F1 preseason testing takeaways: Red Bull remains team to beat
New York TimesOver three intense days of testing, Formula One teams had their first proper chance to understand their new cars and size up the opposition going into the 2023 season. Team principal Christian Horner said it was “very difficult to say” exactly where Red Bull stood compared to its main rivals. Preseason testing fastest laps Driver Fastest Lap Sergio Pérez 1:30.305 Lewis Hamilton 1:30.664 Valtteri Bottas 1:30.827 Charles Leclerc 1:31.024 Carlos Sainz 1:31.036 Yuki Tsunoda 1:31.261 Kevin Magnussen 1:31.381 George Russell 1:31.442 Fernando Alonso 1:31.450 Zhou Guanyu 1:31.610 Max Verstappen 1:31.650 Felipe Drugovich 1:32.075 Lando Norris 1:32.160 Nyck de Vries 1:32.222 Nico Hulkenberg 1:32.466 Logan Sargeant 1:32.549 Pierre Gasly 1:32.762 Alex Albon 1:32.793 Oscar Piastri 1:33.175 Esteban Ocon 1:33.257 Two steps forward, one step back for Ferrari Ferrari was honest about the issues it needed to fix with its car if it wanted to sustain a challenge to Red Bull throughout this year’s championship. “Red Bull seems to be very strong in these three days.” Newly installed Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur was cagey about his team’s chances during a roundtable interview including The Athletic in Bahrain on Saturday. And the early signs with the W14 were a world better than the miserable test in Bahrain last year that, to quote Lewis Hamilton on Saturday, had left the team feeling “distraught.” But as 2023 testing progressed, it became increasingly clear that while it seems to have ironed out its porpoising problem, Mercedes can’t yet mount a proper challenge to reclaim its titles from Verstappen and Red Bull.