The Bahrain Grand Prix was the first opportunity to look at all teams' improvements in 2023 compared to 2022. The top speed of a car is obviously of great importance in Formula 1, we can see that almost every team has improved in terms of top speed in 2023.
Top speed - Ferrari
Ferrari is in the top three with two cars. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc are first and third respectively. They have improved considerably compared to last year. They needed to because last year that was the Scuderia's weak point in their battle with Red Bull Racing. Red Bull are also still at the top of the list with second and sixth spots. That Mercedes has also improved is evident from Lewis Hamilton's fourth spot. His highest speed in 2023 was 324 kilometres per hour as opposed to last year's 315 kilometres per hour.
Alonso and Magnussen slower
We see that only Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen were only one kilometre per hour slower than last year. In Alonso's case, the reason is that he drove for a different team last year, Alpine. Indeed, if we look at Lance Stroll, who also had a seat with Aston Martin last year, we do see an improvement. He improved his top speed by nine kilometres per hour. Magnussen is the only driver retained by Haas during the switch from 2022 to 2023. So Haas does not seem to have improved in terms of top speed, although this could also be due to the set-up of the car.