Red Bull dominated the Bahrain Grand Prix and Aston Martin pulled off the surprise of the weekend by grabbing a podium finish.
But which performances at the first race of the 2023 Formula 1 season didn’t get the credit they deserved? Four of our writers offer their views.
Logan Sargeant
Despite the race being a fairly underwhelming event in terms of championship prospects, some exciting storylines emerged behind Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, which have caught the attention of those in the paddock.
Among them my unsung hero is Logan Sargeant, who produced a stand-out performance on his debut weekend. He qualified 16th, a few tenths off his team mate Alex Albon, and matching the time set by Lando Norris: Sargeant was just one-thousandth of a second away from joining Albon in Q2.
He drove a strong race on Sunday under the eye of new Williams boss James Vowles. Despite all the pressure pilled on the shoulders of F1’s first full-time American driver for 16 years, Sargeant kept his head down and produced a mature drive.
He finished his F1 race debut in an impressive 12th place. Not just that, but he was within 10 seconds of his far more experience team mate.
It put him as the highest-placed rookie after McLaren’s Oscar Piastri suffered a mechanical failure and Nyck de Vries crossed the line in 14th. Sargeant was praised by Albon afterwards for his “natural pace” and his ability to give feedback to the team. He was just as delighted, and seemed unable to wipe the smile from his face as he told us Williams had “out-performed everything they expected from testing”.
Claire Cottingham
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Mike Krack
How many of us can honestly say we were familiar with Mike Krack when he was first announced as Aston Martin team principal early last year?
Despite his extensive experience in F1, Formula E and the World Endurance Championship as well as his time as head of motorsport at BMW, Krack was hardly a well known name among F1’s fanbase. Replacing Otmar Szafnauer, Krack took the reigns of a team undergoing a heavy transformation with lofty ambitions for its future.
After a slow start to 2022, Aston Martin improved rapidly over the second half of last season and stunned the paddock by convincing Fernando Alonso to leave Alpine and join them after they lost fellow multiple-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel to…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…