The whats and who’s of F1 2023

It is race week! The Bahrain GP this weekend will kick off the 2023 F1 season.

It is race week! The Bahrain GP this weekend will kick off the 2023 F1 season.

This year, teams had just three days of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit (the same venue where the first race will be held). Now, testing rarely gives us the full picture, with fuel loads, set-ups and team programmes varying across the grid. It does, however, give us an idea of how all the teams stack up, which ones look strong and which could be trouble.

Drivers: Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez

2022 was a record-breaking season for Red Bull and the reigning champions look like they are on solid footing for 2023. Max Verstappen was fastest on Day 1 and Sergio Perez went on to set the fastest lap in testing with a time of 1m 30.305s — that is faster than last year’s Bahrain GP pole time.

They were the fastest in race trim as well. More crucially, Red Bull enjoyed three trouble-free days of running with no evident reliability concerns. So they definitely enter the 2023 season primed well to defend their double titles.

Drivers: Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz

Frederic Vasseur replaced Mattia Binotto as Ferrari team principal earlier this year and has made some crucial changes within the team. The most notable of these is Ravin Jain taking charge of trackside strategy, with Inaki Rueda (who held the role previously) moving to a factory-based role.