Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominated the Bahrain Grand Prix as the Formula 1 season began; Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz breaks down the story of every team from Aston Martin’s highs to Mercedes’ and McLaren’s lows.
Last Updated: 06/03/23 12:12pm
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Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominated the Bahrain Grand Prix, but how will each of the 10 teams be feeling after the opening weekend of the season?
After a winter of development and dreaming, we finally got to see how good – or bad – each car and driver looked. Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso secured a famous podium, Mercedes are giving up on their car already and it was a weekend to forget for Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon.
Ted Kravitz delivers his verdict on all 10 teams…
Red Bull – ‘Max could have won by a minute if he wanted to’
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It was a perfect start to the season for the defending champions as Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez secured a dream one-two finish, comfortably clear of the chasing pack.
TED’S VERDICT: They exorcised the demons of Bahrain – they have not won here since Sebastian Vettel in 2013, so I think that’s why it means so much.
Obviously, when any team in Formula 1 gets a one-two, it means an awful lot.
Max Verstappen has never won in Bahrain before – his bogey track, his nemesis track and when the team hasn’t won in the hybrid era, it just feels special.
They did it because they had the best car and Max Verstappen is in the form of his life, Max finished 11 seconds ahead of Sergio Perez and 38 seconds ahead of Fernando Alonso, so I think he could have won by a minute if he wanted to.
Both went soft-soft-hard, which is a pretty aggressive strategy, but it really worked.
Aston Martin – ‘Intend on this being a regular occurrence’
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Fernando Alonso returned to the podium and is hoping he is there to stay, while Lance Stroll overcame injury to join him in the points, despite first-lap contact with his team-mate.
TED’S VERDICT: Aston Martin are back on the podium. I know they’ve won races before as Racing Point and Jordan, but I think they’re not going to get too excited about it because they intend on this being a regular occurrence.
Alonso lost a couple of places early on to the two Mercs, was closing on Lewis Hamilton in the second stint but Merc defended with strategy and that worked for them for a while.
Lance undercut George Russell in the second stint for P7, which was good. Fernando pitted on lap 35 and then he chased and caught Lewis Hamilton. Then he chased and caught Carlos Sainz to finish P3.
Ferrari – ‘The car is not quite there’
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It was a disappointing display for the Italian team as Charles Leclerc suffered a power-unit failure and retired from third, with Carlos Sainz passed by Alonso on his way to fourth.
TED’S VERDICT: It was a DNF for Charles Leclerc with some kind of engine failure and it was P4 for Carlos Sainz.
Ferrari are pretty sure that Leclerc would have been able to hold onto P3 ahead of Fernando Alonso. I don’t quite know. Alonso with the tyre delta and the fresher tyres at the end might have got Leclerc. We don’t know what would have happened.
It was a good start from Leclerc. He got P2 from Sergio Perez, then he got done by Perez but he was running happily in P3 before the power unit conked out.
For Sainz, tyre degradation was really his issue. The car is not quite there, he doesn’t feel quite there, so we’ll see if Ferrari’s tyre degradation is still there in two weeks’ time in Jeddah. If it is, then you know they’re in trouble.
Mercedes – ‘There is going to have to be a plan B’
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This was the day described by Toto Wolff as one of his worst in racing, as Lewis Hamilton was passed by Alonso’s Aston Martin before failing to overtake Sainz while George Russell was seventh behind Lance Stroll.
TED’S VERDICT: As Toto Wolff said, ‘one of the worst days in racing’. That’s because the reality has struck that they are the fourth fastest car in Formula 1.
Lewis Hamilton was fifth and George Russell was seventh, and that is not going to win Lewis’ eighth world championship this year.
I don’t know whether Lewis is writing it off mentally now. I don’t think he can. How could he? He’s encouraging the team to carry on and get on with it, as is Toto Wolff. He’s going to task and inspire his team to build a new car.
There is, after all, going to have to be a plan B.
Alfa Romeo – ‘They already know that it’s going to get nasty’
Valtteri Bottas scored points in eighth as Alfa Romeo asserted themselves as a middle-of-the-pack contender.
TED’S VERDICT: The fastest lap was scored by Zhou Guanyu, but where did Zhou finish? The answer is 16th.
You don’t get a point for the fastest lap if you finish outside the top 10, but you can make sure that someone else doesn’t have the fastest lap and Pierre Gasly didn’t get it.
I love that they already know down here that it’s going to get nasty and close with Alpine in the championship.
It wasn’t a nice race for Zhou Guanyu, who had to pit – he wasn’t going to score any points anyway, but Valtteri Bottas did.
Alpine – ‘There was no point in carrying on’
Pierre Gasly saved the day for his team by battling from last on the grid to a points finish as Esteban Ocon racked up 20 seconds worth of penalties on a catastrophic afternoon.
TED’S VERDICT: Pierre Gasly finished P9 from the back and I think that is a jolly good drive to get two points and nearly the fastest lap. He was denied that by a cheeky move from Alfa Romeo Sauber, but that is a great drive.
At least he has two points because it’s more than Esteban Ocon had. He lined up on the grid wrongly, so the stewards said. Esteban is still thinking it’s extremely unfair, as he’s always done that. As long as he didn’t move, he doesn’t think there should be a penalty.
Then they made mistakes in the pit stop, where they worked on the car before finishing the penalty and then there was a speeding penalty which really meant there was no point in carrying on.
They retired the car and he was a DNF.
Williams – ‘Really refreshing’
Alex Albon showed his class to score a point for his team as rookie Logan Sargeant performed well on debut.
TED’S VERDICT: Williams have a good car and that is really refreshing.
Yes, it didn’t look great during testing, but Alex Albon was able to run P11 early on after a good opening lap and then P10 after Lando Norris dropped out.
The virtual safety car for Leclerc’s retirement came at a perfect time to defend with the others around him.
As for Logan Sargeant, it’s really motivating him. He got up to P13, spent most of the time in P13, and then he got P12 when Zhou stopped to get the fastest lap.
AlphaTauri – ‘Poor Yuki Tsunoda’
Yuki Tsunoda just missed out on points as Nyck de Vries put on solid display in his first race in Formula 1.
TED’S VERDICT: Poor Yuki Tsunoda was only a few seconds off a point and that’s a bit sad because he essentially had the whole race behind Alex Albon, but wasn’t able to overtake the Williams.
He followed Albon into the pits as well which guaranteed that he was going to stay behind.
But, from the back of the grid, you’ve got to say a good effort from Nyck de Vries, finishing P14. He was left out under the virtual safety car and he was a sitting duck.
Haas – ‘No points for Haas but I don’t think they’re too downhearted’
Nico Hulkenberg suffered damage early on while strategy potentially cost Kevin Magnussen as Haas failed to show their full potential.
TED’S VERDICT: Do you know what? Haas have a quick car, but they weren’t able to show it because Nico Hulkenberg got front wing damage early on, so was out of the picture.
Kevin Magnussen was the only hard-starter, dropped to 19th early on and they worked their way back.
They actually both three-stopped in the end because they had the free stop under the virtual safety car.
No points for Haas but I don’t think they’re too downhearted because they feel they’ve got a decent car and if the sand blows correctly for them, then there are points to be had this season.
McLaren – ‘An unintended six-stop strategy’
It was dismal day out for the McLaren team as Oscar Piastri retired early and Lando Norris was forced to stop six, yes six, times.
TED’S VERDICT: McLaren have had a really really gutting day, but at least the boys got some pit stop practice, that’s all you can say.
Lando Norris had an unintended six-stop strategy either because it’s a McLaren air system that feeds the engine or it’s a Mercedes problem because that’s not one they have had before.
But it means there were no points. A lowly 17th for Lando Norris and a DNF for Oscar Piastri.
Oscar’s first race in 16 months, he had a good start, was running well but he had an electrical problem, and he came into the pits.
They couldn’t restart the car, even with a change in steering wheel and they never got going again, but McLaren were happy with Oscar’s pace.
F1 returns in two weeks with the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix. All sessions are live on Sky Sports F1 from March 17-19. Get Sky Sports
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