RedBull Clinch 1-2 Podium in Surprise-Filled Bahrain Grand Prix

BY ABI MCINTOSH

After a long, anticipation-filled wait, Formula 1 was back in full force at the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix! With three new rookies, four seat changes, and Nico Rosberg back commentating, the weekend was filled with surprises – just how it should be. But just to recap, let’s discuss who went where, and who (tragically) was sent away.

In probably the most famous seat change in the past few years, McLaren bought out Daniel Ricciardo’s driver contract for a cool 21 million in order to place rookie Oscar Piastri in his car. Daniel responded by going home to Red Bull as the third driver. Fernando Alonso announced his shocking move to Aston Martin, following Sebastian Vettel’s horrible, upsetting, devastating, awful, sad, startling and distressing retirement (I’m so happy for him, what do you mean?). Haas fired Mick Schumacher, who found a reserve driver position waiting with open arms at Mercedes, and then brought in Nico Hulkenberg, the man with the most race starts and least podiums in F1. Following Pierre Gasly’s move to Alpine after nine years in the Red Bull family, F1 rookie Nyck De Vries stepped up to fill the hole (seat) he left. This left Williams, who retired Nicholas Latifi and brought in rookie Logan Sargeant. And that’s all! A super boring silly season, for sure, I for one was not shocked at anything.

Sakhir was a particularly interesting race because the relatively short circuit was redesigned from the original into a spectacular night race. It’s one of the best races to attend as a new fan, because the lights, the atmosphere, and the anticipation all combine to make an action-packed experience. If you’re looking to get into Formula 1, this would be the perfect time to do it!

Verstappen, Perez and Alonso dominated all free practice sessions, with the top three feeling more like the hot seat than anything. Leclerc popped in for an appearance in qualifying, knocking Alonso from the familiar triad. Of course, Red Bull was ecstatic with a perfect start to the season, with Verstappen in first and Perez in second.

(2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Report and Highlights: Verstappen Leads 1-2 in Bahrain Season Opener as Leclerc Retires and Alonso Takes Final Podium Place in Style | Formula 1®, n.d.)

This high was ridden completely to the end, with Verstappen crossing the line more than ten seconds ahead of Perez in P2, having led the race the whole time. They were pretty much undisturbed out the front, but the midfield was having a field day. It started with Leclerc DNFing – just a reminder, this is the first race of the season – and then a spat between the Aston Martins. Stroll ran into Alonso in the beginning, which allowed both Mercedes to slip through ahead of them. While both drivers were rightfully agitated, the viewers were given a laugh when Alonso kept asking his race engineer who caused the collision, who then kept giving no response. It wasn’t completely different to a mother dealing with children.

Hulkenberg then clipped Ocon, who seemed to be having Pierre-esque luck with his penalties. He was first given a 5-second penalty for lining up incorrectly on the gird, then a 10-second penalty for serving that incorrectly, and then another 5-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. After all this grief, Alpine then decided to retire him on lap 71. Speaking of Pierre – he pitted three times during the course of the race to come back from 20th to 9th, which, in my opinion, is a pretty amazing feat for his first race. Lando, on the other hand, pitted six times before his eventual retirement, which is an insane amount of effort and time to then DNF. Unfortunately, McLaren was out of luck on all fronts, as Piastri followed Norris into the pits due to technical difficulties. And after all of this drama, Red Bull still came out on top (mostly because they were so far ahead nothing anyone else did could affect them). Alonso followed them in a close third, to make his first podium since Qatar 2021! The Spaniard looked ecstatic to end his dry spell from the podium, specifically by spraying everyone with as much champagne as possible.