F1 2023 pre-season testing: All the key stats and facts from Bahrain

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz on track at the first day of testing in Bahrain
F1 2023 pre-season testing is now complete, and for the most part things were pretty seamless for the teams as they took their new cars for their first laps around Bahrain in the week.
We’ve compiled a list of the key statistics for you from around the weekend in testing, as Sergio Perez’s fastest time from the final day was already quicker than the 2022 pole time around the Bahrain International Circuit. The tyres were softer than what will be available next weekend, but once the sandbags are fully off, how much faster can these cars go, we wonder?
In any case, it was an extremely productive three-day test in Bahrain for the teams, with a combined 3,988 laps completed between each car and an average of more than 100 laps per day per team, proving there’s a solid baseline of reliability from the off.
Testing laps completed
A good metric to know how well each car was able to run from the get-go, and no team performed badly here by any stretch, but AlphaTauri averaging 152 laps per day is mightily impressive.
Fernando Alonso completed the most laps of any driver, though given he had an extra half-day compared to everyone else and Aston Martin showed strong reliability, this is understandable, with Lando Norris being the full-time driver with the lowest lap count.
1 AlphaTauri, 456 (Nyck de Vries 246, Yuki Tsunoda 210)
2 Williams, 439 (Logan Sargeant 229, Alex Albon 210)
3 Ferrari, 416 (Carlos Sainz 217, Charles Leclerc 199)
4 Haas, 414 (Kevin Magnussen 218, Nico Hulkenberg 196)
5 Red Bull, 413 (Sergio Perez 209, Max Verstappen 204)
6 Alfa Romeo, 401 (Valtteri Bottas 202, Zhou Guanyu 199)
7 Mercedes, 398 (Lewis Hamilton 220, George Russell 178)
8 Aston Martin, 387 (Fernando Alonso 270, Felipe Drugovich 117)
9 Alpine, 353 (Esteban Ocon 178, Pierre Gasly 175)
10 McLaren, 311 (Oscar Piastri 170, Lando Norris 141)
Fastest lap in testing by driver
Softer tyres appeared on the cars towards the end of the final day of testing, so many of the quickest times here came from the final part of testing itself. While it’s difficult to read too much into a competitive order, the times are certainly pretty close.
1 Sergio Perez, Red Bull 1:30.305 (Day 3)
2 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes 1:30.664 (Day 3)
3 Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo 1:30.827 (Day 3)
4 Charles Leclerc, Ferrari 1:31.024 (Day 3)
5 Carlos Sainz, Ferrari 1:31.036 (Day 3)
6 Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri 1:31.261 (Day 3)
7 Kevin Magnussen, Haas 1:31.381 (Day 3)
8 George Russell, Mercedes 1:31.442 (Day 3)
9 Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin 1:31:450 (Day 3)
10 Zhou Guanyu, Alfa Romeo 1:31.610 (Day 2)
11 Max Verstappen, Red Bull 1:31.650 (Day 2)
12 Felipe Drugovich, Aston Martin 1:32.075 (Day 3)
13 Lando Norris, McLaren 1:32.165 (Day 3)
14 Nyck de Vries, AlphaTauri 1:32.222 (Day 2)
15 Nico Hulkenberg, Haas 1:32.466 (Day 2)
16 Logan Sargeant, Williams 1:32.549 (Day 2)
17 Pierre Gasly, Alpine 1:32.762 (Day 3)
18 Alex Albon, Williams 1:32.793 (Day 3)
19 Oscar Piastri, McLaren 1:33.175 (Day 2)
20 Esteban Ocon, Alpine 1:33.257 (Day 3)
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Testing lap time improvement, 2022 vs 2023
We mentioned earlier about Perez already beating last season’s pole time on Day 3 of testing this year, and seven teams (minus McLaren, Ferrari and Alpine) actually beat their quickest qualifying efforts from last year as well.
Of course, testing lap times are not fully representative of overall pace, and Alpine acknowledged the team had not fully unleashed the A523 during testing, but the improvement in lap time from last season to this is quite stark for some teams.
Here’s a look at the time deltas compared to the teams’ quickest testing laps last year.
Williams: -2.378s
Aston Martin: -2.371s
Alfa Romeo: -2.158s
Mercedes: -2.095s
AlphaTauri: -1.741s
Red Bull: -1.415s
Ferrari: -1.391s
McLaren: -1.011s
Haas: -0.860s
Alpine: +0.064s