Lights out and away we go

Harry Craig, Music Editor, looks ahead at the upcoming season of Formula 1

BY the time this goes to press, the opening race of the 2023 F1 season in Bahrain will be in the books, and will have given us a fairly good idea of how this season may go. Of course, that is not a given — the winner of the first round has not gone on to win the championship since 2016!

Either way, this season looks set to give us an epic championship battle, and hopefully will not see a repeat of the Verstappen and Red Bull dominance of 2022. Last season ended with a resurgent Mercedes following their early season troubles, and hopes are high at Maranello that Ferrari could bring home its first drivers’ championship since 2007.

Indeed, it is the latter that has dominated discussion over the winter break. Team Principal Mattia Binotto was sacked last November after a series of failures in 2022, replaced by former Alfa Romeo Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur, who has worked extensively with Ferrari’s lead driver Charles Leclerc in the past. This has seen a wider shakeup within Ferrari, which came to the opening race of 2022 with the fastest car but failed to challenge for the championship after a series of mechanical, strategic and development errors.

This revitalised Ferrari team are cautiously optimistic that the reliability issues they suffered last season, in which Leclerc was twice forced to retire from the lead of a race, have been solved. They also need to fix the repeated strategy errors that have haunted the team in recent years and arguably cost Leclerc at least three wins last year. This assumes even greater importance with Leclerc’s contract ending in 2024 and a potential offer from Mercedes on the horizon — it is paramount that Ferrari deliver him the package needed to compete for a world title.

For Mercedes, 2022 delivered a new, albeit unpleasant experience: After eight consecutive constructors’ championship titles, they found themselves unable to fight. Nonetheless, the season ended with an unexpected win in Brazil, and the team claims to have made progress over the winter break. If so, there is certain to be a fascinating in- tra-team dynamic between teammates George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton, seeking a record-breaking eighth world title, was unexpectedly outscored by his young teammate last season, albeit partly due to his bad luck.

However, pre-season testing has suggested 2022 may be more than just a blip for Mercedes, and that their struggles may become endemic. The car looked to struggle with both reliability and pace, and was a world away from their dominant 2020 challengers. Some even believe Mercedes will start the season behind customer team Aston Martin.

It is this Aston Martin team, which up until now has been confined to the midfield, that was the centre of attention at pre-season testing. New recruit and seasoned F1 veteran Fernando Alonso always brings plenty of hype, but following a successful pre-season test some believe Aston Martin could deliver a car that finally breaks through to the top teams. It would be a shock to see the team that finished sixth last season competing for wins, but perhaps not completely unexpected.

In contrast to their rivals, Red Bull have been relatively quiet over the winter break. After a dominant 2022 campaign, in which he broke the record for most wins in a season with 15, Max Verstappen will be the favourite to take a third world title that would draw him level with legends like Ayrton Senna and Niki Lauda.

Red Bull, however, are not overly confident, facing restrictions on aerodynamic testing due to their violation of cost cap regulations. However, pre-season testing suggested their 2023 car may be even faster than last year’s — a scary prospect for the rest of the grid, and it may be down to Ferrari for any hope of a challenge to Red Bull's domination.

As with any new F1 season, the rookie drivers are subject to much attention. There are three new faces on the 2023 grid: McLaren’s 2021 Formula 2 champion Oscar Piastri, AlphaTauri’s 2019 Formula 2 champion Nyck de Vries, and Williams’ Logan Sargeant, as well as the returning Nico Hülkenberg, who hasn’t had a full- time F1 seat since 2019. Each of these come with very differing expectations.

Piastri has been subject to the most hype and expectation, perhaps more so than any rookie since Charles Leclerc in 2018. Even getting his seat has seen controversy; as an Alpine young driver, he was originally announced for the French team after Alonso’s departure to Aston Martin last summer, but then shocked the F1 world by announcing he had signed a contract with McLaren to replace fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo.

This, combined with his stellar racing record that has included F2 and F3 championship wins in his rookie seasons, means Piastri is under plenty of pressure to perform. His teammate Lando Norris is considered one of F1’s best talents; Piastri will do well to simply match, never mind beat, him. McLaren are also prepared for a tricky start to the season; Team Principal Andrea Stella has been pessimistic about McLaren’s chances, and pre-season testing appeared to confirm this. This may help take some of the pressure away for Piastri.

The other two rookies enter with significantly less expectation. Nyck de Vries’ hopes of an F1 seat appeared to be over, despite his championship wins in F2 and Formula E, until he was called in to replace a sick Alex Albon for Williams at last year’s Italian Grand Prix, and finished eighth. This caught the eye of Red Bull’s Helmut Marko, who recruited him to their sister team at AlphaTauri. Some in the paddock even believe he could be being lined up as a successor to Sergio Pérez, who has been under increasing pressure to perform at the senior team.

Meanwhile, Logan Sargeant at Williams will be the first full-time American driver on the grid since Scott Speed in 2007 — something Formula 1 are very excited about, as they continue to break new ground in the American market. This will be a major talking point throughout the 2023 season, as F1 will break new ground in the States with a race in Las Vegas. The new street circuit will feature drivers racing down the iconic Strip in the penultimate race of the season, something that will catch the attention of even the most hardened F1 sceptics.

This is one of two new races on the 2023 calendar, alongside the returning Qatar Grand Prix, that takes F1 to a record-breaking 23-race calendar, in spite of the COVID-induced cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix. Six of these races will feature the sprint format, with qualifying on Friday, a sprint race on Saturday, and the main Grand Prix on Sunday, as F1 continues to tinker with its qualifying format.

Although we hope for plenty of on-track battles, there will be plenty off the track too. A story that has dominated the winter break has been the FIA’s ban on drivers making political gestures, which has been met with near-unanimous criticism from the drivers and beyond. It will be interesting to see if any drivers flout these new rules, as is widely anticipated.

In spite of these issues, the 2023 Formula 1 season promises to be a classic. Now we hope that it can live up to the hype.