driver.”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: “It’s been a productive first day of the 2023 season. The cars ran without issue, and we worked through our planned programme, which today meant fine-tuning set-up and developing our understanding of the tyres, for which the evening session under lights was especially valuable. There’s a lot of data to study overnight in preparation for qualifying and Sunday’s race, in which we hope we can score some points.”
Ferrari: A trickier Friday than we initially expected
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz got through all the planned programme in Friday free practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the first race of the 2023 World Championship. Between them, the two drivers racked up 92 laps in their SF-23s, preparing for tomorrow’s qualifying and Sunday’s race, both of which get underway at 18 (16 CET).
FP1. In the first session, both drivers only used Medium tyres, starting off each trying a different specification of rear wing for comparison purposes. After the first run, Charles’ car was switched to the same wing as Carlos, who took on a new set of Mediums.
But he had a spin and therefore had to come in to change tyres once again. At this point, Charles set his best time of 1’34”257, while Carlos had to settle for the 1’36”072 he secured on his first set of tyres, because from then on, both drivers ran with a heavier fuel load. 17 laps for Leclerc, 21 for Sainz.
FP2. In this session, both drivers started on the Soft tyre to make the most of running in the same track conditions they should experience tomorrow in qualifying. Charles stopped the clocks in 1’31”367 and Carlos did a 1’31”956, despite a slight slip-up.
They then spent the rest of the session in race configuration. Leclerc did 26 laps and Sainz 28. Prior to tomorrow’s qualifying, there is one more free practice session at 14.30 (12.30 CET).
Charles Leclerc: "Our first day of free practice went OK. We completed a lot of laps and I feel more and more comfortable in the car, which is positive. It is still difficult to tell where we stand as everyone seems to have been running very different plans, but we are focusing on ourselves and will keep pushing in the right direction."
Carlos Sainz: "A trickier Friday than we initially expected. The balance was different and we were changing the car through the sessions to try and correct its main limitations. It’s only Friday and I’m confident we can analyse everything overnight and take a step forward tomorrow."
AlphaTauri: We seem to have taken a step back compared to the test
Yuki Tsunoda: "Today was not the easiest day. The performance itself doesn’t look good compared to our competitors so far. Obviously, we don’t know what programmes they ran, but on our side, there are limitations that we have identified. There is still one more practice session tomorrow and I'm feeling optimistic.
"We've definitely made a step forward compared to last year, so I'm confident we can continue moving in the right direction. It seems our long-run pace is better than our short-run one, which is maybe good for Bahrain, but there is performance missing. We’ll shift our focus now to qualifying, to improve as much as possible for tomorrow.”
Nyck de Vries: “It was the first time I participated in a FP2 session as a full-time Formula 1 driver. Overall, I am satisfied with the work and progress we made. The conditions from FP1 to FP2 were quite different, but we worked well together as a team.
"We found ourselves a little on the back foot, but I'm confident that if we stick together and continue improving on the areas we believe we need to find performance in, we can make a step forward. It’s hard to make big changes in one weekend, however, we are aware of our weaknesses compared to our competitors.
"This track may not suit the characteristics of our car, but it’s early days. After a couple of weekends, we'll be able to have a clearer picture.”
Jonathan Eddolls, Chief Race Engineer: “We came into the race weekend with the benefit of having gathered data from last week’s three-day test, so the engineers have been very busy analysing and pulling this together, finding a good set-up for this week.
"The first session of the day is significantly hotter than the second session, and this tends to exaggerate any balance issues, so during FP1, we faced ‘a bit of everything'. We made several changes for FP2 which helped, and so too did the lower track temperature.
"The drivers still didn't have the perfect balance, but it wasn't too far away from the target. That said, the lap times were not competitive, so we have a significant amount of work ahead of us to understand why we seem to have taken a step back compared to the test.”
Haas: The car is very reliable, which is a plus
The opening round of the record-breaking 23-race 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, starting with Sunday’s 57-lap Bahrain Grand Prix, kicked off on Friday with practice at the Bahrain International Circuit.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg ran identical plans in FP1 – both drivers utilizing two new sets of Pirelli’s P Zero Red soft tires during the 60-minute afternoon session.
Each driver commenced their track runs in the VF-23 with an installation lap followed by a baseline run on the softs. Magnussen clocked a 1:35.420 with Hulkenberg posting a 1:35.865. Bolting on their second set of tires, Magnussen improved his fastest lap time by the checkered to a 1:34.402 (P7), while Hulkenberg logged a best tour of 1:35.043 (P14).
With the floodlights powered on around the 5.412-kilometer (3.363-mile), 15-turn track, FP2 got underway at 18:00 local time – Magnussen and Hulkenberg starting the evening session on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium rubber.
A switch to new softs followed for their respective qualifying sims – Hulkenberg setting a fast lap of 1:31.376 placing the German P5 on the timesheet, Magnussen taking P16 – the Dane with a best lap of 1:32.110.
A lengthy set-up change on his VF-23 kept Magnussen in the garage before a final shortened high-fuel stint returning on the medium compound. Hulkenberg wrapped up with a high-fuel distance run utilizing both his sets of the medium and soft rubber.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team ran a total of 85 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 47 by Hulkenberg and 38 by Magnussen.
Kevin Magnussen: “FP1 was looking pretty good for us, we’ve been testing quite a bit today and we’ll put it together tomorrow. Some of the things the team have been working on between the test and now, we’ve tried them out and got a few answers. There’s a lot more to try – it was only two practice sessions – but I think we’re in a decent spot. I don’t want to jinx anything, but as usual, it will be very close, and it could be anything.”
Nico Hulkenberg: “One lap pace is fun but if this is where we are come Sunday, that’s where the gold is, that’s where it matters. That’s where we still have a lot of work to do and some homework – to find pace and work on degradation. It’s going to be difficult but it’s the same for everyone, we need to come up with the best compromise set-up for one lap and for the race. Overall, it’s been a good Friday with things to take away to build on and progress.”
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: “Everything we learned at the test, today we could use. For FP1 we went out and made some set-up changes while continuing to learn. In FP2, which is obviously closer to the conditions we’ll have in qualifying.
"Nico did a very good job and Kevin worked around some further set-up changes, and I think there is more to come from him tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a good day, but all-in-all we’re making good progress in learning about the car – the car is very reliable, which is a plus.”
Aston Martin: We have our feet on the ground
Fernando Alonso: “It felt good to drive the car today and it is nice to see both cars high up on the timing sheets especially after only three days of Testing. The team is working together well, and we are still learning a lot about the new car.
"I think it will not be clear who is on top until after this weekend and probably into the first couple of races at different tracks. For now, we are just concentrating on ourselves and trying to find the right balance with the car.
"There are a few things we need to evaluate overnight and we will prepare as best we can for the first qualifying session of the season tomorrow. We have our feet on the ground, and we are realistic with our expectations heading into tomorrow.”
Lance Stroll: “It was so great to be back in the car today and get my first proper laps of 2023 in. It has only been 13 days since my accident and at that point I was not sure I would be back in an F1 car so soon, so be here with the team is amazing.
"We lost a little bit of time in FP1 with an ignition issue, but once that was fixed we ran well and collected some important data to work through tonight. It is clear that the team have made some really good progress over the winter break; the car was feeling great to drive and I am excited to get back behind the wheel tomorrow.”
Williams: The drivers were much happier with the car
Alex Albon: FP2 was much better than FP1. We’ve still got a bit of work to do but we’re close. If you look at AlphaTauri and Haas cars, on race pace we are close to them, so that’s who we’re fighting and let’s see tomorrow if we can get those little bits together to get them.
"Because of the way deg is around here, race pace is a bit more important than qualifying pace. Ease of overtaking is quite high, so if you’re the quicker car you tend to get past. You’re setting up the car for Qualifying, but with one and a half eyes on the race!
"There’s a bit of an unknown to race one; reliability across the paddock is less than the final races of the year and some teams get on top of their packages earlier than others. Realistically, maybe we don’t have the quickest car on the grid, but we can do a better job than others and maybe finish out of sequence.
Logan Sargeant: It was nice to experience a full day. As expected, as the temperature came down, the car really came to us. I was quite surprised with how much grip we picked up this evening which is something I need to maximise a little bit better.
"FP3 tomorrow is during the day when the temperatures are high so today was our best read going into Qualifying tomorrow. We're going to dig deep into the analysis tonight and see what we can go for in Qualifying. In general, it was a good first full day in the office.
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: "As usual on Friday in Bahrain, the two opening Free Practice sessions were very different. The drivers were much happier with the car in the cooler conditions of FP2. We were able to run a full programme this evening and get a good sense of how the car will perform in both qualifying and race conditions.
"There are still some things to work on this evening and we will be able to make the car another step better for tomorrow. However, we’ll need to be careful not to get confused in the hotter conditions of FP3.
"Both drivers did a good job today, especially Logan who experienced for the first time the big swing in car performance in the evening session. This was valuable learning and will put him in a strong place to tackle tomorrow.
"There are invariably opportunities at the opening races of the season, and we will be looking to get ourselves into a position to race as many cars as possible on Sunday."
Alfa Romeo: A smooth and solid day
Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake completed the first Friday of competitive action in 2023 as the team took part in two practice sessions at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were behind the wheel of the C43 as the team worked to fine-tune the setup of its new challenger ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying session.
The first day of on-track activity in the championship also marked a special anniversary for the team: on Monday, the team will proudly celebrate the 60th birthday of Autodelta, Alfa Romeo’s racing department since 1963. The Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake C43 will sport a special commemorative logo, designed by Alfa Romeo’s Centro Stile, throughout the weekend – a touch of noble Italian sportiness placed at the base of the C43’s halo.
Valtteri Bottas: “We’ve had a solid day and I feel already confident with the car, especially with the setup we had in FP2. The car behaved as expected, so no surprises there, and now we can just focus on fine-tuning it ahead of qualifying tomorrow. We looked consistent also in our long runs, which was a good practice for the race.
"As expected, the midfield is extremely close and a small gain or loss can mean a big difference in position: finding a spot in the top ten won’t be easy but it’s a realistic target for us – with both cars. Making predictions is going to be really difficult, but it should make for an exciting day tomorrow.”
Zhou Guanyu: “Today has been smooth overall. We have been able to complete every task we had set for ourselves ahead of both sessions and the car felt good, it was comfortable straight away. As predicted, everyone is pretty close in the midfield: we must do some homework overnight, looking through the data gathered today, and try to make some gains as every little fraction of a second will matter. I feel we are in a decent spot, in terms of pace, so it’s really a matter of working out a few small details and making sure we are ready for the race.”
Mercedes: Work to do after the first Friday of the season in Bahrain
Both drivers ran two sets of Medium tyres in FP1. In the hotter conditions, Lewis finished P10 and George P11, conducting set-up evaluations. The Team's long-run performance later in the session was a little more encouraging, but still significantly behind pacesetters Red Bull.
Tonight's work will focus on set-up improvements to improve single-lap performance while maintaining the relatively stronger long-run pace.
Lewis Hamilton: "We've got a lot to work on. We knew we were behind some of our competitors at testing and today, we found out that we are a long way off. We'll keep our heads down tonight, go through the data, and continue to work to find some progress for tomorrow.
"We've got to find out if we can add performance overnight. I think I've got the car to the best place I can set-up wise. On long-run pace, we look similar to Ferrari but are behind Red Bull and Aston Martin. It's difficult for everyone and it's not where anyone in this team wants to be.
"Everyone continues to work so hard and is so courageous and thoughtful in the process. We need to continue to graft away and get ourselves back on the right track.
George Russell: We have a lot of data from today that we can look over tonight. We made some big changes from testing to today, so we need to evaluate whether they have worked as anticipated. We have set the car up in a slightly different window to last week; it feels better but that doesn't always mean that it's faster."
"It looks like our race pace is slightly stronger than our one-lap pace right now. We will continue to look at this as we need to find more lap time. It's difficult to say exactly where we are in the order, but we want to be higher up the timing sheets than we were today.
"It's only our fourth day with the W14, though, so we need to make sure we have it in the right window and are reaching its full potential."
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: "The first session in the hotter conditions was tricky; we ran the medium tyres and even in the test we were finding that compound difficult to get into a good balance window but today seemed little better.
"We made some changes going into the afternoon and the cooler conditions seemed to help in terms of the feel and balance, but the pace is still lacking; single lap seems more of an issue than the long run but neither are good enough, so we've clearly got some work to do. We've got some ideas to evaluate overnight so hopefully we can put together a package of changes that will help.
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