After the longest off-season in years, the teams assembled for the first race of the 2023 Formula 1 season in Bahrain. The winner was widely expected, but there was a surprise addition to the podium.
Thursday
After spending the last few days exploring Bahrain (turns out you can complete that in around two days) I was excited to get back underway ahead of the new season. Press day is always extremely busy but one of my favourite parts of the weekend: it’s the first chance we get to sit and talk to the drivers and get a feel for their headspace. Considering we had spoken to many of the drivers during testing, I focused mostly on Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren, whose drivers hadn’t been available outside of the FIA press conferences.
The drive in was relatively chaotic as has been much of the stay – but once in we started the day with a trip to AlphaTauri to speak with Yuki Tsunoda, who looked relaxed in his sunglasses. He opened up about his third year in F1, and the extra pressures he feels as he is now no longer one of the new drivers on the grid.
As the day went on, more drivers were ticked off the list. Heading to speak to Lewis Hamilton, he caught my eye as I sat down. “Where are all the women?” he mouthed to me. “That’s the question I keep asking,” I replied.
The promoters kindly arranged a media dinner evening which set us up nicely for the first day of real action.
Friday
Friday serves as an information-collecting day for me, with far fewer media opportunities besides the team bosses’ press conference. On my way there I bumped into Christian Horner and his head of communications Paul Smith. Smiling warmly, he gestured for me to walk ahead of him up the stairs. Horner may play the pantomime villain in Drive to Survive, but in real life, he is always very conscious to acknowledge the “guys and girls” when greeting us in group media situations, which is appreciated.
The new press conference look was in full swing with drivers and team principals gathered on what is apparently an Ikea sofa. I took my seat alongside the other journalists as the session got underway. Horner earned a chuckle by jokingly suggesting the FIA had put Red Bull’s £6 million budget cap fine to good use with the seat and a new suit for mediator Tom Clarkson, which earned a laugh too.
Fridays are also a good opportunity to go trackside and see the cars in action. F1 journalists are either accredited race-by-race or permanently, and the former are only…
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