After three days and a combined 24 hours of track action, Formula One’s preseason testing has come to an end, and the paddock now enters the preparation phase with the Australian Grand Prix weekend just two weeks away.
George Russell finished at the top of the day three timesheets, 0.021 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen. But it was Carlos Sainz who set the fastest lap across the three days, and Mercedes completed the most laps around Bahrain International Circuit.
So, where does this leave the pecking order ahead of the season opener? This season is one of evolution, not revolution, with it being the last year of the regulations. The top four will likely remain the top four, and it appears that McLaren has the edge. Meanwhile, Alpine is stronger than this time last year, potentially throwing its hat into the ‘top of the midfield’ conversation. This all comes with the caveat that it is hard to tell what fuel loads the cars are running and that teams could be sandbagging, all part of preseason testing’s ‘smoke and mirrors’ game.
The Athletic’s experts Luke Smith (from Bahrain) and Madeline Coleman break down the final day of testing.
What is the pecking order going to Melbourne?
F1 teams have continued regurgitating all of the usual phrases and sayings about testing, warning not to read too much into lap times and to consider variables like fuel loads and engine modes. They are correct in saying we’ll only know for certain how they really stack up when we get to qualifying in Australia. But where’s the fun in that?
At the front, it does look like McLaren has an edge over Mercedes and Ferrari. The long runs on Thursday pointed to an advantage of a couple of tenths per lap, and while watching trackside, the McLaren definitely stood out for how nimble and stable it looked.
Mercedes appears to have made a step forward from its recent struggles, putting it in a similar ballpark to Ferrari, which has room for improvement with the handling and stability of its car. Where Red Bull slots in is tricky to say, but one would imagine it falls within the same kind of range.
For any of the midfield teams to truly make that leap forward and bother the ‘big four’ over the winter was a big, big ask, so it’s little surprise that the quartet of McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull remains a step ahead of the midfield.
Alpine’s goal for this year is to continue its late-season momentum from 2024, and it seems to have done that, with the car looking pretty decent from the side of the track. Williams caught attention with its P1 time for Sainz on Thursday, but the low fuel and performance of some of the other midfield teams through Friday had the Spaniard questioning where it might compare.
Sauber, RB and Aston Martin had fairly quiet tests, not doing a lot to draw attention, while Haas opted to focus all of its energy on long runs throughout the three days, allowing it to lead the mileage charts. — Luke Smith
Red Bull’s pace remains hard to read
After Liam Lawson’s running on Thursday was hindered by a water pressure issue on his Red Bull car, Friday took on extra significance for the team, particularly with reigning champion Verstappen behind the wheel.
Despite getting the full day behind the wheel, Verstappen only racked up a total of 71 laps, over 50 fewer than Williams’ Alex Albon (who also did the full day). Although Verstappen ended second fastest overall, there wasn’t the kind of standout glory run that would often signal just how much pace could be in hand. Nor was there an extensive race simulation from Verstappen to give the same kind of confidence that McLaren will have taken from what Lando Norris did on Thursday evening. The most notable part of the final hour of running was Verstappen’s rather innocuous spin at Turn 1 with 20 minutes left on the clock.
It may be a sign of confidence from Red Bull, believing it doesn’t need to do something to show its hand, particularly in an era when the GPS data available to teams is incredibly useful and informative. But trying to pin where exactly Red Bull is compared to McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes right now is difficult.
Verstappen proved last year that even without the quickest car, he remains a serious threat at the very front. The early feedback from his running on Wednesday was definitely promising, given the limitations he faced with last year’s Red Bull. It’s now a question of whether that happier feeling with the car will be enough against the evident pace of McLaren. — Luke Smith
Lewis Hamilton’s first Ferrari test has been encouraging
The enthusiasm Hamilton has for his new adventure with Ferrari has shown zero sign of waning through the three-day Bahrain test. Not only was he at last realizing the dream of driving one of the red cars for the first proper time, but the early feedback has been positive.
Hamilton spoke in a news conference on Friday about how valuable testing had been in gelling with his team, given how quick a turnaround there is to the opening race in Australia on March 16. He said driving the car was “the most positive feeling that I’ve had in a long time,” even if he was unsure how Ferrari could compare to its rivals in a highly-competitive order.
But Hamilton said Ferrari had “definitely got some work to do to improve,” particularly given the pace shown by McLaren. He planned to complete his first race simulation on Friday evening, only for Ferrari to bring its running to an early end and put screens in front of its garage doors while it worked on the car. It would have been a valuable run for Hamilton to complete, but he still managed 47 laps through the afternoon session.
As first impressions go, the vibe for Hamilton from the 2025 Ferrari car seems positive, and this test should encourage the seven-time champion. It just might not be enough to put him in the frame for a debut victory for the Scuderia. — Luke Smith
How Sainz is adapting at Williams
Sainz made his mark with Williams during preseason testing after setting a lap time on Thursday that was quicker than the team’s qualifying times during the 2024 Bahrain GP. The 1:29.348s lap came on the Spaniard’s full-day of testing (which had some “strange weather” with the rain) and happened to be the fastest time of preseason testing day two.
A smoooooth day for Carlos 💨
Sainz sets the @dhl_motorsports fastest lap on day two of pre-season testing in Bahrain, looking very comfortable in Williams colours – powered by DHL 👉 https://t.co/sOAsD9HZK8#F1 #MomentsThatDeliver pic.twitter.com/4vpRuY0WUz
— Formula 1 (@F1) February 27, 2025
Come Friday, Sainz swapped his race suit for the team kit and watched from the sidelines, done with testing and now enduring a waiting game until the Australian Grand Prix.
“Feels weird that I got my day and a half, and now I need to go racing,” he said Friday. “It feels not enough. Feels very little, ridiculously little, the amount of time that we get into our cars before going to a race.”
The Spaniard described the initial feeling of the FW47 as “decent” and that he “felt comfortable,” touching on how he was “more or less hitting lap time straight away without many mistakes.” He did spin once, which he acknowledged. However, Sainz wishes he had the opportunity to try more setups.
“I don’t know exactly where to go with setup. I don’t know exactly where to go with driving, where to extract that last little bit of lap time and performance. But I guess I’ll have to discover that in the first few races, once you start putting plenty of soft tires in and low fuel.” — Madeline Coleman
The trickiness of limited testing
Sainz, 30, may have 10 years of F1 experience, but he can relate to the six rookies’ desire for more testing, as he adjusts to a new team.
“Even though I’m obviously no rookie, that day and a half of testing, I think is frustrating for me too, but I cannot imagine even for a rookie,” the Williams driver said. “I understand how difficult that makes things and how tricky the start of the season will be for some of these guys.”
Testing is heavily limited in F1. Looking at these three days in Bahrain, the 10 teams and 20 drivers have 24 hours of combined running with one car per team before embarking on the 24-race calendar. Teams are allowed to test previous cars (TPC), though the cars are at least two seasons old. Mileage is limited to 1,000 km over four days for drivers competing in F1.
It is one of the few sports in which practice is rare, and much of the preparation happens on the simulator.
“Experience is experience,” Sainz said, “and you only gain that on track with a real car that you’re going to drive that year.”
Jack Doohan and Kimi Antonelli both had extensive private testing programs; however, Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto did not do nearly as much. Sauber’s Bortoleto said he has gotten used to jumping straight into preseason testing without a private test after his time in Formula Three and Formula Two.
Bortoleto and fellow rookies wish they had more time to test in the cars (Sipa USA)
“I think it’s something I got used to a bit because obviously the private testing are very expensive things to afford, and Sauber last year, they didn’t have a TPC car that we could run when, let’s say, it’s still legal to do more than 1000 kilometers per driver,” Bortoleto said.
“And when we got the TPC car, this new rule (has) come up that I think is a rule that it’s not so good for the rookies but it has other positives as well.”
Hadjar said his first time driving an F1 car was his first practice debut at the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix, adding, “It’s something I got used to over the years since forever so I don’t feel unprepared at all. Obviously, it would be nice to have some more mileage to go through some more scenarios, but it’s how it is.” — Madeline Coleman
F1’s bulletproof reliability leads to the weirdest red flags
Long gone are the days of testing being a constant game of ‘who caused the red flag this time?’ In an era of super-reliable cars and an incredibly mature rule set, teams have a lot less to learn about the actual functions of the cars, meaning stoppages and reliability issues are rare.
In fact, all the red flags through preseason testing this year were caused by issues completely unrelated to the cars, and some were just downright weird.
First we had the circuit-wide power cut on the opening day, which plunged the entire track into darkness for over an hour. Thursday went by without any issues, but Friday had three red flags.
The first was for debris from a broken glass panel on the pit wall, which had left small shards on the right-hand side of the straight. As the session returned to green and cars started leaving the pit lane, a quad bike had not quite finished leaving the track nearing Turn 1, causing a second, very brief, red to be thrown. After the lunch break, another red flag was shown after a bus was in the run-off area near Turn 10.
Between that and the rare rain in Bahrain yesterday, F1’s 2025 preseason has taken some strange turns. That level of weird continuing into the new season could cause some fun. — Luke Smith
rain in bahrain, power outage, haas’ engine cover flying off, broken race director glass, quad bike on track, bus tour on track..
and the season hasn’t even started 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/SsbNE79DQA
— ray (@ln4norris) February 28, 2025
(Top photo: Max Verstappen; credits: ANP SEM VAN DER WAL /ANP/Sipa USA)
