The first race of the 2023 Formula 1 season was a lot like 2022.
Max Verstappen ran away from the field on Sunday in Bahrain to win the Bahrain Grand Prix and firmly establish himself and Red Bull as the driver and team to beat in 2023. The two-time defending champion started on pole and had absolutely no challenge whatsoever. He built a multi-second lead over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc within the first handful of laps and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez finished a distant second.
Verstappen went on to win the race by nearly 12 seconds over Perez. He won 15 of 22 races in 2022 as he finished 146 points ahead of Leclerc and 149 points ahead of Perez. If we’re going to make any snap judgments about what we saw on Sunday, Verstappen should be an even bigger favorite for the title than he was entering the 2023 season.
Ferrari was able to stay in the same zip code as Red Bull during qualifying but the team’s long run pace is not where Red Bull’s is. And Mercedes showed that it still has work to do to catch up to Red Bull.Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso were the surprises of preseason testing and Alonso passed Carlos Sainz for third late in the race and pulled away to easily finish in the final podium spot.
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