Lights go off

Max Verstappen won his first opening race, the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix on March 5, as  he and teammate Sergio (Checo) Perez took first and second place respectively. Fernando Alonso also came out in third to fill out the final podium position. Alonso also took home the “Driver of the Day” award for his various overtakes throughout the race. This was his first podium since the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix, and some would argue his first deserved podium in almost a decade.

The Grid

Tragedy struck a few teams as there were a few early retirements this race day. The most notable being Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had his race end early in lap 41 while sitting comfortably in third place.

McLaren struggled this race day as well, having one retirement in Oscar Piastri on his debut race and Lando Norris needing five pit stops. Norris took multiple pit stops lasting over 10 seconds due to his car needing to be repressurized. This race was most likely just a testing session for McLaren.

Although they had a collision in the fourth turn of the race between teammates, Aston Martin found its pace and had third and sixth place finishes. Lance Stroll of Aston Martin raced through injury as well. His status on if he would even race was unclear until a few days before the race weekend.

The Checkered Flag

Aston Martin looks to have a competitive car and will look to challenge Red Bull for the constructors championship. Ferrari and Mercedes both look to have uncertain futures for this season. Ferrari  plagued consistently with reliability issues and Mercedes’ W14 looks to be off pace just like last year’s car.

A fresh sight to see, the podium today was filled out by two hispanic drivers. Both Checo of Mexico and Alonso of Spain brought a certain spice to the podium that had been lacking for quite some time.