2023 Pre-Season Testing - Bahrain
Pre-season testing concluded at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain, venue for the first grand prix of the 2023 season. Pirelli put the entire P Zero range at the disposal of the teams, with six different slick compounds available as well as the Cinturato intermediates and full wets, plus a prototype C3 produced at the back-up F1 factory in Turkey. All the teams were allowed to run 30 sets of slick tires and two sets of prototypes per car, with a minimum pressure of 21psi at the front and 18.5psi at the back. Tire blankets were used at 70°C, with a maximum two-hour heating time.
The fastest driver overall throughout the three days was Red Bull’s Sergio Perez with a time of 1m30.305s, set with the C4 compound today. Second quickest was Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton with a time of 1m30.664s on the softest C5 compound, while Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was third with a 1m30.827s on the same C5 compound. The fastest time from last year’s pre-season Bahrain test was 1.9 seconds slower than this year, using the 2022-specification C4.
On the final day of the test, the teams discovered the key to managing degradation better, as shown by today’s long runs compared to those of the previous days. Today’s track temperatures peaked at 44 degrees before settling down to 27 degrees as evening fell, allowing lap times to fall further. Temperatures remained consistent throughout all the days of testing and did not negatively affect performance, which benefitted today from less wind compared to Thursday and Friday, as well as the normal track evolution.
The fastest driver on the first day of the test was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who set a time of 1m32.837s on the C3. During the opening day, the teams focused mainly on car setup. Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou went quickest on Friday thanks to a time of 1m31.610s on the C5. Throughout the final two days most drivers carried out long runs as race simulations, using the three compounds nominated for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
““The last few days have been pretty intense, testing is very short, so it is very important to get the maximum out of it but overall, it worked really well; we got a good understanding of our car. Testing in Bahrain is very difficult because the track is changing every time you go out, the tarmac is very rough and just in general it’s varying conditions. I think we did the most we could today, we did a lot of analysis on set-up and tyre choice. We ran without any big problems, got a lot of laps in, and had good reliability in general. The Team back in Milton Keynes have done a tremendous job, we have a good paced car and certainly think we can work on that more. We will only find out next week where we really are in terms of pace because over testing, we don’t get to see the full picture.””
Here’s a selection of photos from the three days of testing:
