Three days of testing to acclimatize: On the eve of a record 23-race season, Formula 1 returns to the track for pre-season testing from Thursday to Saturday in Bahrain, scene of the first Grand Prix of the year March 5.

As in 2021, the testing period before the first race has been shortened to three days – down from a total of six days in 2022 and even longer before. The teams only have one car for two drivers, so each will only have one day and a half of testing to assess the technical changes made. And in particular the top speed because several Grands Prix will have an additional DRS zone favoring overtaking. This is the case of the third GP in Australia where a top speed of 340 km/h is expected!

If all the pilots have already been able to test their 2023 racing car in recent days during a “shakedown”, a run limited to 100 km, the stakes will however be high for the new ones, the “rookies” – Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri), Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Logan Sargeant (Williams) – who are competing in their first full season in the top class of motorsport.

For others, like the double world champion Fernando Alonso, it is within a new stable that it is necessary to take its marks.

“I am aware that I will not be 100% in Bahrain or Jeddah (the second round of the season), and maybe not in Australia”, third stage of the season, admitted “Nando”. And to explain: “I think F1 is the only sport in the world where you only do a day and a half of testing before you compete in a world championship. »

After two contested seasons at the wheel of an Alpine, the 41-year-old Spaniard joined Aston Martin, replacing four-time German world champion Sebastian Vettel. He is now teaming up with Lance Stroll (24), who, victim of a bicycle accident, will miss these three days of testing. The Canadian will make way for Brazilian Felipe Drugovich, one of the team’s reserve drivers.

Like Alonso, Pierre Gasly is also embarking on a new adventure, with Alpine, where he will form a 100% French duo with his former karting opponent, Esteban Ocon.

“It’s a big change, there is a lot of work done this winter,” said the 27-year-old former AlphaTauri pilot, who assures “trying to do what is necessary to reduce [his] adaptation time” .

German Nico Hulkenberg returns to F1 with Haas, four years after his last full season with Renault.

At the stables, Ferrari, led by its new boss, the Frenchman Frédéric Vasseur, intends to begin its return to the top of the hierarchy. The Scuderia had the initial potential to fight for the title in 2022, with great battles between its driver Charles Leclerc and the Red Bull of world champion Max Verstappen at the start of the season, but it did not keep up the pace due to difficulties. racing strategy errors and engine reliability issues.

Unlike last year which saw new technical regulations coming, this season “the concept of the car is the same, the regulations are the same […] only Bahrain will tell us where we are in terms of reliability and performance,” assured Vasseur. With only a few days between practice and the GP, “it will be difficult to react if there is a problem” with the car.

These tests will be of paramount importance for Mercedes, 3rd in the championship last year behind Red Bull and Ferrari, which has tried somehow to get rid of concerns related to the aerodynamics of its single-seater. If its British pilots Lewis Hamilton, in search of a record 8th title, and George Russell made their first laps with the new W14 last week in Silverstone (England), difficult for the moment to know if the German manufacturer got rid of the issues that hampered its performance in 2022.

“We know that pre-season testing in Bahrain will be the first real tests of the car,” assured Russell.

F1 also wants to see other title contenders. Starting with Alpine, 4th in the constructors’ championship last year, which hopes to get close to the first three places among the constructors.