Formula 1 fans were thrilled to hear the sound of roaring engines again as the pre-season testing for the 2023 campaign commenced at Bahrain International Circuit. The teams utilised aero rakes with sensors to compare the data they gathered from the wind tunnel and CFD simulations to their on-track performance.

Here’s what we learned after Day 1 of pre-season testing:

In 2022, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell encountered problems with “porpoising” in their Mercedes, where the car would bounce down a straight. The bouncing was so severe that it even broke their engines, according to team boss Toto Wolff. The team has addressed the issue with their 2023 car, the W14, as they ran without any bouncing on the first day of testing. Mercedes had a solid base to work from to optimise their car’s performance, and it was a good starting point for the eight-time world champions.

The reigning world champions, Red Bull, kept their 2023 challenger hidden until the last minute, causing a lot of interest outside their garage. The RB19 looked like an evolution of last year’s car. Max Verstappen drove the car for the whole day and the first half of the following day. Verstappen and Sergio Perez are confident in their abilities to make up any performance shortfall in the final 1.5 days of testing. Verstappen completed over two Grand Prix distances without any problems and set the fastest lap time of the day. He seemed pleased with the car’s performance, giving Red Bull fans hope that the team is ready to defend their title.

Ferrari, on the other hand, completed fewer laps than Red Bull, Mercedes, Williams, and Alfa Romeo. The team appeared to retain the low-frequency bouncing issue from the previous year’s model, but the car was otherwise stable and offered good grip. Carlos Sainz set an early morning time that placed him third on the leaderboard, about 0.35 seconds behind Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso. Charles Leclerc completed a couple of decent length long runs, which were similar to those set by Hamilton and Alonso, while the team worked with aero rakes on their cars.

After last year’s pre-season testing was affected by brake issues, McLaren was concerned about heading to Bahrain. The car ran smoothly during its shakedown in Bahrain earlier this week. But Lando Norris had to spend a lengthy stint in the garage during the afternoon session due to an issue with the wheel brow, resulting in their tally of 92 laps, the lowest of all teams. This setback wasn’t catastrophic, but it wasn’t the start they wanted for their 2023 testing campaign.

Aston Martin had a bumpy road to testing, with Lance Stroll injured and Felipe Drugovich taking his place. Drugovich encountered an electrical issue that brought out the only red flag of the day. He completed 40 laps, while Fernando Alonso did 60, but his running was hampered by floor damage. Aston Martin was ninth of the ten teams in the mileage charts. The team is still evaluating whether Stroll can return for next week’s season-opener in Bahrain, and if he can’t, Drugovich will likely get more car time to prepare him for his F1 debut.

It is still early in the testing period, and teams are focused on assessing reliability and stressing new parts. Headline lap times matter little in testing, with teams looking to clock up mileage instead. The third and final day of testing will be where teams go in search of pure pace. The testing period allows teams to fine-tune their cars ahead of the season opener in Bahrain next week. Teams will be looking to assess the performance of their cars and identify any areas that could hinder their performance.