F1 2023 Testing - Day 3
- Ben Morrison
- Feb 26, 2023
- 3 min read
The final day of pre season testing, and its the last chance for teams to hone in on any early issues they've discovered, and get the car to the optimal setup ahead of lights out here in Bahrain next week. It was a busy day on track, with a few red flags and some drivers getting their elbows out here and there.
Early in the afternoon session, Perez saw the first red flag of the day being thrown after a sensor from his car had come loose and fallen onto the track. A marshall was deployed to go pick it up, and the track running was soon back in action. Later in the day, Checo and Sainz were having a small go at some toe-to-toe racing as neither driver wanted to yield track position through a few corners. Giving us our first glimpse at what this season is going to bring for us.
A second red flag was out after Valterri Bottas had a gearbox failure that brought his Alfa Romeo to a stop on track. It wasn't long before the car was fixed and back on track, however, with the Finnish driver getting the third fastest time of the day within the final hour of the running in pre-season testing.
Bottas wasn't the only driver setting fast laps during the final stages of testing in Bahrain, as a lot of the drivers started to squeeze out the last of the life in their soft tyre allocations.
Drivers had their elbows out all afternoon, with a bit of spicy wheel to wheel action between the Mercedes of George Russell and Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari. Both testing out their DRS systems against one another, after Leclerc suffered a malfunction with his earlier in the day.
Leclerc topped the morning session, and his teammate Sainz just 0.012s off in the afternoon session, with the two Ferrari drivers finishing the last day of testing in 4th and 5th overall.
It was a pretty smooth sailing day of testing for Mercedes, with the 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton sitting comfortably at the top of the timing sheets for most of the afternoon session, finally finishing the day 2nd. His teammate Russell, was likely out testing the car under longer run stints, after he was only able to top his lap time 8th overall for the day. The silver arrows definitley look a lot more under control during this period of testing, and an evolution of the race winning challenger they had developed by the end of last season. Hopefully for them, they are able to continue the strong performance in and throughout the 2023 season.
It was another solid day for Aston Martin, who are proving to be one of the most developed cars in terms of their performance and reliability. With little to no issues, and some seriously quick lap times for the drivers, the British racing team looks to be a serious contendor for a jump up in the constructor standings this season. Fernando Alonso feels there is more to come from the team and the car as the season goes on.
"We feel that there is a lot more to come from the car, and we didn't have time yet in testing. Step by step, the team is working flat out" Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
Another struggle for McLaren, as not only did the car have some issues with the front wheel-brows yet again, but rookie driver Oscar Piastri was finding the limits of the car with the first spin of the 2023 season as he lost the rear at turn 10 and slid into the run off.
"I think we're about where we expected" Oscar Piastri, McLaren
With all the issues the papaya team have faced, they are at the bottom of the order in terms of total laps completed during pre-season testing. Hopefully their issues are dealt with before the first race weekend next week.
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