The championship is starting to become boring for me, this are the three faces you will probably see until Spain, after most team come up with their upgrades, consider Aston Martin is in that group of teams that can still upgrade a lot their car as were very low on the grid last year meaning they have more time on the wind tunnel than the ""top 3"".
Drivers like Sergio Perez from Red Bull will start Quali tomorrow with a new gearbox and Charles Leclerc will start 10th place on Sunday Race Day, after getting penalty for changing his Control Electronic Unit.
There are a few turns that have been improve since last year, most changes were done from turn 22 to 27 but it was on 22 that drivers were having a hard time, at first Max having no grip as shown on the above image, but still manage to be the fastest on both free practice, FP1 during the day was very hot but no signs of overheating for any of the cars and during night almost three hours latter F1 Cars come alive during FP2, Red Bull was very dominant with Max during the entire practice as for Checo he was having trouble trying to find grip as he felt there was no downforce coming from the front end of the car.
Max Verstappen Fastest Lap
During practice day drivers don't go full throttle in a sense that the cars map is not the one for race day, sometimes this cars are even 2 to 3 second slower during practice and this is intentional. It was Max all day on top, few moments Sergio and Alonso had it but not really, was a matter of time until Max get a clean lap on soft tires.
Degradation and performance for Jeddah was best for medium tires, its the fastest street circuit for this year so I doubt that anyone would beat Max since their car is the fastest on straight line but Alonso with the Aston Martin is faster on the slow sections of the circuit.
Alpin with Esteban Occon who were basically humilated on Bahrain by Alonso and themselves, Alonso took crap from them for the entire 2022 season until decided to move to Aston Martin, Occon didnt didnt finish the race but match the record for most penalty on a F1 Race. They seem to be trying to get some justice back, taking fourth position in FP2. Alpine car has always been one of the fastest in the mid grid but today there end Fourth on FP2 although from position 4 to 10 was very mix.
The top of the driver championship might turn boring with only three real competitors between Max, Checo and Alonso since at least on practice Mercedes and Ferrari were lacking a ton of performance, from Mercedes Russel ending 5 behind Occon and Hamilton ending 11, if it was race day he would be out of points.
This could make races boring as we see this top three drivers run away in the first 10 laps while the rest is spread across the mid grid. Ferrari end up 9 and 10 with Leclerc 9, this is very embarrassing even for a practice.
Source
Included Hamilton just because he is 7 Times Champion.
Its crazy how three of the best Formula 1 Racing Teams has started season 2023 in basically total disaster, there are still 22 races to go counting Jeddah but Ferrari, Mercedes and Mclaren need to do something if not at least for Ferrari and Mercedes any of the two could end up stuck in the mid grid, lets hope tomorrow on Quali they have a better performance.
I personally want to see more competition but also want to see top teams at a good performance if not then you will have the entire grid divided in groups separated by large gaps, I want to see them battling at least from 1 to 6 be very close but right now with Red Bull and Aston Martin dominating is not too fun.
