Welcome Drivers!

The F1 season is here! Well… its almost here. The first day of testing has arrived in Bahrain. Its good to see the new cars out of track and we will be going over some of the positives and negatives we saw on Day 1.

For those of you new to F1, this is similar to the EPL or NFL preseason. Yes there is action out on the track, but it is by no means a barometer for how things will shake out during the season.

Teams will be gathering data on all sorts of aero tests, and changing their car setups to see what works better and worse and running their car under different fuel loads. Due to these tests, we can’t accurately form any judgements on performance yet.

There is also “sandbagging” phenomenon where teams will purposefully reduce their performance to make it seem like they are not the fastest when in reality they are. Red Bull and Mercedes were notorious for doing this prior to the new regulations.

There are a few things we think are important that will show in testing. The first important point is reliability. If you have issues now then you will likely have trouble during the season. We saw this with Alfa Romeo last year in testing and they had reliability issues all year. Early indicators show that Aston Martin and McLaren may be having difficulties here.

Another factor is straight-line speed. It is hard to hide this unless you are running lower engine levels so it can often give you a sense of how powerful the PU is. There have been a few surprises here on the first day of testing.

Lastly, we are finally getting to see the near-final version of all the cars before the season which is always fun. Alright, lets dive into day 1.

Key Takeaways

The Real Red Bull

Prior to the cars actually being out on track we finally caught a glimpse of the real RB19. At a first glance it look fairly similar to its predecessor but there are some interesting changes.

They definitely have the largest undercut on their side pods compared to the rest of the teams. They have also made updates to the floor of the RB19. These changes have paid off so far with Verstappen running the most laps and setting the fastest time on Day 1 of testing.

Aston Martin Highs and Lows

After receiving a lot of hype in the offseason, Aston Martin got off to a rocky start to the first day of testing. Shortly after the AMR23 hit the track Felipe Drugovich, who is filling in for the injured Lance Stroll, had to pull off to the side of the track causing the first red flag of 2023.

Drugovich later confirmed that they had some electrical issues in the car, which was the reason for the stoppage. He was able to get back out and complete 40 laps (tied for lowest among all drivers today) to end the morning session but Aston Martin missed out on some critical data gathering.

In the afternoon session Fernando Alonso took the wheel and was able to crank out 60 laps in the AMR23 but had his fair share of sitting on the pit wall as well. The Aston Martin mechanics spent a good amount of time running checks on the floor of the car. He was still able to clock the second fastest time of the day just 0.029s slower than Max Verstappen.

It will be interesting to see if Aston Martin continue to have issues as the days go one. They will need to hit the ground running tomorrow to make up for lost time.

Stretching Their Legs

Some teams were able to make the most of the first day of testing while others were not. Red Bull led the charge with a whopping 157 laps and Max Verstappen being their only driver on the day. Safe to say they were able to gather all the data they could get their hands on. That’s a TON of laps for one driver in a day (number of laps during the race is 57)!

Mercedes had a very strong day of running as well with 152 laps between both of their drivers. Hamilton had the lion’s share with 83 laps and Russell was able to get in a solid 59. Mercedes has usually been one of the more reliable teams in recent years.

The surprise here was McLaren who were only able to squeak out 92 laps on the day. Lando Norris was only able to complete 40 laps after having to stay in the garage for an unspecified reason. A McLaren mechanic was seen messing with the “wheel brow” on the MCL60, maybe something shook loose over a curb or is it something more serious. This is not what McLaren wants as they are trying to jump Alpine to reclaim P4 in the constructors championship.

Where They Stand

As we said above the lap times mean very little in testing, but we are going to go over them anyway and to no one’s surprise it was Red Bull leading the way. They looked strong in the first day and we expect them to be strong tomorrow when Verstappen and Perez split time in Day 2.

The surprise came from Aston Martin as Fernando Alonso was able to pull haul the AMR23 into P2 by the end of the afternoon session. After the hype of the offseason and some electrical/floor issues early on, Aston Martin was able to bounce back and show the paddock that they might actually be legit. Fernando Alonso will take all of the driver duties on Day 2 so we expect to see more highlights from him.

The Ferrari drivers finished in the 3 & 4 slots as they had a solid day of running with no real hiccups other than some slight bouncing. Lando Norris slots in at P5 after a very frustrating day at McLaren. Lewis Hamilton put his W14 into P6 in the afternoon while his teammate came in at P9.

Alex Albon and Williams had a strong day for them and Albon was able to clock in at P7 for the day. They feel like they have made steps forward in the car this season and it shows as rookie Logan Sargeant was able to fall into P10.

Zhou Guanyu came in at P8 to round out the top ten! Alfa Romeo did not seem to have any reliability issues which is a positive sign after a year where they were riddled with them.

First Day Thoughts

To us, Red Bull still appears the team to beat. Max Verstappen ran the most laps out of any driver and was able to set the pace all day. It is still very early but they look very strong again this year.

We have mixed feelings about Aston Martin’s day. They were one of the few teams that had to deal with reliability issues but at the same time they look like they have the potential to live up to their own hype. Fernando will be driving again on Friday so we expect to see him near the top again.

Lando’s commitment to McLaren looks like it may best tested again this season as McLaren had a disappointing start to testing. They ran the least amount of laps out of any team due to long delays in the garage working on the car. Their one bright spot is Lando, who can always manage to somehow pull out quality lap times in a sub par car. We love Lando and hope McLaren are able to overcome these early issues and give him the car he deserves.

Williams impressed us as well with both drivers in the top 10 and impressive top line speed to go along with it. This is all relative as we don’t expect Williams to really be in the thick of it in the midfield but they look like they are ready to pull themselves away from the back of the pack.

We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves with anything we see on the first day. The top3 teams still seem to be miles ahead of the rest. The midfield is where we can see a lot of change happening.

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We will be back tomorrow giving a run-down of the second day of testing.

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