Sergio Perez believes Red Bull are set for a strong start to the 2023 F1 season after topping the final day of testing in Bahrain.
The team won 17 out of 22 races last year, but were not in such strong shape at the beginning of the season. Ferrari had the upper hand in performance and Red Bull also encountered reliability problems in the opening races.Perez’s lap of 1’30.305 today stood as the quickest time of the test, was better than the team managed during last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix and two-tenths of a second quicker than Charles Leclerc’s pole position time for that race.
“The team has done a tremendous job back in Milton Keynes,” Perez told the official F1 website after completing his pre-season testing. “The factory has been working really hard over the winter.
“We’ve certainly got a good base car, something we can work through it. I think we will only find out next weekend where we really are because I think these days we don’t get to see the full picture.”
Teams only had three days of testing before the start of the season, leaving each driver one-and-a-half days each. Perez spent the entire day in the Red Bull and covered 133 laps, the majority of his pre-season running.
“Obviously Bahrain is very difficult in testing, the track is changing pretty much every time you go out, the Tarmac is very rough. So just in general, I think it’s a difficult track to test.
“But I think with the most we could. We did a lot of analysis on set-ups on tyres. So I think we did the most we could, we completed our programmes both days so pleased with that.”
He said his minimum expectation for the season-opening race in eight days’ time is “to be up there” in contention for victory. “It will be an important weekend.
“Conditions are going to be a bit similar to what we just experienced tonight. It will be great to start the season much stronger than we did last year.”
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Edvaldo
25th February 2023, 18:12
So, another snoozefest of a season in sight?
In all my years watching these sport, these were much more common than the entertaining ones.
I finally can say i feel too old for this s…, i guess.
Imre (@f1mre)
25th February 2023, 18:36
It is the nature of F1. Someone builds a better car than others. In the last 30 years there was a Willams era, Ferrari era, Red Bull era and Mercedes era with a few outlier years.
MacLeod (@macleod)
27th February 2023, 7:44
Maybe in the beginning but expect Ferrari be very close and teams will get closer during the season as Red Bull don’t bring as many updates as last year due budget.
Le Jimster (@lejimster82)
27th February 2023, 11:55
I expect Red Bull will be able to bring upgrades for most of the season as they already had much of this car designed and ready at the end of last year and it will just be subtle refinements.
Ferrari seemed to wait a long time before getting into their upgrades last year, which could be a problem if they are behind in the title fight at the start.
Mercedes could be the ones to watch. Most of us think they’re still in 3rd place. But they made a big jump in performance last year, if they do that again before mid season, I expect they will be in the title fight.
Pedro
26th February 2023, 12:13
I Recon Aso they’ll start far better than last year also but we’ll struglle more along the season specially after Barcelona
Pedro
26th February 2023, 12:13
Will*