This Test – Bahrain (28/02/2025)
This Test – Bahrain (28/02/2025)
Hello, welcome to the testing wrap-up for Bahrain, while as we always say “only testing” The last three days suggest a continuation of the close fight we saw at the end of last season. McLaren and Ferrari picking up as they ended last season and Red Bull still has work to do.
General News
The World Motor Sport Council has approved proposals for a mandatory two-stop strategy to be implemented at the Monaco Grand Prix. It comes following a meeting on Wednesday, coinciding with the start of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.
The change to the regulation will apply to both dry and wet weather in a bit to try to “improve the sporting spectacle.” It means that drivers will need to use three sets of tyres, but as with other races two of the three tyre compounds must be used.
Felipe Massa’s legal challenge for damages against the FIA, F1 and Bernie Ecclestone has been set to be heard at the high court in October. The former Ferrari driver is seeking damages having been narrowly beaten to the F1 drivers’ title by Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
The Crashgate scandal which saw Nelson Piquet Jr intentionally slam into the barriers to bring out a safety car and aid team-mate Fernando Alonso in securing the victory. In an interview, Ecclestone said that he was aware of the plot but failed to intervene to avoid a scandal.
Ecclestone, who has since claimed he has no recollection of the interview, told F1-Insider in April 2023: “According to the statutes, we should have cancelled the race in Singapore under those conditions. That means it would never have happened for the world championship standings. Then Felipe Massa would have become world champion and not Lewis Hamilton…today I would have arranged things differently.”
Listed as a breach of contract claim, it is slated to be heard at the King’s Bench Division of the High Court, although Autosport understands there is a strike-out application which could see the case thrown out before it begins.
Those comments will form the basis of Massa’s case, with his defence claiming he was the victim of a conspiracy. The case is not based on the events of Renault/Alpine, it’s now special advisor Flavio Biratore and F1 technical director Pat Symonds, but rather the cover-up of Ecclestone’s knowledge.
Ironically Renault’s sacking of Piquet and the actions of his father Nelson Sr, blew the scandal open following Massa’s head injury in the summer of 2009. Massa is seeking to overturn the result of the Singapore Grand Prix and now has his court date set.
If successful there are concerns about a dangerous president being set which could allow Hamilton to challenge the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Carlos Sainz has been elected as a director of the Grand Prix Drivers Association, the trade union which represents drivers. The Spaniard fills the vacancy left by four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, who retired from F1 at the end of 2022 and stepped down as a GPDA director last year.
Writing on the GPDA’s Instagram, Sainz said, “I am passionate about my sport and think we drivers have a responsibility to do all we can to work with the stakeholders to forward the sport in many aspects. So I’m very happy and proud to do my part by taking on the directors’ role in the GPDA.”
Sainz joins chairman Alex Wurz, Mercedes driver George Russell as vice chair and Anastasia Fowle as its legal advisor.
Wurz said: “We are delighted to welcome Carlos as a GPDA director. He has been an active and engaged member of the GPDA for several years and we sincerely appreciate his commitment in stepping up to this vital role.”
The GPDA was formed back in the early 1960s and has predominantly focused on safety matters, then reformed in May 1994 following the vents at Imola. In recent years its been in a row with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, over governance and the running of the governing body.
Currently, the swearing row has caused friction across all FIA championships and the governing body has not clarified how these rules will be applied. The FIA hasn’t responded to the GPDA’s letter in November asking the governing body to treat them like adults, saying it felt fines were “not appropriate” forms of punishment and asking for transparency as to how they were spent.
This follows other interventions by Ben Sulayem, such as a ban on jewellery, which have also irritated the drivers.
Testing Wrap up
Lando Norris was fastest on the opening day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, the McLaren driver set a 30.430 going almost a second faster than Kimi Antonelli who was fastest during the morning session. The McLaren driver continued where he left off the last Grand Prix with victory.
Norris put his McLaren just over a tenth and a half ahead of George Russell and Max Verstappen, with early running suggesting another close season. He set the fastest lap following a lengthy red flag, remaining unchallenged by Verstappen or Russell.
Carlos Sainz was fastest on day two with a 29.348 as the sunset pushed Lewis Hamilton off the top spot by three-hundredths of a second. Both drivers topped the session they took part in with Sainz coming during the qualifying hour. Hamilton was half a tenth faster than teammate Charles Leclerc.
Russell was fastest on the final day with a 29.545 putting himself two hundredths ahead of Verstappen. The top two both set their fastest times in the final ten minutes. Russell showed decent pace to go ahead of Red Bull and Alex Albon, both having a full day in the car but the top eight all set their fastest times during the afternoon session.
McLaren
McLaren topped the times on day one but the team also raised eyebrows during his final run during the night part of the afternoon session, his McLaren appeared covered in neon green flow-vis paint. While not uncommon as it’s a key tool in teams understanding how the air flows over the car, the sheer amount used by McLaren raised eyebrows in Bahrain.
F1TV noted “That is a lot of flow-visualisation dye and in fact, if they put any more of that on [Gabriel] Bortoleto will be getting the cockpit thinking its the Sauber there was so much green dye on that car.”
“We’ll get a bit of an idea at how that airflow is working over that McLaren. Now that’s the drawback to using flow-visualisation techniques like that in an open test, you are not just showing yourself where that stream is flowing over the bodywork, you are also showing your rivals and all of us what’s going on.”
Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton was one of the first out on Wednesday as testing got underway. His Ferrari was fitted with a huge aero rake with most of his running focused on development finishing thirteenth almost a second and a half off on the final timing sheet.
Here is how Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz explained: “The aero rake was positioned downstream on the front wing. That’s because they needed to get a read on what the front wing was doing. This area of front wing, and particularly front wing flexibility, is perhaps the key to this season’s championship.
“Something changed over the winter. At the end of last year, the FIA were happy with the flexibility on the wings, even though they asked McLaren to tidy up their mini-DRS. But something changed, the FIA said ‘Actually we are not happy!’ They asked the teams to firm up their front wings by a few millimetres.”
As we know over the winter the FIA moved to further tighten the aeroelasticity or bouncing on the front wings, because its key to unlocking performance of the car.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Hamilton said that things “couldn’t have gone any better” since arriving in Maranello last month. It’s now a month since Hamilton started at Ferrari and in testing got his first real drive of the car during the morning of day two where he was second on the overall classification, having been beaten by Carlos Sainz.
Hamilton said, “I think it’s a bit early to say, but I am really enjoying the car,” said Hamilton, when asked in a subsequent press conference if his first Ferrari feels better than the last Mercedes he drove in 2024. “We’re slowly bonding, I think.”
As for pushing the car to its limits, he added: “I mean, that’s what these days are about. It’s about exploring. At the moment, I think there’s still room to explore more. Bit by bit, I’m just eking out a little bit more each time. All the settings are so different, so even just brake bias and all those sorts of things – it’s much different to what I had in the previous place.”
Watching Hamilton on track too me he looked comfortable and fast, the car has looked more responsive to his driving style which we haven’t seen over the last three years. That’s good as it allows him and Ferrari to improve the car, giving him the feeling “like the car is responding to my inputs. Today was a positive, making those incremental steps with the set-up.”
With those points in mind, Hamilton praised Ferrari for the warm welcome he has received and the support offered from all departments in aiding his acclimatisation to an all-new environment over the last couple of months.
Hamilton has vowed to “just keep fighting” as US President Donald Trump’s administration clamps down on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs. Since Trump retook office he has made dismantling DEI initiatives a priority with a slate of executive orders.
Decisions made since 20 January include banning words such as ‘disability’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘gender’ or ‘women’ from some government websites and reviewing research grants that feature any of those words; threatening to pull federal funding, unless they end programs geared towards minorities, inclusive of disabled people; ordering army, sports, bathroom and visa bans for transgender people.
Hamilton, who has been an advocate for Black, LGBTQ+ communities and has a disabled brother has been watching those developments with concern, but says he remains as committed as ever to his ideals.
The seven-time champion told Time magazine, said, “I’m not going to change what [Trump] does, or the government does – all I can do is try to make sure that in my space, in my environment, I’m trying to elevate people.”
“There’s going to be forces along the way that don’t want that, for whatever reason I can’t fathom. That doesn’t stop me. It is a fight that we’ll just keep fighting.”
Hamilton’s fight ramped up in 2020 after he noticed how few people from minority backgrounds featured on the 2019 end-of-season Mercedes team photo, which led him to start up the Hamilton Commission, a program to improve representation in motorsport. As well as the COVID pandemic, the murder by a police officer of George Floyd and the war in Ukraine.
The following year, Hamilton launched Mission 44, whose goal has been to “support, champion and empower young people from underrepresented groups to succeed, by narrowing opportunity gaps across society”.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen says the team are “confident” that the team have made the right changes to the car as he seeks a fifth consecutive driver’s title. While Red Bull dominated the early races they were caught during the first half of 2024 before having to fight hard particularly with McLaren.
Verstappen told BBC News, “The development direction we chose at the time showed a lot of promise, but unfortunately it didn’t work like that on track so we had to change a few things. Now let’s hope that is the right direction. We are confident it is the right direction but let’s see how much we can extract out of it for this final season with this car.”
The Dutchman was speaking before he hit the track for a filming day on Tuesday, the day before the start of official testing. Speaking about motivation he says it’s still there and was excited to look ahead and was hopeful of improving the car.
It is the first time since 2005 that Red Bull has gone into a season without their design leader Adrian Newey. The design legend is joining Aston Martin on 3 March.
Verstappen said: “I don’t think we should think about that too much. It is done. He is not there any more. That’s how it is. It’s how it’s been last year and I trust also the people who are there at the moment, we have to do it all together. It is a team effort but I have a lot of respect for what Adrian has done for the team, have a great relationship with Adrian and I am excited for him to start a new project.:
Liam Lawson who is Verstappen’s new teammate, made it clear he knows his job is to support Verstappen as much as possible. Lawson said, “The team’s goal is to win the constructors’ (championship) and obviously they weren’t able to do that last year, and that’s the clear goal going into this year.”
“So obviously we’re doing the best job we can to make the car as fast as possible, and for me if we’re in a position that we’re fighting for winning the constructors’ then I’m doing my job.”
After the first day of running Verstappen declared that “everything felt good” aboard Red Bull’s RB21. The Dutchman drove the afternoon session completing just over a race distance on his way to third fastest behind George Russell and Lando Norris.
He told reporters, “From the driving I did today everything felt good. We don’t know pace yet but everything is working well and the car is doing what I want it to do. It is all in control and that is what we can hope for really to start off my testing. We are constantly learning and trying different things and will continue to do so.”
Lawson was a second off Verstappen on the opening day after recovering from an early spin to also hit a healthy number of laps. Adding “I had so much fun out there today and it was so good to finally drive the new car properly and do some laps. It feels okay but obviously it is very early days, so it’s very much about learning at the moment.”
“For me, there is a lot more to come because I need to learn a lot moving teams. But from a team side we are just trying to learn about the new car, and optimise these testing days. We had a plan of test items, and we managed to go through the whole plan, which is always good.
Speaking to F1TV on day two, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner appeared to confirm that the issues with their 2024 car have now been fixed. Horner explained, “At the moment, the data ties in with our simulations. We have understood some of the limitations of RB20 and the team have worked hard to try and address those.”
Red Bull Technical Director Pierre Wache admitted the test wasn’t “as smooth as we expected” as the “car did not respond how we wanted at times” – but overall it was going in the right direction.
Verstappen had mixed feelings on Friday, adding, “It is what we expected and we will keep on working and keep on trying to improve and, hopefully, as we go into [the first Grand Prix in] Melbourne, we will learn a bit more by going through all the data and see where we are at. It is difficult to tell where everyone’s pace is, so there is still a bit of work to do for us. We are looking forward to starting racing properly again in Australia.”
Mercedes
Kimi Antonelli has insisted he is not the replacement for Lewis Hamilton and is keen to write his own story. Following Hamilton’s departure to Ferrari the team opted to give the Italian rookie his debut following four championships in two years before moving into F2 last year.
Antonelli told Motorsport.com, “I don’t find it right to say I’m his replacement. He has done so much in the sport, and I just feel like the next Mercedes driver, and I really want to make my own story.”
“Definitely, racing for Mercedes is a big responsibility because it’s obviously a top team, but at the same time it’s a great opportunity, it’s a privilege to be where I am today. I’m just trying to make the best out of this opportunity.” When he makes his debut in Melbourne he will be the third youngest starter.
Having made a bold jump from Formula Regional to F2 in 2024, which was decided long before Mercedes became aware of Hamilton’s impending departure, Antonelli somewhat struggled in F1’s feeder series but still managed two wins while outqualifying and outscoring teammate Ollie Bearman.
Antonelli pondered “I think last season was a really, really good lesson. You know, it’s when the struggle comes that you become stronger and you actually learn how to overcome the struggle.”
“I think it was really good learning last season, and definitely this year I’m facing another big step. Probably there are going to be some struggles to face, and I feel more prepared in the case of having to face them.”
Antonelli is the first driver to make a full-season debut since Hamilton in 2007 with a top team, with it being big shoes to fill given not only the record-breaking career of the seven-time champion but his record-breaking debut season, where he lost the title by a single point.
He added, “What I’m really going to do is try to focus on the process, try to enjoy as well. Definitely, something I really want to do is starting with a good rhythm, trying to build from it and trying to be consistent.”
Meanwhile, teammate George Russell has tipped Antonelli to match his pace straight away, while acknowledging the Italian will still have a steep learning curve.
Mercedes prompted intrigue on the first day with them showing similarities with the front suspension similar to last year’s Red Bull. Ted Kravits noted during the session, “Beneath the wing mirror, where it says Petronas, you can see that one of the sidepod air intakes is the vertical one that Red Bull brought to their car last year.”
“Look at the overbite, not the underbite that Red Bull started a couple of years ago, but an overbite where the top of the sidepod air intake extrudes over the bottom lip. Look at how extreme it is on this Mercedes.” But they have stick with the push-rod suspension.
CEO and team principal Toto Wolff says the team doesn’t know if they have resolved the cars tendency to perform much better in cold conditions due to the unusual weather in Bahrain pre-season testing. All of the team wins last season when at temperatures were notably lower, while its car last season could not be coaxed into making its tyres work when conditions were hotter.
One of the big talking points has been the unseasonably cold and wet weather more commonly seen in southern Europe. When asked by Motorsport.com to explain what it had discovered on this matter at the test where temperatures have not risen much above 15C, Wolff initially joked: “Well, I’m a bit worried at the moment because that should be conditions where we should be two seconds quicker than everybody else!
“[That] was the only highlight last year in terms of performance in Las Vegas and we are not [that far ahead]. So, either we’ve remedied the problem and we are more balanced through all the climate conditions or not. We’ve had a laugh about it, whether we lost some of that USP. We shall see. I don’t know.”
Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso said ahead of testing that Aston Martin is starting the new season “in a much better place” than they ended a difficult 2024 as they launched their new car. The new team principal and chief executive officer, Andy Cowell, said that the car’s aerodynamic package was “close to 100% new” in an attempt to improve its performance.
Aston Martin finished fifth last season for the second year running, and fell back through the field in both 2023 and 2024 as their developments failed to deliver the necessary performance. But it will be hoping that the investment in its factory, wind tunnel and simulator will allow it to catch up.
The Spaniard told BBC News, “We did learn a lot last year, the second part of the season [there were] a lot of experiments going on in the way of learning more things in the 2025 car.”
“The simulator has been updated so we have been working a lot in the sim to develop the car a little bit more precisely than the last few seasons. We have new tools, new organisation, new people in place to tackle some of the weaknesses we identified last year, so we start in a much better place.”
Cowell added Aston Martin had pushed their aerodynamic design “later than ever before” before committing to the first specification of the car. Adding its failings last year was down to translation between virtual world, wind tunnel and real-world failing to translate accurately.
Cowell said this season was “important” for the team to establish whether they have understood where they were failing. This is because not only next years regulation changes but also the transition to them becoming Honda’s works team.
Alpine
Alpine were the first to hit the track as they carried out a shakedown test at the Sakhir circuit on Monday. Officially a filming day, the test was run over a maximum of 200km (124 miles) with demonstration tyres, as per the regulations.
Both Pierre Gasly and his new, rookie teammate Jack Doohan got a first taste of their new machinery, with the day “split evenly” between them, team principal Oliver Oakes said.
Alpine had previously revealed its latest blue-and-pink livery at the F175 Live event in London, but its actual 2025 car had remained concealed until now.
Following his first outing in the car, Gasly said, “It is only a shakedown, limited running, so it’s not like we are driving the car at its full potential, but the initial feeling felt smooth, and I am just looking forward to getting going and having a proper run later this week for official pre-season testing.”
Doohan said ahead of testing, “It will be three busy days where we have many things to run through in order to develop the A525 ahead of the season start.”
Racing Bulls
Yuki Tsunoda reshuffled his management team amid losing out on a Red Bull promotion to Liam Lawson for the 2025. The Japanese driver was previously managed by Mario Miyakawa and Luis Alvarez, before parting ways with both shortly after the 2024 season ended in December.
Tsunoda is now being managed by Diego Menchaca, who contested European single-seaters until 2018 before switching to sportscars. He told Motorsport.com, “I am not working [with] Mario anymore, and Luis as well. I’m really happy with Diego. He’s motivated, definitely.”
“Once we decided to work together, he immediately went to Helmut’s [Marko, Red Bull advisor] office to build a relationship. That kind of effort, I really appreciate – and obviously, Helmut did too. They already have a good relationship, which is a good start. But in the end, the most important thing is to perform on track, which will make Diego’s life easier.”
2025 is Tsunoda’s fifth season with the Red Bull sister team, despite outperforming his teammates he has never been seriously considered by the senior team. Tsunoda will now partner rookie Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls and he will start the campaign as the clear number one driver after finishing a career-best 12th in the 2024 standings.
During testing team principal Laurent Mekies said, “Yuki last year did a step I think none of us was expecting. [He] did a big step forward in terms of speed, in terms of maturity, in terms of technical feedback – and I think if there is another step like that in Yuki this year, it’s going to be really, really interesting!”
Tsunoda’s future beyond 2025, however, remains uncertain. Speaking to the media shortly after Lawson’s promotion was announced, Horner questioned whether it “makes sense” to keep Tsunoda in the Red Bull family if he is not in contention for a senior team seat this year.
Williams
Carlos Sainz was satisfied after topping the times by three hundredths on the second day of testing. Sainz had a full day running where he completed well over two race distances and the most laps despite changeable conditions, with the drizzle causing him to spin.
Reflecting on his running in a Williams debrief video, Sainz commented: “I just finished a very long day here in Bahrain – a lot of laps, a bit of a stop-start day with the rain all the time, in Bahrain which is weird! [There was] rain on-off, wind on-off.”
“It was a bit of a complicated day, a very long day but a day that we managed to get away with it, do a lot of laps, improvise a bit the run plan as we were moving on, and we managed to complete the whole programme. We did some progress relative to yesterday, improving the balance of the car and improving the overall feeling with the car.”
With Alex Albon taking over driving duties for the third and final day of pre-season testing on Friday, Sainz will now have to wait until FP1 in Melbourne.
Chief engineer Dave Robson says the team had a “solid platform,” despite the conditions on Thursday Williams completed most of their programme.
Well following his run on Friday, Albon admitted the team “need to look at some data with a couple of areas we need to focus on” but added: “The good thing is, we know where the lap time is and I don’t think it’s that hard to achieve.”
F1’s analysis suggest based on low-fuel and long runs that the team are in the midfield, but we are expecting it to be close in the midfield.
Cadillac
Team principal Dan Towriss says the team will not be “just grabbing” any American driver as they prepare to join the grid in 2026. in November 2024 it was confirmed by Liberty that the Cadillac bid, from US car giant General Motors and US group TWG Global, had gained approval to enter the
Given a major factor behind the team’s admission to the sport is their perceived ability to grow F1’s popularity in the United States, it is widely expected that they will sign at least one American driver for their debut campaign. While they are keen for an American driver Towriss says it must be through a “proper” process.
He told Sky Sport, “I think we would love to see an American driver in Formula 1 but we certainly want to make sure we do it the right way. I think it’s crucially important that that person is set up for success. It won’t be a process of just grabbing an American and sticking him behind the wheel. We want to do it proper, and so more to come on that.”
With a return to the grid for Sargeant unlikely, any American signing would lack F1 experience, which Towriss admits mean they would be looking for know-how in their other seat. He says experienced drivers are ‘crucial’ for setting up a team and they are looking for an experienced driver alongside a rookie.
Towriss has been an instrumental figure in the Cadillac team’s path to F1, with his replacement of Michael Andretti last September as the bid’s figurehead appearing to be a major factor. Andretti reportedly ‘rubbed people up the wrong way’ despite much of the entry being unchanged.
The Cadillac F1 team will be able to call upon the experience of several top squads from US racing series, following the launch of the Towriss-led TWG Motorsports.
The extension of TWG Global, a group which has stakes in Chelsea, MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, will include Cadillac F1 along with the likes of Andretti Global, who compete in Indycar and Formula E.
Estimated qualifying pace based on simulations:
- McLaren +0.00
- Ferrari +0.21
- Red Bull +0.33
- Mercedes +0.44
- Williams +0.53
- Alpine +0.78
- Racing Bulls +1.08
- Aston Martin +1.09
- Sauber +1.21
- Haas +1.28
Estimated race pace based on simulations:
- McLaren +0.00
- Ferrari +0.15
- Red Bull +0.21
- Mercedes +0.23
- Williams +0.62
- Racing Bull +0.78
- Haas +0.83
- Alpine +0.98
- Sauber +1.02
- Aston Martin +1.62
Source F1.com
What we learned
I think again the headline is like last year is reliability we had no real red flags or interruptions caused by the teams, that is what we expected given what we saw last year. In the build-up to testing many teams had thought this would be a continuation of last year with what we are reading McLaren are going into this season as the favourites.
But they don’t have a big advantage, and you need to say based on testing Ferrari and Mercedes look to be not far behind, also making a strong start. Red Bull I think we still have big questions over, they will be in the mix, but they still look as if they haven’t shown everything, we could be wrong. They need to be careful if they are to keep the drivers.
All the teams have lost time and there are going to be serious questions for the promoter and circuit, over the failures of the back un generator, and how a car entered a live circuit during day three. hopefully there are quick answers before the race, despite this the teams are close which could make for an interesting season.
Lewis Hamilton stands out as I remarked last week he certainly has been fired up by the move to Ferrari, I don’t think I’ve seen him look this comfortable in the car at testing over the last three years and the pace he lacked in the latter part of 2024. But can he be there against Charles Leclerc in qualifying that is a question we will learn over the opening races?
Mercedes, I think had their best pre-season since the regulation change, they may not be in the mix going into Melbourne but they are not far off. The top four based on the simulations have a four-tenths advantage and are covered by just under a quarter of a second. We could have a great season if testing comes true.
That’s all from This Test, This Week will be back on next week Sunday at 09:00GMT. On race weekends we will try to bring you an evening edition at 21:00UKT and on non-race weekends we will publish at 09:00 UKT