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2023 FIA Formula One World Championship
2023 Bahrain Grand Prix
Bahrain International Circuit
Sakhir, Bahrain
Sunday, 5 March 2023
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc will be looking to put early pressure on reigning two-time Formula One World Champion Max Verstappen in the season-opening
Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, March 5.
The Monegasque enjoyed his best season in F1 last year, winning three races and securing another seven podium finishes to rack up 308 points.
Image copyright: Getty Images
However, Verstappen was in a different class as he finished 146 points clear of Leclerc to retain his F1 crown after recovering from a slow start.
The 25-year-old kicked off 2022 in style by winning the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Australian Grand Prix, while securing P2 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
But reliability became an issue for Ferrari and Leclerc was forced to retire from the Spanish Grand Prix, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the French Grand Prix, which hurt his title chances. Meanwhile, team-mate Carlos Sainz also failed to complete two races due to mechanical failures.
Leclerc will be targeting his third podium in six attempts on the Bahrain International Circuit, having finished third in 2019.
He believes the new SF-23 car will perform better in a straight line this year but admits they have yet to find the ideal set-up during testing in Bahrain.
"I think our car changed a little bit of characteristic this year, I expect us to be a bit quicker in the straights, maybe struggling a bit more in the corners," he said.
"And with this three-day test, I can say that we are still working quite a bit on trying to find the sweet spot on the car in terms of setup. So there's some margin on that still, that we haven't found the sweet spot yet."
2022 Bahrain Grand Prix results:
Winner: Charles Leclerc - Ferrari
Second Place: Carlos Sainz - Ferrari
Third Place: Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
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