AATISH MISHRA
Aatish is thrilled that F1 is back in action with the 2023 season!
Max Verstappen shot off into the lead and wasn’t seen for the rest of the race
I’VE WAITED SO LONG FOR THIS — AND F1 is back. The winter break for a motorsport fan is painful. The wait seems endless. There’s only so much rehashed news you can read. Only so many replays you can watch. Drive to Survive releases a weekend before the season actually starts so that’s a long wait in itself. But racing is back, and how! Bahrain was epic. There was so much anticipation in the days leading up to the race — you can never draw concrete conclusions from testing. Or even the practice sessions on the actual race weekend. Aston Martin looked strong, as did Red Bull. Ferrari weren’t too far behind and it was hard to tell where to place Mercedes. Qualifying is where the real pace of the cars is seen for the first time, and while Red Bull locked out the front row, what was a pleasant surprise was how close the field was. In Q1, the first 18 cars were covered by one second! The new regs that try to balance out performance seemed to be working. Or at least that’s what I thought until the lights went out.
From there on, Red Bull dominated. Max shot off into the lead and wasn’t seen for the rest of the race. Perez didn’t challenge him, but no one got close to bothering Perez for second either. Races such as these tend to be super boring but this one really wasn’t! There was SO much happening in the mid-field, keeping us glued to the screen.
The story of the race is Alonso, without a doubt. At 41, he’s still able to compete and fight at the highest level of motorsport. Absolute legend. He’s a ruthless racer and it showed. His epic moves on Sainz, Russell and Hamilton reminded us of what a great racer he is. The Aston Martin looks super race-y as well. In a pre-race interview Alonso said that while they might not be in the top two teams in terms of pace, they will be there to pounce on any opportunities that come their way and that’s exactly what they did. The Ferrari had engine trouble, and Alonso swooped in to claim the last spot on the podium. Alonso hasn’t been in the best machinery in the last few years of his career but this season looks different. I really do hope he’s up there, throwing punches throughout the season. A championship bid seems overly optimistic but we’re in for some great racing, for sure. Then there was Ferrari. I was at a loss for words when Charles’ engine gave up on him. After everything that went down last year, you’d think they would have focused intensely on two areas — reliability and strategy. But here we are. Engine failure in race one. I’m confident they will sort it out, but the dejected Charles postrace was not what I wanted to see at the end of Race 1. He looks defeated already. It’s early though — this is the longest season of F1 yet and we’re only once race in. Ferrari were quick over a single lap in qualifying, I just hope they find race pace soon too. Maybe a few other circuits will suit their car and allow them to claw back the deficit they already have.
Meanwhile, Mercedes doesn’t seem to have improved as much as they would have hoped. With Aston Martin looking so strong, they are now the fourth fastest team and need to get their act together. There is talk of them revising the car heavily during the season to try and find competitive times but that will be expensive and painstaking. In the era of the cost cap, how effective a strategy like this will be is yet to be seen. The rest of the mid-field was filled with surprises. The Williams looked stronger than they have in the last few years, McLaren doesn’t seem to be in the best shape and Alpine’s race was a mixed bag — with Gasly clinching points but Ocon getting riddled with penalties.
I don’t want to get too ahead of myself but Red Bull’s dominance in Race 1 makes me believe that they will run away with the championship for a third year in a row. I hope they don’t have it easy. Memories of the epic 2021 season are still fresh and I want to see close racing, great fights and a proper championship battle. Here’s hoping! ⌧