F1 2025 preview: Biggest winners and losers from Bahrain pre-season testing
With pre-season testing wrapped up in Bahrain, the build-up to F1’s 2025 season opener in Melbourne on Sunday, March 16 is well underway.
It is always hard to get a clear picture of where all the teams are at, but 2025 has been particularly tricky after some of the curveballs the Sakhir circuit threw at us this pre-season - whether it be weird weather conditions, power outages, or a rogue bus on track.
Nevertheless, Sports News Blitz’s F1 writer Henry Eccles breaks down the biggest winners and losers to come out of the three days of testing in Bahrain.
Winners: McLaren
Following on from winning their first Constructors’ title since 1998 last season, McLaren look set to pick up where they left off.
On day two, when Lando Norris undertook his race simulation stints roughly at the same time as Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the McLaren’s dominance was clear to see.
Norris was lapping an average 0.5s a lap quicker than his two rivals, and if it had been an actual race, he would have finished 30 seconds ahead of everyone else.
On day three, Oscar Piastri, although not quite there with Norris overall, gave an impressive performance of his own, lapping an average of 0.2s a lap quicker than Mercedes driver George Russell - and even up to 0.5s quicker in their first stints.
The Woking team are clear frontrunners then, but it was not a perfect pre-season in Bahrain.
Throughout testing, Norris complained of rear-end stability, and nearly veered into the wall on Friday morning after a big snap of oversteer.
Team Principal Andrea Stella poured cold water on McLaren’s dominance at what has historically been a difficult track for the team - the Sakhir circuit was also unusually chilly this pre-season.
“The conditions are so unique that they may be masking some of the traditional issues that we may be having," Stella said.
Stella can downplay his team all he wants - McLaren will still no doubt roll out onto the grid in Melbourne on Thursday, March 13, the clear favourites for the season after such an impressive pre-season test.
Losers: Red Bull
While McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes all look to have their affairs reasonably in order, things look a little more complicated at Red Bull.
Max Verstappen finished the final day just 0.021s behind leader George Russell, but that fails to tell the whole story of what was a tough pre-season for the Milton Keynes team.
On Thursday, Verstappen’s new teammate Liam Lawson lost valuable testing time due to a water pressure failure, which meant Red Bull failed to complete a proper race simulation.
The next day, Verstappen was in the car for both testing sessions, but instead of running a race simulation, Red Bull opted to tinker with their RB21 challenger, seemingly still wrangling with some issues over balance and drivability carried over from last season.
As The Race pointed out, the car was sporting flo-vis - a special paint that reveals a car’s airflow - within the final hour of testing, something rarely seen at such a late stage.
It wasn’t the most encouraging sign that Red Bull have things under control.
The team’s technical director, Pierre Wache, also expressed some disappointment after the test:
“I am not as happy as I could be because the car did not respond how we wanted at times.
“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.”
There is certainly no need to panic yet over in Milton Keynes, but struggling to get to grips with the car just days before their former aerodynamicist and F1 legend Adrian Newey officially joined Aston Martin is not exactly the best look for Christian Horner’s team.
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Winners: Ferrari
While not exactly matching McLaren, and seemingly very close with Mercedes for the ‘best of the rest’ tag that nobody really wants, Ferrari had a solid pre-season test.
And with such a huge move like Lewis Hamilton’s switch from the Silver Arrows, that is really all they would have been hoping for.
On the timing sheet at least, it looks promising so far, as Hamilton and Leclerc finished pre-season with the second and third fastest laps overall, only behind Williams’ Carlos Sainz.
Hamilton’s 1m 29.379s was also quicker than Ferrari’s Q3 lap in qualifying at the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.
While testing times should always be taken with a pinch of salt, particularly with such strange conditions in Bahrain this year, Hamilton’s sustained optimism throughout testing is what should give the Tifosi the most encouragement going into the 2025 season.
Early on in the test, the Brit said he was really enjoying driving the SF-25 and reckoned he was starting to slowly bond with the 2025 challenger.
On Friday afternoon, with just the final session to go, Hamilton declared that the car had provided him with “the most positive feeling that I’ve had in a long time.”
Hamilton’s latest comments are a nice departure from recent years, as ever since the 2022 regulation changes, rarely has the former Mercedes star been so positive about the ground-effect focused cars.
While we still cannot be totally sure of where Ferrari stand in comparison with their rivals, the seven-time world champion finally has a smile back on his face, and that certainly ought to raise a few concerns amongst competitors.
Losers: Aston Martin
It was at Bahrain in 2023 that Aston Martin shocked the world.
After a very strong pre-season test, the Silverstone-based team looked like they had made a huge improvement from languishing at the back of the grid to potentially challenging for at least the points.
Yet nobody could have expected what happened next at the season’s opening race, as Fernando Alonso pulled off a vintage drive - featuring a ridiculous overtake on Hamilton at Turn 10 - to take P3 and round off a dream debut weekend.
Fast forward two years, after consecutive P5 finishes in the Constructors’, many were expecting Aston to make more waves after what looked like a strong winter in terms of infrastructure and car development.
And while both Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll have reported improved drivability with a car Team Principal and Chief Executive Officer Andy Cowell says is ‘close to 100% new,’ the data picked up from testing makes for some unpleasant reading.
According to F1 correspondent Lawrence Barretto, the team in racing green were eighth in qualifying simulations, and dead last in the race sims - 0.6s behind Sauber in ninth.
Also offering his insight into Aston’s pre-season was Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz.
He imitated an ominous shrug from team owner Lawrence Stroll when it was suggested to him that the car looked better from last season.
Kravitz also explained that the team’s last testing day was heavily compromised by forced driver changes as a result of Lance being ill.
Kravitz also noted that the new car is very much a ‘blank canvas’ waiting for Adrian Newey as Managing Technical Partner.
Newey’s role is earmarked with a view to the new 2026 regulations, but judging by his new team’s pre-season, some of his wisdom would certainly not go amiss if Aston Martin want to break into the top four in 2025.
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Winners: Williams
Arguably the biggest winners to come out of testing, and certainly the most improved team, are Williams.
New recruit Carlos Sainz set the fastest time across all of the three testing days, with a 1m 29.348s on day two - only 0.169s off the lap that put Verstappen on pole in 2024.
On Friday, Alex Albon finished the afternoon session in P3 with a time of 1m 29.650s.
Again, while we should not get too excited over testing lap times, Williams have impressed everyone up and down the paddock, none more so than McLaren boss Stella.
Stella suggested this year may see a ‘top five or the top six,’ and pointed to a ‘very competitive’ Williams as a contender to break the mould.
Sainz, meanwhile, was quick to temper expectations when asked to give a message to Williams fans by Spanish newspaper Marca.
“I’m sure you won’t see me on the podium or in the top five this year, so don’t get too excited.
“But be assured at least that I haven’t come to Williams to pass the time, to let the years go by, to be in the middle of the grid.
“If I’ve come to Williams, it is to take this team forward and I’m confident that I can do that, and coming first yesterday at least shows people that I’m going for it.”
For Williams, and everyone else on the grid, it will be a lot clearer where things stand once the first Grand Prix weekend gets underway in Melbourne.
Qualifying takes place at 5am UK time on March 15, followed by a 4am race start on Sunday, March 16.
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