Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Bahrain Grand Prix
Photo from Sporting News
The 2023 Formula 1 season has officially begun, and if the first race is anything to go off of, a championship battle may not be in the cards.
Here are the winners and losers from the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Losers
5. Haas F1 Team
Bahrain is typically a track where Haas does well, and a good qualifying session from Nico Hulkenberg had this time around looking similar.
But the race itself was one to forget.
Not a great start for the American team.
4. Zhou Guanyu
Zhou finished 16th in the race, which isn’t very good.
It’s especially tough considering his teammate Valtteri Bottas finished 8th.
Hopefully this isn’t the start of a sophomore slump.
3. Charles Leclerc
It was a good race for Leclerc, even though he didn’t pose much of a threat compared to the Red Bulls, but a good race nonetheless.
And then, in typical Ferrari fashion, an engine failure ended his race early with zero points.
Oh, Ferrari…
2. McLaren
Testing wasn’t great for McLaren.
In fact, it was so bad that Lando Norris allegedly punched a wall in frustration after testing.
The first race didn’t do much to ease those worries, as Oscar Piastri’s engine failed after his pit stop and Norris had the same problems as well which hindered his entire race.
Last year, McLaren were terrible at Bahrain.
This year, it was somehow even worse. They should’ve been the biggest loser of the weekend.
1. Esteban Ocon
But we had a masterclass performance from Esteban Ocon today.
He raced fairly well, but an improper grid position gave him a five second penalty.
He served that penalty incorrectly, which led to a ten second penalty.
While serving that penalty, he sped on pit road, which led to another five second penalty.
I have never seen that many needless penalties in one single race before, and it unsurprisingly led to him retiring the car with no threat of points.
McLaren was bad.
Ocon was hilariously bad.
Winners
5. Lance Stroll
Stroll missed all of testing due to a fractured wrist and broken toe, and he had many issues with pain tolerance over the course of the weekend.
Despite all that, Stroll ran a (almost) clean race to wind up 6th.
Not bad for his first weekend in the car.
4. Alexander Albon
Speaking of testing, it looked like Williams was seriously lacking behind everyone else in terms of pace.
Not only did Albon wind up in the points for the first weekend of the year, his teammate Logan Sargeant finished 12th.
It was a good weekend for Williams, but Albon gave them something to show for it.
3. Pierre Gasly
A very, very difficult qualifying session had the Alpine era starting horribly for Gasly and starting dead last on the grid.
But Gasly has always proved himself to be a quality racer, and he found his way from 20th to finish 9th and secure two points.
It’s a reminder that no points are awarded for qualifying.
2. Red Bull Racing
Start as you mean to go on.
As I mentioned in my predictions post, teams who nail the first year of new regulations typically find success in years to come.
Red Bull has, but in a huge way.
Verstappen and Perez were barely shown on television as they eased towards a 1-2 finish to start the year.
It was a performance that reminded me of the 2016 Mercedes era of dominance.
It doesn’t look like anyone can come close to touching them.
1. Fernando Alonso
For the first time in what feels like forever, Fernando Alonso may have switched teams at the exact right time.
It looks like Aston Martin has improved dramatically, as the car is fast and gave Fernando another podium in his illustrious career.
But more than anything, Fernando was happy on the radio.
That, more than anything, was something I loved to see.
It wasn’t Fernando using his incredible talent to drag an underperforming car to good results.
It was a man happy to be driving such a quick car.
You can’t beat that.
