Welcome Drivers!

Plenty of action this past weekend with the Bahrain GP kicking off the 2023 Formula 1 season. Some teams flexed their muscles while others stumbled to the finish (and some not even that).

Here at The Apex F1 we are continuing our F1 Power Rankings. We will be releasing these after each race and provide our takes on why each team has moved up or down in the rankings. This is the third post we have done on our power rankings. If you missed our last post, you can find it at the link below.

Same as the previous power rankings, we want to emphasize that these are based more so on in-race performance rather than the current standings in F1. These rankings aren’t necessarily a reflection of where we think the teams will end up at the end of the year. They are strictly just our take on how the teams are performing currently.

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Lets get to our updated F1 Power Rankings post the Bahrain GP!

Formula 1 2023 Power Rankings

Things are beginning to take shape now that we have one race under our belt. Red Bull proved they are still the cream of the crop in F1, Aston is staking their claim in the top 3, Ferrari experiencing some issues of old and the midfield looks like it is being shaken up.

Below is a breakdown our our current power rankings after the Bahrain GP.

1. Red Bull

Red Bull put on a masterclass performance Sunday. Max Verstappen looked as if he wasn’t even trying, getting out to a 5 second lead by lap 7 of the race. He never looked back from that, finishing roughly 38s ahead of the next non-Red Bull driver. It was his first win at the Bahrain GP and the first season opening win of his career.

Right behind him was Sergio Perez. Checo lost a place to Charles Leclerc to start the race and this hampered his efforts to give a challenge to Max Verstappen. He was able to regain P2 when he went on the soft tires for his second stint. Other than the race start, it was a problem free Grand Prix for Checo. He finished in P2 securing Red Bull’s first season opening 1-2 since 2011.

Red Bull looks unstoppable at the moment. Mercedes driver George Russell even came out saying that Red Bull should win every race of the season. We think this is an huge exaggeration. Bahrain is a track that suited the Red Bull’s strengths. However, the margin to the next best team was massive and it is realistic to think that Red Bull can put together another monster season like 2022.

For good reason, we are keeping Red Bull in the top spot of our Power Rankings.

2. Ferrari

We are keeping Ferrari at P2 in our rankings for now. For the most part of the race they had P3 & P4 in hand and it was clear that they were the second fastest team out there.

Leclerc was going to easily finish on the podium if all things went well. He was able to keep ahead of Perez for a bit but ultimately the RB19 was just too quick and he was forced to settle for P3. Unfortunately for Leclerc, he wasn’t even able to do that. He suffered an engine failure on lap 40 and was forced to retire. A painful reminder of one of the main issues that plagued Ferrari last year.

Almost simultaneously, Sainz was being hunted down by a rapid Fernando Alonso. His tires had faded away too much and he was unable to keep the Aston Martin driver behind him for long. He ultimately finished P4 in a disappointing start to the season for Ferrari.

While things didn’t go their way on the reliability front they would have likely finished P3 & P5 had Leclerc stayed in the race. We are not getting too ahead of ourselves with doom and gloom predictions for Ferrari. They can still easily pull themselves back into the fight.

We are holding them at P2 despite having a down day.

3. Aston Martin

Aston Martin was easily the surprise of the weekend. Their pace in testing and free practice proved to be legitimate as they were able to land Fernando Alonso on the podium for his first time since 2021.

Alonso’s race wasn’t all sunshine and roses though. At turn 4 of the first lap he was clipped by his teammate Lance Stroll who was making a move down the inside of George Russell. Alonso was attempting a switch back on Lewis Hamilton and Stroll’s front wing hit Alonso’s back right tire causing him to lose places to both Mercedes drivers.

The AMR23 showed impressive pace and a good ability to maintain low tired degradation. Alonso was able to go long on his first stint and immediately challenge, then overtake, Russell on his second stint. He then tracked down both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz and got past them with noteworthy overtakes as well. A solid first race for the Spaniard with his new team.

Stroll was battling injuries to both of his hands and wrists but still was able to get by George Russell and finish in P6 on the day. If he can get healthy soon we expect him to be much more competitive in the coming races.

The weekend went perfectly for Aston Martin as they exceeded their own expectations and are now sitting P2 in the constructors after the first race. They have already announced an aggressive development path and seemingly will be shooting for P2 in the constructors when it is all said and done.

That being said they still need to prove they are quicker than the Ferrari so we think they have some work to do before moving to P2 in our power rankings.

4. Mercedes

Mercedes spent most of the Bahrain GP trying to catch up to Ferrari and then eventually being run down by Alonso. It was another disappointing season opening race for a team that has been accustomed to winning so much.

Lewis Hamilton finished the race in P5 while his teammate George Russell came home in P7. Once again the Mercedes team was way off the pace of the leaders. Toto Wolff came out after the race saying that Mercedes is planning on abandoning their current concept in an attempt to save the season and get back to competing with the leaders.

This will be a difficult task in the cost cap era. Big teams like Mercedes used to be able to throw large sums of money at their problems to quickly fix them but now there is a limit to this. Just how much will Mercedes be able to improve this season? They are already behind the ball in terms of development and now they are completely changing their concept.

If any team can do it, it’s Mercedes. They have two extremely talented drivers who will keep them in the fight but it is critical they get started on a new path immediately as to not get too far behind Ferrari and even Aston Martin.

Currently, they are behind both of those teams which is why we moved them down to P4.

5. Alpine

Alpine had a mixed start of the season with only one driver finishing the race due to some bizarre occurrences involving a good amount of time penalties. These weird circumstances outshined the fact that the Alpine car did show some pace during the race.

It was a role reversal on Sunday with Esteban Ocon, who started P9, ultimately retiring from the race after a slew of time penalties he had to serve. The first coming when he rolled too far ahead in his starting grid positon, the second and third coming when Alpine incorrectly served his time penalty by touching the car early and combined with Ocon speeding in the pit lane. These penalties effectively put Ocon out of the race and Alpine chose to retire the car.

Gasly had a stellar performance starting last in P20. He was able to manage his pace and the tires well and eventually worked his way up into the points finishing P9. He said that he expects to perform much better in the coming races so hopefully Alpine will recover from somewhat of a down weekend for them.

With the way things transpired for Alpine it isn’t clear if they will be able to compete with Mercedes but we aren’t ruling that out. Going from P20 to P9 is an impressive feat and they likely would have been higher had they not been hampered with strange circumstances.

We will see just how good they are in Jeddah but for now we are keeping them at P5.

6. Alfa Romeo

It was a quiet day for Alfa Romeo. Their lead driver Valtteri Bottas was able to finish P8 after pulling off an undercut on the teams in front and had some nice aggressive racing to compliment that. Bottas has shown he is an expert at Bahrain with his tenth consecutive points appearance at the circuit.

His teammate Zhou Guanyu ultimately couldn’t match the Finnish driver’s pace and finished in P16 after having to pit stop for a third time near the end of the race. The only driver he was able to finish in front of was Lando Norris, who subsequently had 6 pit stops throughout the race.

Zhou will be looking to bounce back next week but the team is confident they have fielded a car that is capable of scoring points consistently. It was a strong track for Bottas but we expect to see him in the mix more as long as the car is reliable.

We are moving Alfa Romeo up to 6 as we don’t think they have the pace to match Alpine but they are in better shape than the other teams behind them.

7. Williams

Williams had one of the best race performances in a long time on Sunday. Alex Albon was able to finish in the points on pure pace and their rookie driver Logan Sargeant was very impressive in his debut finishing P12, highest among the F1 rookies.

Anytime Williams scores points it is a big deal for the team. They finished in last place last season and look like they have put together a much more competitive car. Albon is a talented driver and Sargeant has looked the part so far. They may have the best driver line up of the bottom teams.

Williams looks to have taken a step in the right direction this year. We will see just how many opportunities they get to score this season but they made the most of the first race which bodes well for the rest of the season.

We moved them up to P7 for their solid performance in Bahrain.

8. AlphaTauri

AlphaTauri didn’t impress much in the opening race of the season but their one bright spot was that Yuki Tsunoda seems like he has made progress this season. Yuki has struggled a bit in his first two years and is in a make or break season at Alpine.

Tsunoda was able to finish in P11 just outside the points and really maximized what he could get out of the car. His teammate, rookie Nyck de Vries, followed him in P14.

We aren’t expecting much from this AlphaTauri team. They don’t seem to have that great of a car and other teams such as Williams have seemingly passed them in the development race.

9. Haas

Haas had a difficult first race of the year. Nico Hulkenberg’s race was effectively ended as soon as it began when his front wing was damaged on the opening lap. He subsequently had to box and fell down the order. Not the type of day he wished to have after making it into P3 in qualifying.

Kevin Magnussen took a risk by starting on the hard tires in contrast to every other driver on the grid. This bold play did not pay off and he spent most of his race near the back of the grid.

Haas have two strong drivers but they weren’t able to overcome some bad luck this weekend. It always seems that Haas gets the short end of the stick when it comes to lady luck. We don’t have much faith in how competitive they will be this season.

10. McLaren

Murphy’s Law was in full effect for the Woking squad. Everything that could have went wrong did go wrong. After a disappointing day in qualifying things only progressed worse come the race.

Their rookie driver Oscar Piastri had to retire from the race very early on when he suffered an electronics failure that the team was unable to resolve. The rookie’s debut race only lasted a short 14 laps.

McLaren’s star driver Lando Norris struggled with his own issues as well. He had a hydraulic leak for the majority of the race and repeatedly had to box to refill the hydraulic system. By the end of the race he had stopped 6 times and finished in last place 2 laps behind the leader.

McLaren had promised upgrade by Baku but we are skeptical on how much this will actually help them. Other teams will be bringing upgrades at that point or soon after. They have a lot of work to do or they are in for one of the most underperforming seasons in McLaren history.

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