The curtain fell on Bahrain, Perez fastest with Red Bull RB19

Under floodlights at the Shakir Circuit in Bahrain, a unique three-day development test for the Formula One teams’ new cars came to an end, six days before the first tests of the inaugural Formula One GP of 2023 at the same Middle East circuit.

During the sunny day in the Bahrain desert, the teams first focused on sets of laps for the middle tire racing simulation (C3). In these, Sergio Perez drove the fastest lap in the new Red Bull RB19, 1:31.714, about 0.15” ahead of Hamilton in the Mercedes W14.

In the afternoon, as the sun went down, the teams took to the track for the qualifying test simulation on the two softer Pirelli tires (C4 and C5). The C5 is the softest of them all, and that was Hamilton’s second time and Valtteri Bottas third in the Alfa Romeo C43, 0.35 inches and 0.5 inches behind Perez, who scored the first time (1:30.305) with the theoretical slower C4 achieved rubber.

Behind Mercedes – which recovered from its problematic second day yesterday (24/03) – and Alfa Romeo, which showed promise, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz completed the top five with the Ferrari SF-23, also under the C4 tyre the fastest of their laps.

The Monegasque led the Cavallino in the morning and the Spaniard in the afternoon, and in the end they were separated by just 12 thousandths of a second – as the Scuderia didn’t show their full potential over the three days. However, this undoubtedly applies to all top teams, including RBR.

Significantly, while Red Bull didn’t show the full dynamics of the RB19, the Mexican’s current time was not only faster than last year’s development tests at the same track, but even better than the pole position achieved by Leclerc on the same track like last year’s Bahrain GP (though with slightly softer rubber). It should be noted that the harder C3-C2-C1 tires will be available again for the other three days (March 3-5) of this race.

Sixth place Yuki Tsunoda in the Alpha Tauri AT04 was the last rider to catch Perez by less than a second. The Japanese was closely followed by Kevin Magnussen (Haas VF-23), George Russell (Mercedes W14) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin AMR23) while the top ten was closed, 0.6 inches back, by Felipe Drugovic, who finished the morning green car drove before giving up way to Alonso.

Meanwhile, things continued to go badly for McLaren. They were the only team not to manage to set laps in the triple digits today: braking problems left Oscar Piastri with 44 laps in the morning, while aerodynamic problems left Lando Norris with several periods in the pits. The Brit did even less, 37 laps.

As for Alpine, it remained unremarkable and arguably showed nothing of the A523’s true potential as Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon fell to 12th and 14th respectively, with Alex Albon (Williams FW45) between them.

The three-day development trial in Bahrain ended with an unexpected static launch simulation. The actual first start of the year is eight days from now at the same venue for the Bahrain GP, ​​which opens the curtain on the 2023 Formula One season on March 5.