Welcome Drivers!

Race weekend is upon us and its finally time for us to make our first predictions of the 2023 season. Some of these may seem pretty obvious but we don’t have much to go off of at the moment.

Last year’s Bahrain GP brought an action packed race with plenty of overtakes, a stellar duel between the top 2 drivers, and a surprise double DNF by the eventual champions. What do you think this year will bring?

In this post we give our predictions on the Bahrain GP. We will cover who will win, who will podium, who the driver of the day is, the most improved team and our dark horse prediction.

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Onto our predictions for the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix!

2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Predictions

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Winner Prediction: Max Verstappen

We are taking the obvious choice in Max Verstappen for the winner of this year’s Bahrain GP. He is coming off one of the best seasons in the history of F1 and Red Bull look to have put together another dominant car this season. The RB19 showed little to no weakness in the few days of testing last week and Red Bull was at the top of the time charts in nearly every session.

Last year Verstappen was in line for P2 but was unable to finish the race due to reliability issues. We don’t see that happening again this season. Red Bull worked out their reliability kinks and did not have a DNF in the back half of the season. They had a small oil leak blip that limited them somewhat the second day of testing but the car seems to be extremely reliable.

There is no reason to think that Verstappen won’t win the Bahrain GP. He is in the best form of his career, driving the best car of his career, with a team that will do whatever it takes to see him win races. Ferrari will have something to say and will likely keep it close but we think Red Bull is too big to fail at the moment.

The Top Steps

Podium Prediction: Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez

To round out the podium places we are going with Charles Leclerc in P2 and Sergio Perez in P3. If anyone is going to stop another dominant Verstappen season it is likely going to be Leclerc. Ferrari has the car to compete with Red Bull this season and will need to throw everything at them if they want to win it all. Barring no crashed or engine failures, we are expecting Charles and Max to be on every podium for the first few races of the season.

We think Perez will have a strong start to the year with a double podium finish for Red Bull. He had some difficulties adjusting to the car last season but reports have come out that Red Bull have produced a car that suits the strengths of both their drivers. His strength is being able to make tires last a lot longer than they should while still maintaining pace. This strength will suit him at a rear-limited track like Bahrain. That is why we have him slotting in at P3. We don’t think Perez is a better driver than Lewis Hamilton or Carlos Sainz, he is just working with much better machinery.

Speaking of Lewis Hamilton we are optimistic about the new and improved W14. We are predicting that he will be able to finish P4 to start the year. Despite being off the pace last year, he was still able to finish P3 due to Red Bull’s double DNF. We are expecting a much hungrier Lewis Hamilton and expect him to be fighting for both podiums and wins by the end of the year.

Driver of the Day

Best Driver Performance: Lando Norris

We think Lando Norris will have the best performance out of any driver. He always seems to find a way to finish higher than the McLaren car is able to. It is a testament to his skills behind the wheel. Sadly it looks like he will be doing the same this year as it appears McLaren still do not have a strong car. He likely won’t be getting the credit he deserves but we are still hopeful he can produce quality results.

We think Norris can finish as high as P7 which would be a great result considering he will be competing with improved Alpine and Aston Martin outfits. McLaren need to sort out their development issues quickly because they are wasting a talent like Norris with their subpar cars.

Hard Work Pays Off

Most Improved Constructor: Aston Martin

Our prediction for the most improved constructor has to be Aston Martin. They finished P7 in the championship last year and have been surrounded by hype all offseason. Fernando Alonso showed great pace in testing and even other team bosses like Christian Horner and Toto Wolff have made comments about improvements in Aston Martin’s pace.

If the hype over their improved race pace is legit we could see Alonso finishing as high as P5. The question mark rests around who will be Aston Martin’s 2nd driver on Sunday. Lance Stroll had a training accident and missed testing. Felipe Drugovich filled in for Stroll but it was Alonso who took the bulk of the testing laps. Alonso came out and said that it hurt Aston Martin that Lance could not be there. He said Stroll has a better understanding of previous AMR issues and could have helped better develop the AMR23 during testing.

Regardless of whoever Aston Martin chooses as their driver, it will be a tough situation. Drugovich would be making his debut and Stroll would be coming in cold and with nagging injuries to his wrists. Not the best options for a team trying to improve to P4 or higher in the constructors championship.

Dark Horse in the Race

Dark Horse Prediction: Alfa Romeo

Our dark horse for this race is Alfa Romeo. No one is talking about Alfa right now. To be frank, why would they. Alfa has gone under the radar this offseason and no one seems to think they will be much of a threat. We even have them at P7 in our power rankings. But that is why they are our dark horse. They are the threat that no one sees coming.

Alfa has Valtteri Bottas as their lead driver who has proven he can put together solid race outcomes as long as his car finishes the race. Zhou Guanyu has shown pace in the Alfa during testing. Keep an eye out for Alfa as they will try to compete with the likes of Alpine, McLaren and Aston Martin in the midfield fight.

Upcoming Posts & Reader Feedback

We will be back tomorrow to comb over the results of FP1 and FP2 and see if there are indications of who will be fastest come Sunday.

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