The group Red Bullwinner of the Constructors’ Cup last year and home to the current two-time world champion Maximum Verstappenpart as rival to beat in 2023 season of Formula 1 which will start this Sunday with the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Sakhir circuit will host the first of 23 “Grand Circus” dates, in which the Dutchman will attempt to crown for the third time in a row since he interrupted the reign of the maximum champion of the category, the Briton Lewis Hamilton.

​

F1 2023: Bahrain Grand Prix Schedule & Schedule

Friday 8.30-9.30 – First round 12.00-13.00 – Second round Saturday 8.30-9.30 – Third round 12.00-13.00 – Qualifying Sunday 12.00 – Race

The other pretenders to the title

This year F1 will have three rookie drivers: Australian Oscar Piastri (21) in the McLaren team, Dutch Nyck de Vries (28) in AlphaTauri and American Logan Sargeant (22) in Williams, a team that added at his academy the Argentine Franco Colapinto (19).

The recruitment market has brought about other changes: two-time Spanish champion Fernando Alonso has left Alpine and has signed on as the new driver at Aston Martin, replacing retired four-time German champion Sebastian Vettel.

The Spaniard will share the squad with Canadian Lance Stroll, who hopes to recover from a broken wrist to start the new calendar, otherwise he will be temporarily replaced by the Brazilian Felipe Drugovich (22).

Frenchman Pierre Gasly, from AlphaTauri, took over from Alonso at Alpine and facilitated the ownership of De Vries – a former replacement at Williams – as co-equiper of Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda at the Red Bull branch.

35-year-old German Nico Hulkenberg, with a 12-season F1 résumé, most recently as a reliever at Williams, will return as a confirmed driver at Haas, which parted ways with compatriot Mick Schumacher.

The other two runners who will not be part of the Formula 1 Compared to last year it will be the Canadian Nicholas Latifi and the Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who leaves the top division of world motorsport for the first time since 2011.

The three main F1 teams will have no changes to their line-up: Verstappen will continue to be accompanied by Mexican Sergio “Checo” Pérez at Red Bull; Ferrari will keep the Monegasque Charles Leclerc and the Spaniard Carlos Sainz; while Mercedes will do the same with Hamilton and the Briton George Russell.

In testing last weekend at Sakhir, Red Bull confirmed its favoritism by setting the best times in the first session with Verstappen and in the third with “Checo” Pérez. Only the Chinese Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) managed to put the Austrian team’s departments out of action on the second day.

the new model RB19 showed an evolution that was recognized by the champion: “The car works quite well, we tried many things. The tests were very positive and I enjoyed it. There are some differences, the car drives differently but it is also related to tyres.” .

?The problem we had last year (at the start of the season) is that the car was overweight and the weight was also unevenly distributed. We fixed it during the year and the performance improved, it became a good racing car. This year is a continuation, but we have found things that clearly improve the car. Do we know what our limits are? Verstappen explained after the tests.

The Bahrain Grand Prix will kick off this Sunday at 12:00 in Argentina with a 57-lap Star+ broadcast at the Sakhir International Circuit, where Red Bull has not won for 10 years.

The F1 season will conclude according to the following schedule: Saudi Arabian GP (March 19), Australia (April 2), Azerbaijan (April 30), Miami (May 7), San Marino (May 21), Monaco (May 28 ), Spain (June 4), Canada (June 18), Austria (July 2), and Great Britain (July 9).

Hungary (July 23), Belgium (July 30), Netherlands (August 27), Monza (September 3), Singapore (September 17), Japan (September 24), Qatar (October 8), Austin (October 22), Mexico (October 29), Brazil (November 5), Las Vegas (November 18) and Abu Dhabi (November 26).