Seems like history is repeating itself pretty soon. Once again, following last year’s standings, Max Verstappen in team Red Bull is leading on the grid, followed by Ferrari in the Formula One pre-season test running at the Sakhira Pitlane in Bahrain today.
Now that all ten teams of Formula One finally brought their 2023 F1 challenger into action in the International circuit of Bahrain in order to follow the test run procedure of Formula One, we can easily predicate the future of the teams. We can say if Verstappen is leading once again, if Mercedes is coming back stronger, or if Ferrari is gonna pave the way for their win after 13 years.
An analysis has been released by Sky sports based on the very first session of the 2023 pre-season test. As expected, the reigning world champion remained on top out-pacing Ferrai’s Carlos Sainz in the morning session of the first day of three-day test runs. Ten of the 20 drivers went to the Sakhir pitlane with their new car. But the result remained the same as the old one. Bad news for Mercdes as the team’s driver, George Russell, got the fifth position in comparison to others.
Ahead Of Mercedes, Williams, & Alfa Romeo, Max Verstappen Remained the Fastest
Setting the fastest pace, or let’s say, assuring the third championship win, Max Verstappen took the time of 1:32.959, which is 0.3s faster than Carlos Sainz. Meanwhile, Mercedes, who brought a completely changed car, a black livery W14 car, this year with hopes of seeing a good result, remained disappointed. It was not the race, but why remain behind anywhere at all? George Russell finished fourth in the driver’s standings of the 2022 F1 season. He defeated his own teammate, Lewis Hamilton, by 34 points but could not match the pace of his nearest rivals in the first test session, remaining behind by 1.2 seconds.
Meanwhile, Williams and Alfa Romeo finished their laps the seven-tenths off the benchmark set by the Red bull star. Alex Albon did a great job completing 74, which is the most laps, and remained ahead of Mercedes by 0.7 s. Unfortunately, Aston Martin faced a red flag. Lance stroll faced electronic issues in the brand-new Martin car and had to end the session in 6 minutes. At the sixth position, we got Nico Hulkenberg from Haas.
Pierre Gasly, enjoying his new team Alpine completed 46 laps ahead 1.7 seconds ahead of the rookie McLaren driver Oscar Piastri. At last, we had Felipe Drugovich from Aston Martin as he had to manage the gap left by the first driver.
However, this analysis is not that worthy; two of the main title contenders are not present there. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Both the rivals who often share good ideas about each other will get into the competition in the evening sessions.
