Will we see signs of a "tighter" championship at the top of the hierarchy?

Will Ferrari and Mercedes stand up to the ultra-dominant Red Bulls last season?

Will Lewis Hamilton manage to snatch an eighth record crown?

So many questions that will find their first answers on the route of Sakhir.

By the very admission of Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), the vice-world champion expected as one of the main challengers this season, the Redbull RB19 "looks very efficient".

F1 driver Charles Leclerc, March 2, 2023 in Bahrain © ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / AFP

And for good reason, during the pre-season tests held here in Bahrain last week, Red Bull was placed at the forefront.

This bodes well for the defending champion team among the constructors.

Verstappen for a first in Bahrain?

Last year, Red Bull, Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Pérez won almost everything on the track over the 22 GPs.

Regularly beaten in qualifying by Ferrari, which came back in force in 2022, it was in the race that the Austrian team showed all the power of its single-seaters, winning 17 of the 22 races in 2022 - including 15 victories for Verstappen. -alone, an absolute record in a season.

At the dawn of this first round (out of 23), the competition can however try to reassure themselves by seeing that Verstappen, in F1 since 2015, has never yet won the first GP of a season - or even at Bahrain.

Presentation of the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir where the F1 Grand Prix of the season was contested © / AFP

In 2022, the Dutchman, then second on the Sakhir track behind Leclerc and Ferrari, even had to retire due to a technical problem at the end of the GP.

Same sentence for his teammate Pérez … in the last lap.

A possible bis repetita which would certainly please Ferrari, vice-world champion among constructors, in pole position this season to try to thwart the plans of Red Bull.

Too often victim of its errors of strategy and reliability problems last season, combined with the piloting errors of Leclerc and the Spaniard Carlos Sainz, the Scuderia had not competed for long against the overpowering Austrian team.

Will it be the same again this year?

The F1 world champions © Valentin RAKOVSKY / AFP

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Mercedes, 3rd in the championship in 2022 but in difficulty last season because of new regulations, hopes to begin its return to the front of the stage.

The eight-time constructors' world champion since 2014 has gotten rid of porpoising linked to the new 2022 rules, an excellent point because this aerodynamic phenomenon causing cars to bounce gave a hard time last season to its drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

In Bahrain, Hamilton hopes to unlock his counter of victories, blocked since 2021. Last year, the 38-year-old driver had the first white season of his career since 2007. For now, the statistics are playing in his favor on the Gulf circuit, since he is the driver with the most victories (5) in Bahrain since the first GP organized in 2004.

Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes, during pre-season testing in Bahrain, February 23, 2023 © Giuseppe CACACE / AFP

At Aston Martin, Lance Stroll, injured in the wrist in a bicycle accident in February, will be present at the start of the race.

He is teaming up this season with Fernando Alonso, who will compete in his first GP at the wheel of an Aston Martin, after two seasons with the French team Alpine.

the veteran Spaniard also made a strong impression during testing, regularly placing his single-seater on par with the best.

Alonso gave way to Frenchman Pierre Gasly, who arrived from AlphaTauri, who will experience his baptism of fire this weekend in the ranks of the French team.

F1 driver Pierre Gasly, March 2, 2023 in Bahrain © ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / AFP

Off the track, as every year since the 2011 Shiite revolt in Bahrain, NGOs and European parliamentarians are also speaking out against human rights violations in the kingdom and the fate of political prisoners.

© 2023 AFP