PRIXVIEW – Pre-Season Testing

The 2025 season begins in Bahrain with three days of pre-season testing in Sakhir before heading to Melbourne and Asia then returning here for the fourth race of the season. Since 2021, Sakhir has hosted both testing and the opening race of the season due to Radman this year’s race has been shifted to mid-April

Though many teams will have done some limited tests the next three days when teams have twenty-four hours of unlimited track running, baring breakdowns and red flags is the most important of the season. Though there have been limited changes to the regulations and we know the cars are generally more reliable these are still new cars, as they haven’t been run following modifications.

Teams opted to come to Bahrain over Barcelona given the more reliable weather conditions and the fact at this time of year the conditions in the gulf are similar to the European summer. It also means testing can start later in the day and run into the early evening giving the teams the best of day and night testing, though most will focus on running around 15:00 local which is the normal start time for races as well as 18:00 when the race starts in Bahrain.

The Sakhir circuit has been favoured by teams since the start of the decade not only because of conditions but also because its just close enough to Europe to move new parts in overnight.

The circuit has a mixture of long straights and a tight infield section which creates opportunities for overtaking. But it’s high speed that matters on the three straights and that means that good downforce and speed are very important, as well as hard braking at the end of the straights.

The infield middle section is the more technical and twisty sector, which will be an interesting section to watch over the coming weeks as it will give us an idea of how closely cars will be able to follow each other. The circuit normally favours cars which are good at high speed and high downforce, Mercedes being strong through most of the hybrid era.

Testing, in my view, has in recent years become more reliable but it’s still only a guide to the running order, given this is the final season with these regulations and how Red Bull were overhauled in the second half of last season. There is always going to be a little bit of sandbagging going on, so its more important to look at how the cars and drivers work together.

The only real limiting factor in testing is the number of sets of tyres teams get, as well as reliability which is a lot better than we saw a decade and we have seen a better indication of the form going into the season, but it will not give the full picture I think we will need to wait until Melbourne and the race weekend in April.

Last season’s test proved to be accurate when we saw the gap between Red Bull and the rest of the field wiped out mid-season, which I saw in testing but you need to be sceptical as we don’t get the same information as we do during race weekends. We also tend to know what the run plans are based on previous years and the timing of practice, qualifying and race we tend to see the performance runs.

Not all the teams will bring their Melbourne specs to Sakhir because they are different kinds of circuits but they will want to learn as much as they can. I wouldn’t be surprised if when we come back here for the Grand Prix in seven weeks, we get a lot of upgrades. We also have seen a reduction in recent years in the number of red and yellow flags during testing, last year there was only one red flag which wasn’t caused by fuel run-out tests or FIA system tests. These cars are very reliable the only limiting factor looked to be tyres with all five compounds, plus one afternoon of wet testing if it doesn’t rain.

There have been several driver changes and with only a day and a half for each driver plus the three practices in Melbourne, teams must learn how to work together as well as get the most out of each other. But as we know some teams have used TPC regulations to get a head start using 2023 cars.

But all the drivers will now be used to this generation of cars but not how different cars work and how their new teams work. Testing has become a very intense three days with the amount of work the teams need to do, there is now no lunch break which gives teams an extra hour.

However, that hour tends to be lost because of driver change as teams are only permitted to run one car for the test and that requires minor tweaking given drivers preference. Driver line-ups are fluid throughout the test, say a driver loses track time teams will adjust accordingly, they can also run test/reserve drivers but they are not forced to by regulations.

There are standard things that teams will need to figure out, we last year only saw red flags for most testing when teams were doing what’s called a fuel run out test when teams figure out when the cars run out of fuel. It’s important to remember that this is learning for everyone and the best place to do that is on track, which is part of the learning.

Facts and figures

Test		Formula 1 Aramco Pre-Season Testing 2025
Venue		Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain
Configuration		2005 Grand Prix
Circuit Length		5.412 km (3.363 mi)
Lap record	Race	01:31.447 (Pedro de la Rosa, McLaren, 2005)
	Qualifying

Fast Facts

• The circuit has a variety of layouts for different events. F1 has raced on three variations of the circuit, with all but one Bahrain Grand Prix taking place on the Grand Prix Circuit layout of the track.
• Bahrain spans some 760 square kilometres (290 sq mi), and is the third-smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore
• In 2022, Charles Leclerc took Ferrari’s seventh victory in Bahrain. The Scuderia have held the record for most Bahrain Grand Prix wins since the inaugural event in 2004.
• Bahrain is one of only a handful of current F1 circuits at which McLaren has not yet recorded a victory. despite Bahraini investors owning the majority of the team

Event timetable

Driver Line Up

What we will be looking for

Going into testing it’s always important to remember it is only testing, however in more recent times given the regulations and reliability it has become more accurate as a guide to how the season could play out. Last season, when Red Bull’s dominance disappeared, we saw what we thought we would see in testing but for the majority, it is a big learning opportunity as these are new cars, despite being an evolution from last season.

If we are expecting the theme to be a continuation of last season, it will be interesting to see if Red Bull has resolved the issues which plagued them during the second half of last season. McLaren cannot afford to have a bad test if they want to really fight for this championship, a strong start to any season is needed if you are going to go for the championship.

Over the past three years, they have been slow out the blocks and they cannot do that this season, we are also expecting the field to tighten, and you cannot rule Ferrari being close behind. Ferrari, we know has been doing a lot of TPC running over the last month or so, they will be hoping they can close the gap and have both drivers on the ball with the amount of running they have done.

The Sakhir circuit is one the drivers know well having been hosting races since 2004 as well as several tests, it is a high-speed and downforce circuit with a technical infield so gives us a good idea of a car’s performance. But it’s only a guide and conditions are more stable here than in Barcelona and more reprehensive of the majority of races are in the same conditions.

But one of the difficulties is the afternoon transition into the night because of the fluctuations in temperatures, we know the fastest times always come after sunset making it difficult to read. It is also because the teams and drivers don’t want to show everything in testing or practice, but that still is a risk as they won’t know until qualifying in Melbourne how fast they are maybe even sprint qualifying in Shanghai because that gives the game away

A good test sets the teams up for a good season, it will be interesting to see how much progress the teams have made both from last year’s test and Grand Prix as well as Abu Dhabi. We saw with Alpine last season what a bad test can do, as they were on the back foot for most of a season. We know how important it is to have a base which works and to focus on making a strong start to a season and that starts now.

One word we will say and hear a lot up until qualifying in Melbourne is sandbagging, naturally, the teams don’t want to show a full hand until it matters. But I don’t think we can see the full picture until we come back here for the Grand Prix and that qualifying session in six weeks.

2023 vs 2024 Race Data

2024 Lap time comparison