Bahrain F1 Testing 2023 - Day 1 Results

Red Bull's Max Verstappen ended the first day of F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain at the top of the timesheets, setting the fastest lap of the day with a time of 1:32.837 in the afternoon session.

The Dutchman led the way, but Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was close behind and nearly overtook him in the closing stages of the session.

Mercedes sees improvement in testing with balanced W14

Mercedes had a good start to testing for the 2023 Formula 1 season, reporting 'no bouncing' on the opening day with their new W14 car.

This is a marked improvement from last year's testing, where the German car manufacturer struggled with excessive porpoising.

Toto Wolff, Mercedes team boss, was pleased with early feedback from George Russell and stated that the car seemed balanced in the right way.

“We have a solid base now to work from and try to optimize the car, which we haven't done yet," said Wolff.

"It's really just finding out, are there any areas that could be real performance hindrances like last year with the bouncing? Now we just got to work through the program.”

Mercedes' troubles with porpoising last year were quickly identified, but this year seems to be a different story.

While all teams faced fewer bouncing issues than last year, bumps on the Sakhir track at the end of the straights were still causing some issues for some teams.

However, the issues with the bumps were not similar to the porpoising characteristics that plagued Mercedes last year.

Although lap times were mostly irrelevant during the first day of testing, Mercedes seems confident that they are in a much better place with their 2023 car than they were last year.

With no bouncing to report and positive feedback from their driver, Mercedes appears to have a solid foundation to build upon as they continue testing and work to optimize their car.

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