Lando Norris: "It's finally here, our first race of the season! I'm looking forward to starting my sixth season in Formula 1 and with the team. We ended last season on a high, so hopefully we keep the momentum.

"It felt great to be back behind the wheel of an F1 car last week. Testing of the MCL38 went well, which is a good way to go into the race weekend. We learned a lot but there's always more to get used to in a new car. A huge thanks goes to the team for their hard work in bringing the MCL38 to track. Let's go!"

Oscar Piastri: "I'm excited to start my second season in Formula 1. It's great to be back in the car, and the MCL38 feels good. It was great to get substantial time in the car last week at testing. We learned a lot about the car, but this is when we really find out how we stack up against the competition. The team has done a fantastic job over the winter, and we're all really happy to be back racing. It should be a fun season ahead."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "The team is looking forward to going racing again. Last week we had three productive days of testing where we could work with the MCL38 to optimise performance and to let reliability issues emerge before the race weekend. We have gathered a lot of data ahead of the start of the season here in Bahrain.

"The entire team have worked tirelessly in the off-season to build the MCL38 and get us ready for the first race here in Bahrain. We have a long season of 24 races ahead of us, and our aim is to continue building on the upwards trajectory we established last season. Both Lando and Oscar have been working closely with their engineering teams over the last few months, and they come into this season prepared and ready to give their all.

"As always, we're grateful for the support we receive from our fans and commercial partners. It never goes unnoticed, thank you for your support once again.

"We're not in a position to make any predictions on our competitiveness as testing is difficult to read, but we're committed to delivering our best performance in every aspect of our operations and we're excited to go racing again."

Bahrain International Circuit

Race laps: 57

Circuit length: 5.412 km/3.363 miles

Total race distance: 308.238 km/191.530 miles

Number of corners:15 (9 right, 6 left)

Allocated tyre compounds: Hard: C1, Medium: C2 & Soft: C3