The 2023 Formula 1 season officially kicks off next weekend with the Bahrain Grand Prix. See all the details on the first race of the year below.

Bahrain GP Schedule

As already pointed out, the sporting event should take place next weekend: from March 3 to 5.

The attraction will be divided into three free practice sessions, qualifying practice and the race.

The first free practice session (TL) is scheduled for Friday (3), at 8:30 am. TL 2 takes place the same day, from 12 noon.

The third and final free practice session is scheduled for the next day (March 4) at 8:30 a.m.

Qualifying training takes place a little later, at 12 noon. The main event, the race, is scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m.

F1 broadcast

Broadcast rights to the world’s leading motorsport tournament remain with Grupo Bandeirantes. However, it is important to pay attention to the programming grid.

Indeed, only training sessions and qualifying races are broadcast on Open TV. It was like that in 2022. See the diagram of F1 broadcasts, on Band:

• Free Training 1: band sports
• Free Training 2: band sports
• Free Training 3: band sports
• Skills training : Bandsports, TV Bandeirantes and Bandeirantes website
• Race: Bandeirantes TV and Bandeirantes website

F1 has experienced German rookies and returns

Drivers Logan Sargeant (Williams) and Oscar Piastri (McLaren) will compete in the first F1 race of their careers.

Dutchman Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri) can also be considered a rookie, but only as a starter.

This is because the contender took part in a test for the Williams team in 2022.

Additionally, F1 has the return of Nico Hulkenberg. The German was hired by Haas and inherited the position vacated by Mick Schumacher.

Bahrain GP could feature Felipe Drugovich

The Brazilian and current Formula 2 champion has already been chosen by Aston Martin to replace Lance Stroll and drive alongside Fernando Alonso.

The decision came after the Canadian was involved in a cycling accident, fracturing both wrists and missing pre-season.

However, Stroll has already landed in London and will be testing the simulator to find out whether or not he will have any medical conditions to compete.

F1 grid in 2024

F1, again, will have 20 drivers. Red Bull Racing (RBR), Ferrari, Mercedes and Alfa Romeo are the only teams not to have changed the starting XI. See the list of drivers below:

• Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez (Red Bull Racing)
• Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
• Lewis Hamilton and George Russell (Mercedes)
• Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
• Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris (McLaren)
• Valtteri Bottas and Guanyou Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
• Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
• Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
• Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
• Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant (Williams)

Recent retrospective

According to the Autoracing website, eight drivers have already won the Bahrain GP. Three of them are part of the current network. Check out the list of Bahrain GP winners below:

• Michael Schumacher (2004)
• Fernando Alonso (2005, 2006 and 2010)
• Felipe Massa (2007 and 2008)
• Jenson Button (2009)
• Sebastien Vettel (2012, 2013 2017 and 2018)
• Lewis Hamilton (2014, 2015, 2019, 2020 and 2021)
• Nico Rosberg (2016)
• Charles Leclerc (2022)