Pre-season testing in Bahrain is over, which can only mean one thing: for the first time in over 100 days, it's race week!

This Sunday, 20 cars will be racing towards turn 1 for not just the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix, but also the start of the 2023 Formula One season! There aren’t enough superlatives to describe my excitement. Thanks to testing last week, we were able to have an insight into what to expect from the upcoming season.

Pre-season testing in F1 isn’t just used to make sure the car can turn left and right: it’s used to let the drivers get used to the car (especially if they are new to a team, such as Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin), see how their cars can handle multiple laps on different tyre sets, and many other technical details.

All the drivers get 1 and a half days in the car. However, the one thing many F1 fans look for in pre-season testing is the lap times, and it’s a familiar face on top of the timesheets.

Red Bull and Sergio Perez grabbed the fastest lap out of all 3 testing days, with a 1:30.305 on the final day, a whole 3 tenths of a second faster than 7-Time World Champion Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes. Now that’s more like it from them.

Surprisingly, Alfa Romeo set the third quickest time with Valtteri Bottas at the wheel: a 1:30.827 for the Finnish driver. They’re followed by championship hopefuls Ferrari, AlphaTauri, Haas, Aston Martin, McLaren, Williams and last but not least Alpine, who’s fastest time was 2.457 seconds off Red Bull’s. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll had to miss testing (and potentially this weekend’s race) due to a cycling accident with suspected broken wrists.

His replacement, 2022 F2 champion Felipe Drugovich, did a very respectable 1:32.075.

However, I can tell you from experience that pre-season testing times don’t mean anything. Having a fast car is good and all, but if the engine is blowing up and your tyres are falling off, you won’t have anything to show for it.

This is why some teams use testing to find issues with their cars and quickly iron them out. Aston Martin, McLaren and even Mercedes had car issues during testing. “Slow and steady wins the race” couldn’t fit in a better place, could it?

Another reason not to take the testing times for granted is the art of sandbagging. Sandbagging in F1 is when a team deliberately underperforms in testing or practice to make it look like they aren’t as competitive, only to lap everyone in the race and win by 2 minutes.

It’s a bit like Manchester City putting out their youth team against Grimsby Town in the FA Cup, but when they are losing they bring on Haaland and De Bruyne to score 15 goals. Only difference is, in F1 you can’t tell whether a team is sandbagging, or they genuinely have a dog of a car. But that’s the fun of F1: a couple lap times and you’re suddenly a qualified psychic.

Testing has come and gone now though, and in a few days time we will get to see the real potential of the cars during qualifying, which will put my psychic powers to the test. I’m going to attempt to predict the podium finishers in every race this season, starting with this Sunday in Bahrain, which will be Verstappen P1, Leclerc P2 and Perez P3. Potentially a bit boring, but going safe won’t harm anyone

Anyways, that wraps up my pre season roundup. I’ll hope to see you next week for my Bahrain Grand Prix summary (with correct predictions I hope)! Until next time.

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