Day 1: F1 Testing 2023

And just like that, F1 is back in action. Today was day 1 of testing in Bahrain and, incase you didn’t want to sit through all 8.5 hours, here are the best bits of the day…

Detective Hamilton and Bottas

My personal highlight of the day was watching Lewis and Valtteri in full detective mode getting a sneaky look at the Red Bull. Pictured below, the old teammates were caught checking out their competition in the morning session. It is all allowed… as long as no one touches the rear wing!

Aston Martin Red Flag

Just as quickly as the cars were on track, they were off again with the first red flag of the season coming courtesy of Aston Martin. Standing in for Lance Stroll, Felipe Drugovich took to the track but minutes later found himself stopped at the side of the track with an electrical issue. It took a while for the car to be brought back to the pits, with the Aston Martin engineers very keen to hide as much or the car as possible from the prying eyes of the paddock. It was later confirmed that the car was experiencing a sensor issue which in turn affected the ECU. While they did eventually manage to get back underway, the team finished the day with the second least amount of laps completed. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for them as they play catch up!

Mclaren technical issues

Finishing the day with the least amount of laps on the board was Mclaren. Unfortunately for the papaya team, they too experienced technical issues having to get the metal tape and heat gun out after lunch as a quick fix for their car. It was not specified what caused their stint in the garage but Lando did manage to make it out and ended the day in P5. Hopefully whatever caused their issues is now resolved and there will be a more permanent solution than tape on its way!

Haas or Alpha Tauri?

I envisage this to cause some issues this season, both for the viewers and commentators. Pictured below, you can see there is a striking resemblance between the front view of the Haas and the Alpha Tauri. On the Sky Sports commentary, Crofty was also having issues, having to remind himself it’s red front wing for Haas and black for Alpha. It’s all very well and good during testing when there are only 10 cars on the circuit and not a lot is happening but, as Anthony Davidson pointed out, when “it’s lights out and away we go”, there might be more of a challenge to spot the difference!

Mercedes porpoising a thing of the past

Things are looking up over at Mercedes, the dreaded porpoising that their car suffered with so badly last year is now a thing of the past. Toto looked relieved as he confirmed what we could see on track saying “there is no bouncing, which is good news”. Now that they have overcome this hurdle, watch this space… it looks like some more race wins may be on the cards.

Ferrari dimple

The keen-eyed amongst you may have spotted something very strange to the front of the Ferrari. While going along the straights the nose of the car appeared to dent inwards causing a dimple, something that then disappeared elsewhere on the circuit. This has caused much intrigue in the paddock and on social media and has been confirmed by Ferrari that it is not intentional. We will have to see if any more comes of this but the team are said to be working to rectify the issue.

Testing continues tomorrow at 7am UK time or 10am track time, make sure to check back tomorrow to see what happens. You can also follow @thefastestlapofficial on Instagram for updates throughout the day!