28/02/2025
NEWS STORY
George Russell posts the quickest time, but Carlos Sainz quickest overall as pre-season testing comes to an end.
While in no way wishing to see Bahrain hit by a plague of frogs or locusts, one has to admit that such a thing wouldn't be totally out of place considering some of the red flag incidents we've witnessed over the last three days.
First there was the blackout on Wednesday, then, this morning, a stone - believed to have been thrown up by Oliver Bearman's Haas - shattered the glass in the starting gantry on the pit straight. The session resumed only to be stopped again when a marshal went missing leaving his post under-manned. Then, just minutes into this afternoon's session, out came the reds when a bus took a wrong turn and ended up on the service road beside the track.
The 'strange days' vibes continued when Lance Stroll - who missed pre-season testing in 2023 after injuring his hand in a cycling accident - reported unwell this morning meaning that teammate Fernando Alonso had to take over. The Canadian completed 34 laps in the afternoon before admitting defeat and handing the car back to the Spaniard.
Then again, with the Silverstone-based outfit not looking to have improved on its 2024 form - far from it in fact - perhaps Alonso might consider getting a sick note from his doctor until Adrian Newey is fully installed.
In many ways, that, the errant bus and stone was the only drama of the day as the teams wrapped up a busy but largely uneventful test.
While conditions were slightly warmer, a blustery wind caused problems for a number of drivers.
Due to the various unknowns it is nigh impossible to suggest a pecking order, though McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes will leave here happy, as will Williams and Alpine.
Red Bull failed to convince, Max Verstappen never looking comfortable in the RB21, though, to be fair, Lewis Hamilton also had his fair share of wobbles, the Briton only completing 47 laps before encountering an issue.
While Charles Leclerc set the pace this morning, after lunch Verstappen - who was on duty all day - wasted no time in going quicker. Alex Albon - also on duty for the entire day -subsequently went quicker only for the Dutchman to improve once again.
George Russell's timesheet-topping lap came just seven minutes before the end of the session, though fell short of Carlos Sainz' best from yesterday, and even failed to eclipse that of his former Mercedes teammate.
"We've had three rather unusual testing days here," admitted Pirelli's Mario Isola. "For years now, Formula 1 has chosen this circuit for the only pre-season test because the weather is usually very favourable, but that was not the case this week, especially the first two days. Low temperatures, considerably lower than at this time of year in previous years, and strong wind affected the teams' work and made it even harder than usual to interpret the results, with no previous reference points on this track at such low temperatures.
"From our side, the most data came from the C3 and the C2 and, slightly less so from the C1: that was entirely to be expected, given that these are the compounds usually chosen for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Only a few laps were completed with the C4, while the C5 and C6 never appeared on track, to be expected as only Ferrari and Williams had opted to include these in their allocation. From what we could see, the C2 behaved as expected, confirming that it was further from the C1 than last year and therefore closer to the C3. The hardest compound struggled a bit in these temperatures, while the C3 proved to be the most versatile of the range.
"We did not see any real performance runs, which would have allowed us to fully evaluate the performance difference between the compounds. As for degradation of the three hardest compounds, it's clear that because of the low temperatures, it was minimal, even if it increased slightly today when it was a bit warmer, but not in any significant fashion. Now we head home with plenty of data to study as we prepare for the opening round of the season. In Melbourne, we will bring the same compounds in terms of nomenclature, as last year, namely the C3 as Hard, the C4 as Medium and the C5 as Soft, so we will have a first meaningful look at the softer compounds."
"We've had a solid three days of pre-season testing," said Andy Shovelin. "The team has worked hard over the winter to improve on the weaknesses of the W15 and, from the initial signs, we seem to have made good steps in those areas with our 2025 challenger. Despite a few red flag interruptions and some rain, we've managed to get through most of the programme. It is a testament to the hard work of everyone at Brackley and Brixworth that we were able to complete the most laps of any team over the course of the test.
"Over the next week, we will pick through that data to assess areas of improvement and to bring the most effective race car we can for the first race in Melbourne in two weeks' time. It is of course far too early to make an accurate prediction of the competitive order. However, we can be pleased with how the test has gone and look forward to heading to Australia to begin the season."
"We've had a productive three days here," added Russell. "The team at Brackley, Brixworth, and here trackside have done a great job to have us ready for the test and rack up a significant amount of mileage. We've had a seamless three days, and the car is running well.
"It is no surprise to see some of our competitors, particularly McLaren, looking strong. We've compiled significant data and knowledge which gives the opportunity to find further improvements ahead of Melbourne. Kimi and I will be in the factory next week, driving on the simulator, and everyone will be pushing flat out to ensure we bring our best to Australia. I can't wait to get started!"
"It's been a positive test," said Kimi Antonelli, "and we've built our knowledge of the W16 with plenty of running.
"There were a few interruptions and red flags that delayed our programme, but we got through everything we wanted to. The conditions have also been mixed, with cold and windy conditions particularly on the first two days. That has made it even more difficult than usual to get an idea of the competitive order, but we have just focused on our own work and are pleased with what we've achieved. We can now go away, look through the data and continue to work on how we can bring the best race car possible to the first race in Melbourne in two weeks' time.
"From my own perspective, I've enjoyed getting out on track for the first time as a Mercedes works driver. It's been good to continue building my experience of working with the team and furthering my preparations for my rookie season. I'm excited to get to Melbourne now and get the season properly underway."
"I think we had a decent day today," said Verstappen, "there were a few little problems but overall, we completed quite a bit of what we wanted to do.
"I think it wasn't bad but at the same time there is still a bit of work to do. However, it is what we expected and we will keep on working and keep on trying to improve and hopefully, as we go into 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."
"It was not as smooth a test as we expected and the team expected," admitted technical director, Pierre Wache, "but it is better to find some problems here than later down the line and it is why we are here, to understand the car.
"The weather was not with us and not very representative of this track, but we tried to explore the potential of the car and tried to understand how it responds to different set-ups, and I think we more or less achieved that.
"I think it's very difficult to see a starting order for Melbourne across the grid right now, you see that four teams look quite quick, including us, but we didn't look too much at other teams, we tried to focus on our programme. 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."
"I think it was a productive three days," said Oscar Piastri. "We tried a lot of things and learnt a lot. Some things felt quite good, others still need improvement but working through this is exactly what testing is for. The car ran pretty much faultlessly, which was a good place to be starting from. We've got a lot to review before Melbourne, but I think we're going into it in decent shape."
"Much trickier conditions on track this morning with the wind and temperature," added Norris. "Once I was comfortable, we were able to work through our plan and collect more data. We'll now put it all together and look through everything we've completed over the last few days to make sure we're ready for Melbourne."
"The end of three productive days here," said Andrea Stella. "We completed our aero tests this morning, before giving both Lando and Oscar a chance for some runs to allow them to gain insight into the capabilities of the car before we head to Australia.
"We also took the opportunity to make some further set-up changes as we continue to learn about the characteristics of the MCL39. The team here and in Woking have done a great job of bringing our new car to the track and allowing us to maximise all of the time available to us this week. We have plenty to analyse and work on before the first race of the season in two weeks' time."
Check out our gallery from Bahrain, here.
"Conditions were more challenging today with the strong gusts making testing more difficult," admitted Williams chief engineer, Dave Robson. "However, we were still able to complete some useful work across a range of fuel loads. In preparation for the season ahead, we scanned a range of car configurations and tyre compounds.
"Once again, the FW47 was mostly reliable with only a few minor issues affecting the programme. This puts us in a good place for the opening races of the season."
"It was a tricky day," added Alex Albon, "I don't know what it was like for the other drivers, but the morning was really difficult with the wind, and we didn't really get much of a rhythm. We had a couple of issues on the car which delayed things as well, so we were struggling a little bit to get going.
"Finally, we got a good long run in and a decent lowish performance run style, ending the day with some more long runs. So all in all, I'm positive. I do think we need to look at some data with a couple of areas we need to focus on. The good thing is, we know where the lap time is and I don't think it's that hard to achieve, so we'll do some work around that and get ready for Melbourne!"
"Leclerc was first on track this morning, running the C3 compound tyre for almost the entire four hours available. The exception was a five lap stint on the C4, although he actually set his best time of 1:30.811 on the harder of the two compounds.
Towards the end of the session, the wind picked up and the gusts made life difficult for all the drivers in terms of getting the most out of their cars, to the extent that very few of them improved their times. Leclerc did 66 laps, and over the three days he drove 223 laps, equivalent to five Grands Prix.
After the lunchbreak, the team changed the SF-25 to Hamilton's preferred settings and he was one of the first out on track. His programme was almost identical to the one his team-mate ran yesterday, with the Englishman carrying out qualifying and race simulations.
On low fuel, Hamilton's best time was a 1:30.345 on the C4 compound. Then, with a heavy fuel load he ran C3 tyres bringing his daily lap total to 47 (254 kilometres).
In the closing stages, the team decided to bring him in and stop running, as a precaution, having spotted an anomaly on the telemetry.
Over the three days, Hamilton racked up 162 laps, equivalent to almost three race distances.
"This has been a very different type of pre-season test," said Leclerc, "because of the inconsistent weather making it hard to come to any real conclusions. The wind changed from run to run, there was even some rain yesterday, and temperatures fluctuated over the course of the week, so all the teams head to the first race with some more unknowns compared to the past few years. We still learned a huge amount, especially in terms of the way the car feels now that we've actually been out on track.
"We will return to Maranello and spend some time in the simulator, to look for the last details that could make a difference in Melbourne, but also to correlate the feeling in the sim to that in the real car. We are fully focused on maximizing our performance over the coming week and I really look forward to kicking off the season."
"Overall it's been a great few days and we've made some strong progress," added Hamilton. "We had to finish a little earlier than planned today, and the weather has been hard to predict all week, but that's how testing works sometimes and we've managed to gather a lot of good information to build on before the season starts.
"The whole team has done an incredible job and I'm so excited to get to the first race in Melbourne. I can't wait to go racing with them."
"It has been hard to get a clear read on the overall situation as the conditions were changing quite a lot day by day and from the morning to the afternoon," admitted Fred Vasseur, "so it was more similar to Vegas than to the Bahrain we usually know.
"Over the past six months we have worked very hard on this car and we have made a good improvement but we will have to wait until we are all on track in Melbourne to understand where we are.
"If we look at the hierarchy of previous years, what we saw here was not the same as in qualifying a week later, under the same conditions. We will go from 10-15 degrees on the track to the 45 we will have in Australia, so in Melbourne it will probably be a whole different story.
"We want to fight for both championships as we know we have two drivers who can do it and the mood in the team is very positive. We will continue to work hard to be ready in two weeks' time for the start of the season."
"It's been a good three days," said Pierre Gasly. "I have enjoyed being back together with the team and getting a feel for the A525. We managed to run through a lot of test items with some interesting learnings for us to discuss and understand.
"I think we can safely say we are in a much stronger position going into 2025 as we were last year," he continued. "In general, I feel happy in the car and that is a good place to be ready for the season opener. There is a lot of things to take forward from here going into the first race in Australia. I am pleased and now I am just eager to get the season started."
"A lot of hard work and hours go into testing so thank you to the entire team for a good week," added Jack Doohan. "We had three smooth days with no issues and the car ran well all week, which meant we could achieve plenty of laps and plenty of mileage.
"We collected a lot of great data and, on a personal side, I took on some useful knowledge to apply in Australia for the first race. Conditions have been mixed all week but that's good to put us all through our paces. I am going into Melbourne with confidence. There is much more to come and we'll aim to keep working hard and keep progressing as a team."
"It has been a good and productive three days for the team," said Oliver Oakes. "A lot of hard work has gone into this test both behind the scenes at the factories in preparation, as well as in the execution trackside by our dayshift and nightshift crews. Testing is never easy to fully understand where you stand in the pecking order.
"We've really focused on ourselves this week and I am pleased with the things we have learnt and how we have progressed across the three days. We have a good base to work from and a solid foundation to start the season. Both drivers completed plenty of laps, which is important for them and also good to get mileage on certain components to test reliability.
"Now, we're looking forward to debriefing back at base next week before attention turns to racing in Australia."
At Haas Bearman and Esteban Ocon racked up 162 laps to take the American outfit's final lap count to 457 laps.
Bearman enjoyed a first run on lower fuel - his best lap time a 1:32.361 on the Pirelli C3 tyre, before a bodywork issue curtailed the overall run program. Despite the compromise, additional car balance stints and longer distance runs followed on the C1 and C2 rubber to wrap up the 19-year-old's program. Bearman logged 59 laps to take his pre-season total to 197 laps.
Ocon was back for the afternoon and the Frenchman had a busy stint eventually taking the chequered flag 103 laps later to finish with 260 laps to his credit.
Highlights from the session included a qualifying sim on low fuel on the C4 compound, as well as a race distance run complete with full crew pit-stops as track time drew to a close early evening under the lights at the Sakhir circuit.
"For the final day of testing, we had planned a short run and a race sim for each driver," said Ayao Komatsu. "Unfortunately, this morning we had an issue with the bodywork, so Ollie's entire session essentially was compromised which was disappointing. That wasn't very representative for Ollie's final preparation.
"Esteban had a decent afternoon and completed most of the run plan. We've still got a bit of work to do but we've made decent progress, and for the first time today we looked at the car with a slightly lower fuel load. Overall, if I look back at testing, was it perfect - no, but apart from this morning I think we dealt with the conditions pretty well. It's been cold, and it was raining yesterday, so it's been tricky to get the best out of it, but apart from this morning - I think we did.
"It's been a decent preparation and I'm looking forward to Australia."
"It certainly wasn't the morning the team and I were hoping for," admitted Bearman. "We had an obvious issue with the car, which was unexpected, so we ran the car a bit differently to finish the morning which lost us a bit of performance. We still run a lot though, as every lap is important and that's what testing's all about so we'll be fine for Australia. I'm excited to get there and get my season started. The car was feeling really good last night so I'm feeling confident and comfortable and we tried a few things that worked. It's tough to say where we stand, we haven't done much low-fuel running, but I think the car is performing well - I just don't want to jinx anything!"
"It was a very busy afternoon, probably my busiest ever," said Ocon. "We got a lot of long running in once again, and a few shorter runs which was good so I could get the feel of the car. There's more performance to come, but it was very good to get into proper conditions, time with other cars on track, and a proper temperature. It's been a very good test from my side, no issues really and we went through the plan smoothly. I definitely feel one more step ready to get to Australia."
Check out our gallery from Bahrain, here.
"I've had a short pre-season testing as we encountered a few small issues and the weather impacted our running a little over the three days," said Alonso, "but it was the same for everyone.
"I haven't followed the results of testing because we have just been focussing on our programme. We do have some positives with the new car compared to 2024, but there are still some things that we need to work on and improve as we prepare for Australia.
"We experimented a little with some mechanical changes during the test but the track conditions were not at their best. It's only testing and we won't know how everyone looks until Qualifying in Melbourne."
"Getting back to work and feeling the new car is always an exciting time of the year," added Lance Stroll. "A lot of effort has gone into the AMR25 over the winter to try and improve various car characteristics, so it was nice to get my first feeling for those changes this week.
"You always learn so much from those first moments in the car and there are some things that feel better, but it is still very early days and difficult to say too much until we get to Melbourne. The final day of running was a bit disrupted because I was feeling unwell. I managed to do 34 laps but Fernando took over to finish the session."
"Our first few days working with the AMR25 have been busy and productive," said Andy Cowell. "The focus has been on learning about this car, the new aero package, checking all the systems, and gathering data from a huge number of experiments and test items. There has been a massive effort from the team on the ground in Bahrain and back at base to run the car and crunch all the data which is already helping us paint a picture of where we are.
"Initial feedback from Lance and Fernando suggests we have made progress with the drivability of the car, but we have also discovered areas that could be better and need more focus. It is very early days to be making any judgements on how much progress we have made during the winter and how we compare to our competition. We have been focused on ourselves; we have just kept our heads down to get the data and information we need before the racing begins in a couple of weeks' time."
On the final day it was Gabriel Bortoleto's turn to drive the C45 in the morning, with Hulkenberg set to take over in the afternoon. A hydraulic leak, alongside another delay due to a red flag caused by the glass debris on track, caused some downtime, but the garage crew worked efficiently to get the Brazilian back on track for the remainder of his session, allowing the team to complete its planned programme for the day.
Overall, it has been a productive three days of testing for the team, providing valuable insights to help better understand the C45 ahead of the first race of the season.
"Overall, it has been a productive test, which allowed us to gather useful data that will serve as a foundation heading into the first race of the season," said technical director James Key. "We have managed to cover everything we had planned over these three days, while gaining a lot of valuable insights.
"The C45 delivered a solid performance, completing over 350 laps in total, a testament to the hard work put in by the team throughout the winter.
"Although we had to take some time off Gabriel's final session in the car earlier today due to a hydraulic leak, which the team promptly investigated and solved, we still completed our full programme for the final day of track action.
"As always in testing, lap times haven't been our focus, as each team followed its own priorities and checklists, so we'll have to wait until Melbourne to get a clearer picture of the competition. Still, it's safe to say we delivered a decent, consistent performance and we will look to keep moving forward as the season unfolds."
"It's been good to be back on track, and to keep working with the team," said Hulkenberg, "I really enjoy this side of things, getting into the details and figuring out how to get the most out of our car.
"Now, testing is done, and it's been three dynamic days with lots of running, trying different things, and collecting plenty of data to go through. We got a decent first feel for it, and there is definitely still more to discover as we keep refining things. Now, we'll go through all the information and make sure we get to Melbourne with the best possible package for the first race."
"It's been a solid three days," added Bortoleto, "I got to learn a lot about the car and the team, and overall, it's been productive for all of us.
"Now, we'll use the next two weeks to go over the details and fine-tune, to understand what worked well and see in which areas we can improve.
"The season opener in Australia is just around the corner, and we'll keep working hard to be as prepared as possible. I would like to say a big thank you to the team both trackside and in the factory for all their effort throughout these days - it's great to be working with them. My first Formula One race is coming up, and I'm really looking forward to it."
Check out our gallery from Bahrain, here.