The anticipation is building towards what is poised to be one of the closest-ever Formula 1 seasons – but while the cars all took to the track in pre-season testing, the running in Bahrain provided more questions than answers.
However, amid all the enigmas that were thrown up, the paddock was in agreement on one verdict: McLaren is heading the pack.
The Woking-based concluded the previous campaign with what was regarded as the benchmark package as it achieved a long-awaited Constructors’ Championship win.
But having missed out on also clinching the Drivers’ title as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen retained the crown, McLaren has adopted some innovative solutions with the MCL39.
McLaren’s aggressive design approach appears to have paid dividends as testing indicated that it has once again raised the competitive ceiling the rest have to match.
McLaren ended proceedings at the Bahrain International Circuit not residing within the top five places on the timesheets with either driver, but it was an ominous race run from Lando Norris that has concerned rival sides.
The Briton lapped, on average, more than five-tenths quicker than his counterparts in the Ferrari SF-25 and Mercedes W16 cars over a comparable race distance divided between three stints on the second evening
That tallied with Norris’ revelation that McLaren had discovered sizeable gains over the winter, though that didn’t stop the team rushing to put a dampener on expectations.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella was quick to highlight how the abnormally cool temperatures that were prevalent were unrepresentative in comparison to the conditions that will greet the teams upon their return for the Grand Prix next month.
“We are testing long runs in conditions which are pretty unique,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week. “It’s cold tarmac, cold air temperature, Bahrain is unique itself in terms of the macro roughness, so I think it’s overall good information, obviously, when you go through long runs and race simulations, but every information we get needs to be taken with some care, we need to be careful, because for all the reasons I just said, it’s particular.”
“When we go to the early races of the seasons, the kind of stress on the tyres, the requirement in terms of interaction between the car and the tyres will be completely different. So the indications here in Bahrain seem to say that the car at the moment interacts well with the tyres, but in a very specific and I would say special regime like we have in these days here in Bahrain.”
However, Stella couldn’t disguise that McLaren’s previous struggles at the venue exhibit the advances the team have made.
“I think you are right in identifying Bahrain as one of the tracks in which we have struggled to perform in previous years,” he continued.
“Looking at the track layout, looking at some kind of demand associated with the low grip, for instance, and the high micro-roughness, big demand on traction, we have a justification as to why our car wasn’t necessarily working very well at this circuit. We have worked over the last couple of years to improve on those requirements that are needed in circuits of this kind where you have tight corners, for example, and we think we have made some progress.”
The conditions could have exacerbated McLaren’s overall advantage, but even the team’s closest competitors at the sharp end have resigned to starting the upcoming 24-race season behind the reigning champions.
Although Ferrari is among that contingent, the Italian marque has been less concerned about McLaren’s pace than the rival sides that possess championship hopes in 2025.
Whether that is down to Ferrari having an ace up its sleeve or the team no longer overreacting to setbacks under the calm atmosphere that boss Fred Vasseur has cultivated is – as of yet – underdetermined.
The usual spotlight attached to Ferrari’s ongoings was bound to be heightened due to Lewis Hamilton’s presence in the red cockpit and he opened the team’s running.
The seven-time World Champion has been insistent that his move to the storied team has revitalised him as he chases a record-breaking eighth title. But in order to achieve that, he must prove that the woes that characterised a challenging last season at Mercedes were an outlier and not a sign that he is enduring an age-related decline.
Hamilton’s inaugural pre-season test with Ferrari suggested that is not the case as he posted the quickest time on the second morning. Meanwhile, his onboard and throttle/braking traces implied that, at this premature stage, Ferrari’s SF-25 is more conducive to his late-braking style than the Mercedes ground effect cars that tended to impose a ceiling on his potential.
That was supported in his upbeat appraisal of the 2025 Ferrari as he expressed that it was the most positive sensation that he has enjoyed in an F1 car in a considerable while.
But while the SF-25 showed promising peak potential at times, Ferrari’s test ended on a downbeat note as the drivers struggled with the car’s balance once conditions improved.
However, Vasseur has emphasised that Ferrari’s 2025 machine – which comprises notable changes compared to its title-challenging predecessor, including a switch to a front pull-rod suspension convention – has delivered the step the team anticipated.
“With the suspension change we have opened a new door for development because after a few years there was a need to differentiate something and I think we have all done it,” Vasseur told Sky Italia.
“So far it is working well, I am not talking in terms of results but in terms of numbers. Everything is going in the right direction.”
Nonetheless, Charles Leclerc admitted that Ferrari had work to do in the two-week gap prior to the season opener to address the evident disconnect between front and rear.
“We see the numbers we expected, even if yesterday afternoon and today we had a little more difficulty in managing the balance, so there is still a bit to do,” he said.
“At the moment we are working hard to try to improve the balance, we struggled a bit in the last two days. We will see in Melbourne. But let’s say that in the last two days we struggled a bit more with the balance, so that’s where we are focusing more.”
Ferrari will at least reserve optimism that it has retained its status as the team closest to McLaren on raw pace, though Red Bull is convinced it stakes a claim to that standing.
The initial impression surrounding the RB21 was a promising one as Max Verstappen expressed that the car was handling better than the team’s troubled 2024 predecessor.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko echoed that sentiment as he highlighted that the squad’s subtle revisions had all but eradicated the capriciousness embedded within the RB20.
But while more parts were added – including a revised front wing – Red Bull experienced a mixed end to proceedings as Verstappen experimented more with the RB21’s set-up.
That consigned Red Bull Technical Director Pierre Wache to stating that Red Bull must strive to unlock the untapped potential that he is adamant that the car encompasses.
“I am not as happy as I could be because the car did not respond how we wanted at times, but it is going in the right direction, just maybe the magnitude of the direction was not as big as we expected and it’s something we need to work on for the first race and future development,” Wache said.
Marko has estimated that it is lagging “two to three-tenths” behind McLaren, but Red Bull at least looks to have a better baseline to start this season than it ended 2024 with.
And as long as Red Bull can address the recalcitrant characteristics that unravelled its dominant opening to 2024 and be within touching distance, Verstappen has shown on countless occasions he can overcome a small car disadvantage. However, even the Dutchman has stressed that repeating his 2023 success at Albert Park is a tall order.
Likewise, Mercedes has remained realistic about the team’s prospective chances for the opening race weekends in 2025.
The German marque has adopted a muted tone when it comes to this season, which seems to have served the squad well as it undertook its most seamless pre-season run since these regulations were introduced.
Both George Russell, entering his seventh season in the sport, and rookie team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli were content with the W16’s handling as Mercedes racked up the highest mileage count with 458 laps in total.
However, the one lingering caveat attached to Mercedes was that the temperature being on the low side concealed whether it has succeeded in resolving the difficulties that the W15 experienced in hotter climates.
Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin, though, communicated that the team is encouraged that it has remedied the inherent weaknesses that prompted inconsistent swings throughout last season.
Russell has disclosed that there are some abiding balance flaws that have carried over to the W16, but the Briton teased that the eight-time Constructors’ Champions have updates in the pipeline to resolve that.
“There’s definitely improvements throughout the car, no doubt about it,” Russell told the BBC. “Naturally, there’s always something you need to work on. So we struggled a bit with low-speed understeer last year. There’s still signs of that that we’re still trying to get on top of, and we think we’ve got some things in the locker to try and cure those issues.”
With no glaring problem areas to address, Mercedes has a more stable base to build upon this time around as it endeavours to cut McLaren’s gap with its initial upgrades.
McLaren, though, is remaining mindful about the threat that the teams outside the leading quartet could pose as the field continues to converge under this rule cycle.
Williams ended the test with the benchmark time through Carlos Sainz, culminating in McLaren naming the team as even having the potential to disrupt the frontrunners.
Williams’ pre-season preparations have been much more seamless in comparison to the tribulations that had a huge bearing on its competitiveness during the 2024 season.
But while he has admitted that his new team is poised to advance in the competitive ranking, Sainz has denied the step is enough to propel Williams to the sharp end.
“I think he [Stella] also would like to see Williams up there this year, but I think it’s honestly speaking a bit too soon for Williams yet,” Sainz retorted. “I don’t think we’ve done the necessary step to be fighting with the top teams this year.
“For sure we’ve improved the car and we’re going in the right direction, but first of all it’s too early days to tell. Obviously from yesterday you could see I was trying and I was trying to go quick, which in testing is not normally the case, and I’m sure the top teams are not trying yet.”
Sainz explained how the variance in both engine modes and fuel loads ensures that teams can “manipulate” their lap times to appear quicker than they are during testing.
“You can manipulate your lap time by five seconds, so P1, one-tenth or two-tenths ahead, it means nothing to us,” he added.
Meanwhile, the ex-Ferrari driver believes that such uncertain variables mean that it would be premature to suggest that Williams is heading a competitive midfield.
Regardless, Williams stands in a much stronger position to be scoring points at the outset than the most recent season – which can also be applied to midfield rivals Alpine.
This time 12 months ago Alpine accepted it was braced to endure a tumultuous start with an overhauled A524 charger that ended up overweight and uncompetitive.
However, a sudden surge – which included a surprise double podium in the wet in Brazil – moved the Enstone-based squad up three positions to sixth in the championship table.
The signs are that Alpine has built on that momentum to retain a prominent position in the upper midfield, with boss Oliver Oakes now setting his target on seeing the team “clip at the heels” of the pacesetting group.
“I think, if I’m honest, always you can see those front teams that are a step ahead,” Oakes pondered. “I think our target is to continue where we ended up at the end of last year, which is we kind of want to be clipping at the heels of those teams. That’s not to say we’re defeatist, but we’re also quite humbled that it’s bloody close as well.”
There could even be a three-team contest over fifth spot as Haas can’t be discounted based on the competitiveness in 2024 which had the Kannapolis-based squad residing above Alpine with two races to go.
Haas amassed the second most laps – one behind Mercedes – but encountered a concerning disruption on the third morning with Oliver Bearman at the wheel when remnants of the car’s engine cover ended up scattered over the start-finish straight.
This succeeded a similar – albeit smaller – incident occurring in the shakedown that Bearman’s team-mate, Esteban Ocon, conducted at a cold and windy Silverstone.
Asked how much the incident set Haas back, the Briton responded: “We’ve had a few issues with bodywork sealing and everything, so that’s been a bit of a weak point that we’ve uncovered so far. That’s really what testing’s all about. We’ve understood that and we’ll be fine.”
When the VF-25 was circulating on track, Haas replicated the tactic that it adopted in 2024 with a big emphasis on completing race simulations with a car laden with fuel.
“I think we are in a ballpark,” Haas boss Ayao Komatsu evaluated. “I don’t know exactly where we are. I think we are in a fight. It’s a mixture. It’s so tight. At least I think we are in a mixture somewhere.”
He then added: “Even if I know we are P5 or P8, what am I going to do [before] Australia? Nothing is going to change. If we [had] some new parts planned to come to Australia, we are going to bring [them] anyway. If we didn’t, it’s not like ‘oh s**t, we are P10, we need to bring something new.’ For me it’s not that important.”
Racing Bulls headed the midfield during the nascent stages of the previous campaign until the decision to accelerate upgrades to June’s Spanish Grand Prix proved costly as the new parts generated unexpected issues.
Having scored 28 points in the opening nine rounds, Racing Bulls amassed six over the next nine weekends as reverting to older components saw its competitiveness wane.
Racing Bulls rebounded later on with more developments, but that earlier-season misstep would be detrimental as it slipped behind Alpine and Haas to eighth position.
Tsunoda suggested that setback will have an impact on the Faenza-based squad in 2025 as he suspects that even breaking into the points places will be an uphill challenge.
“I wouldn’t say I think we are going to have complete performance as much as I had first half of the season last year,” Tsunoda, 14th quickest in testing, said: “So I think it will be a little bit trickier to fight the top 10, to score points it will be very, very tight. Still, there’s a bit of a step forward, but not enough compared to what we want so far.”
Where Aston Martin props up among that gaggle is a genuine conundrum as the team’s pace was more secretive than most. But the general mood implies that another arduous campaign might be on the cards.
The Silverstone-based squad was candid upon the AMR25 being launched that the development target with the car has been to eliminate the inconsistencies that made its predecessor a handful to drive on the limit.
Aston Martin boss Andy Cowell, who has taken over at the helm, divulged that the drivers comments during pre-season testing indicated that it has accomplished that aim.
“The first impressions from Lance [Stroll] and Fernando [Alonso] suggest we’ve made progress in the car’s handling, but we’ve also discovered areas that could be improved and need further attention,” Cowell said.
“It’s too early to judge how much progress we’ve made over the winter and how we compare to our competition. We’ve been focusing on ourselves, just keeping our heads down to get the data and information we need before the season starts.”
Cowell proceeded to state that achieving that goal hasn’t come at a cost to ultimate potential, while Alonso heralded the AMR25 as an improvement on the team’s 2024 car.
But while the Spaniard and team-mate Stroll should have a more benign package underneath them this season, the duo are poised to experience more anguish unless more pace accompanies that improvement.
The evidence from testing insinuates that won’t be the case, which could trigger Aston Martin into allocating complete attention to the impending regulation revamp coming in 2026 earlier than most as it endeavours to utilise the mass expenditure that owner Lawrence Stroll has pumped into the team to become a title-challenging organisation.
That would also be applicable to Sauber as the team appears all but guaranteed to bring up the rear once again. The Hinwil-based squad made tangible progress as last season drew to a close with an upgrade package in Las Vegas that delivered points in Qatar and a Q3 outing in Abu Dhabi.
However, the green and black liveried C46 is primed to be at the back, even with the experienced Nico Hulkenberg at the wheel.
Like Aston Martin, that should provide Sauber an incentive to make an abrupt switch to the upcoming rules change which will coincide with the side’s rebrand to Audi.
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