Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) y Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) will be the two Spanish representatives in the new campaign of Formula 1which kicks off this weekend at the Bahrain International Tourin what will be the 20th season of the Asturian, the oldest at 41, in the world with intact motivation, while the man from Madrid faces his ninth year at the ‘Gran Circo’, his third at the ‘Scuderia’, still with a lot of potential.
After ‘The Plan’ without success in Alpine last year, the two-time champion has achieved with some very exciting and competitive tests in Bahrain build faith and belief in ‘The Mission’ and the victory number 33 with Aston Martina team that seems to have revived with the Spaniard in command, while Sainz continues to work hard to be a key player in the reunion of Ferrari with the title.
With the clear mastery of Red Bull Since the test bench started in Sakhir, Alonso was a ‘clock’ on the Persian Gulf track, with very exciting race simulation batches, always close to Max Verstappen. The second day in Bahrain was the most productive for the Spaniard, finishing in third place (1:32.205), just half a second behind the reigning champion (1:31.650).
Both Aston Martin, with a practically new car, and Alonso were the sensation of the tests, poking his head among the candidate theorists -Ferrari and Mercedes- to be the alternative, with much more to gain than lose. And it is that, although the preseason could be a mere mirage, the AMR23 looks very good to, at least, be the fourth team on the grid and look face to face at Charles Leclerc, Sainz, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, and ahead of Alpine and McLaren.
The famous sidepods, halfway between Red Bull and Ferrari, seem to give the AMR23 stability and consistency on the track superior to its theoretical competitors in the middle zone. and turn him into a agile and ‘easy’ to tame car, which even avoids, like the Red Bull, the annoying ‘porpoising’. And this aroused surprise within the grid itself, with the teams ‘surrendering’ to the proposal of the English team.
F1 Bahrain GP schedules
Friday
12.30 Free 1.
16.00 Free 2.
Saturday
12.30 Free 3.
16.00 Qualification.
Domingo
16.00 Carrera.
