The Formula 1 2023 – pre-season testing has begun and I am wildly excited! I’ve gathered all the stats and put them into an easy-to-understand overview. Some of the teams have some additional notable information.
Looking for the 2023 calendar? Go to Formula 1 2023 – All information you need this season
Official live leaderboard of the 2nd session on the 3rd testing day can be found on F1.com.
Have a look!
Red Bull
- Day 1: Red Bull was the only team that had one driver drive both sessions of the day. Max Verstappen started pre-season testing off strong having driven the most laps and the quickest lap time of the first day.
- Day 2: Sergio Perez had his first session of the testing days and drove a nice 76 laps and ended up with the 14th time of the day due to having done long runs. Max Verstappen had his third and last testing session in the afternoon, driving the 2nd time of the day in the first lap, only to drive his best lap after 30 minutes that stood 1st until Zhou took the top time in the last hour. So far, Red Bull seems to be the strongest team and the one heading towards a victory on the first race weekend.
- Day 3: Today is Sergio Perez’ day of testing as he gets in the car both sessions. During the morning session he drove 69 laps and had his quickest time on the C3 compound, putting him as 4th fastest. He also brought out a red flag as a few pieces of carbon fibre and a sensor strip flew of his car. During the afternoon session he drove another 64 laps gathering information for his team and setting the fastest time of the whole pre-season testing period at 1:30.305 on C4 tyres (which is the 2nd softest tyre).
Mercedes
- Day 1: Mercedes started pre-season testing very positively, having no insane bouncing (or porpoising) issues like last year. They raked in 2nd to most laps on the first day.
- Day 2: Lewis Hamilton had a decent amount of laps during the first session of day 2, even though the car seemed way different from the day before due to it feeling unbalanced. George Russel ended his afternoon session after his car stopped on track due to a hydraulic error and brought out the only red flag of the day with 1 hour and 35 minutes remaining.
- Day 3: Mercedes seem to be having the same problems as on friday, dealing with a car that still has serious balancing issues. George Russell set the 2nd fastest time of the session on the softest tyres, the C5 compound. Lewis Hamilton struggled in the afternoon session again with his W14, but slowly got his car better under control, setting the 2nd fastest time of the session and pre-season testing period on the softest tyre compound, the C5.
Ferrari
- Day 1: Ferrari seems to have kept some of the bouncing from last year, but not nearly as bad as the beginning of last year.
- Day 2: Ferrari got through their busy programme on their 2nd testing day and look like the biggest challenger to Red Bull. Both drivers got a good amount of laps and the porpoising also seems like a problem of the past.
- Day 3: Charles Leclerc set the morning fastest time on C4 tyres, untill Perez beat that by 0.7s on the same compound, during the afternoon session. Carlos Sainz managed to drive a very nice 75 laps in the last session and ended with his fastest lap being just 0.012s slower than his teammate’s.
Alpha Tauri
- Day 1: After last year’s incredible F1 debut for Nyck de Vries, today marks his first day as an actual fully fledged F1 driver. The Dutchman drove an incredible amounts of laps for the team and ended with the 13th time of the day.
- Day 2: Both drivers got an incredible amount of laps in (159 total for today), going through a seriously packed programme, getting the team great data. Nyck de Vries ended with an impressive 4th time of the day.
- Day 3: Alpha Tauri had another incredible amount laps driven, a total of 166. Even though they have most laps and likely gathered most information, they seem to be on the backfoot of the middle.
McLaren
- Day 1: McLaren had a good morning session with rookie Oscar Piastri driving a fair amount of laps for his team. The 2nd session was a less pleasurable one for the team due to an issue with the wheel brow. Lando Norris did get out and drove a total of 40 laps. McLaren ended the day with the least amount of laps.
- Day 3: McLaren’s final day of testing was not great again as the same had the leas amount of laps of the again, also ending pre-season testing with the least mileage.
Alpine
- Day 2: Alpine is a bit of a gray mouse in the testing days. Their speed isn’t great and their amount of laps is the lowest of all teams so far. Esteban Ocon however said, and Pierre Gasly confirmed, that they feel more positive about testing this year than the previous year.
Alfa Romeo
- Day 2: Alfa Romeo had only Zhou Guanyu in the car on the 2nd day of pre-season testing, and it was an incredible one at that. Zhou drove an admirable 132 laps total over 2 sessions and ended the day with the quickest time of 1:31.610.
- Day 3: Valtteri Bottas was having a good first session on day 3 until his car lost drive and brought out the only red flag in the morning. The afternoon session had Valtteri Bottas set the 3rd quickest time of pre-season testing.
Aston Martin
- Day 1: Lance Stroll was replaced by Felipe Drugovich, due to a wrist injury he endured during a cycling accident. Aston Martin started off rough on the first day due to an electrical issue that brought the only red flag of the session. Alonso also spent some time in the pit while his team fixed floor damage during his session, but still managed to drive a total of 60 laps and put the 2nd fastest time of the day on the board.
- Day 2: For their 2nd testing day, Aston Martin also had just one driver, Fernando Alonso, testdrive both sessions as Lance Stroll still seems to be unavailable due to his recent cycle accident.
- Day 3: With Lance Stroll still not being able to get in the car, Aston Martin put reserve driver Felipe Drugovich in the car for the morning session. He had a very decent session, driving 77 laps and setting the 3rd quickest time of the session on the softest tyre, C5 compound. Fernando Alonso is the only driver driving 4 sessions during pre-season testing. Aston Martin had a great 3rd testing day and seems to be a strong competitor.
Haas F1 Team
- Day 2: Haas had a decent 2nd day of testing with a total of 135 laps driven over both sessions. It is hard to say where they stand, but according to them they’re going through their program smoothly.
Williams
- Day 1: Rookie Logan Sergeant got the wheel for the 2nd session of the first day, driving a spectacular 75 laps for Williams and ending with the 10th time, making him the fastest rookie of the day.
- Day 2: Williams too had only one driver do both sessions, Logan Sargeant. This very impressive rookie did the most laps of the day as he drove 154 of them and ended the day with the 7th time of day 2. Williams is having their best pre-season testing so far in years.