Max Verstappen began 2023 on a dominant note as he won the opening race of the new season at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.
World champion Verstappen cruised to victory with Sergio Perez completing a Red Bull one-two.
Former two-time champion Fernando Alonso showed he still has a lot of fight left in him as he came home in third place in a memorable performance in his Aston Martin.
Verstappen's cruise from pole position, with Perez taking the chequered flag 11.9 seconds behind, was his first win in Bahrain and also the first time the double champion had triumphed in the opening race of a campaign.
"Very lovely that, really good result. We had good race pace. Very happy with that. Thank you guys. That is exactly the start to the season we wanted and needed," Verstappen said after the win.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was running in third place when he slowed and pulled over 17 laps from the end, shouting "No, no, no! No power" over the team radio.
Australian Oscar Piastri retired 14 laps into his F1 debut with his stricken McLaren wheeled into the team garage after suffering an apparent electronics issue.
The 21-year-old had complained over the radio of gearbox problems and was told the mechanics would swap his steering wheel when he pitted.
The stop then dragged on, with the pit crew waiting as the seconds ticked by after the tyres were changed and nothing happened.
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton had a decent start to the season as he came in fifth in his Mercedes, having started in seventh.
Lance Stroll, in the second Aston Martin, George Russell of Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas in an Alfa Romeo, Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon behind the wheel of a Williams rounded out the top 10.
Verstappen, the man who won 15 of last year's 22 rounds, put his Red Bull on pole and then raced off into the distance to deliver on his billing as the pre-season favourite.
Following a smooth getaway, the Dutchman – keeping a fast-starting Leclerc at bay – was six seconds clear of the Ferrari man after only eight laps, and 17.7 seconds clear of fifth-placed Hamilton with 10 of the 57 laps on the board.
Hamilton started seventh and moved past Russell and Alonso at the start to take fifth but the 38-year-old was finding it difficult to get up to speed in his Mercedes.
"Is Lewis managing or is he slow because I feel like I have a bit more pace," said Russell, one place back. "Struggling, struggling," came the response.
Hamilton was the first of the top six to pit, and after the opening stops unravelled, Verstappen held a 10-second lead over Perez, who, in his speedier Red Bull, had by now managed to get the jump on Leclerc.
With the Red Bulls in control, the attention turned to who would be best of the rest and it was Alonso, the 41-year-old on his Aston Martin debut, taking centre stage.
On lap 35, he emerged from his second stop right on Hamilton's gearbox, and the two oldest drivers on the grid rolled back the years as they diced for fifth place.
Alonso sniffed a chance at Turn 4 on lap 37 but the Spaniard was too hot on his brakes. Hamilton survived, but only for two laps before Alonso threw his Aston Martin down Hamilton's inside with a bold move at Turn 10 – a sharp left-hander.
“There was just no more power. It’s a pity because it’s at these weekends where you have to maximise points," Leclerc said after a disappointing day. "Unfortunately we’ve taken a step back and Red Bull’s on another planet. Third was the best we could hope for.
"We are very far behind Red Bull. I was not going to say it was positive. We were second, which was the best we could do, but we couldn't bring the car to the end and at the end this is what is very important."
What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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