If ever a precision engineering company has a way of proving its prowess, it is through producing a top quality Formula 1 car with an outstanding performance, giving a skilled driver a chance of making a big impact on the season ahead.
Even with large financial resources and top drivers, the goal of providing a top-performing car can sometimes prove elusive; the struggles of Mercedes with ‘porpoising’ last year left Lewis Hamilton in an unaccustomed position of being unable to win a single race, even though team-mate George Russell triumphed in Brazil.
How Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull will do this year remains to be seen, but as the F1 website technical observer Mark Hughes noted, the first practice in Bahrain offered some clues.
The initial observation, caveats notwithstanding, was that Red Bull look to be “in a very good place” indeed, with their car for this season being only a little different from last year’s winning package.
Hughes added: “The ease with which Red Bull ran through their programme and how it was invariably the fastest car on track whenever it ran – by a significant margin – looked ominous.”
The Ferrari was described as still displaying the “low-frequency bouncing” of last year, but was ”otherwise very driveable”, much to the liking of Charles LeClerc.
Perhaps inevitably, most attention will be paid to Mercedes, which looked like being “only the third or fourth fastest car”.
If Mercedes remain an also-rans, that will come as a particular disappointment, with last year ending a run of eight successive constructors’ championships.
However, any study of the historic list of winning constructors shows how success can come and go; Williams had its glory days in the 90s but are usually at the back of the grid now. Ferrari dominated in the Michel Schumacher days of the 2000s, while Red Bull had four constructors’ championships in a row before the recent Mercedes run.
If first practice was an omen for Mercedes in 2023, the key question will be whether they can bounce back in time like Red Bull have, or go the way of Williams.