F1 preview: Key things to look out for as 2025 pre-season testing gets underway in Bahrain
On Wednesday, February 26, F1 makes its long-awaited return to the track for three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain.
It is often said that testing ultimately means very little, as teams scramble to hide their true performance from their rival competitors.
But Sports News Blitz’s F1 writer Henry Eccles disagrees and takes a look at the key things to look out for in preparation for what could be F1’s tightest season yet.
The new drivers
At last year’s testing in Bahrain, there were no rookies to report on.
This season, however, six drivers will make their full-season debuts in F1 and share the track for the first time this week.
Most of the attention will be on 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes, who replaces seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in his first-ever year in F1.
No pressure, then.
The Italian has racked up several trophies in his junior career and is rated extremely highly by the Silver Arrows.
Team boss Toto Wolff is anxious to not lose out on another wonderkid similar to how he did with Max Verstappen all those years ago.
At such a young age, though, Antonelli will make mistakes.
Just 10 minutes into his first practice session for Mercedes at Monza last season, Antonelli spun out and crashed heavily into the barriers.
At this year’s testing, all eyes will be on the teenager to see if he shows more promising signs of being able to handle what is undoubtedly a mountain of pressure.
Also making their full F1 debuts are Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto.
The pair were involved in a fierce battle for the F2 championship last season, with only half a point separating them going into the Abu Dhabi finale.
In the end, it was the Brazilian Bortoleto who just came out on top, after Hadjar’s disastrous stalled start at lights out.
Nonetheless, both drivers have their seats in F1 for 2025, and pre-season testing will be a lot of fans’ first chance to catch a glimpse of their talents.
Haas’ Oliver ‘Ollie’ Bearman, Red Bull’s Liam Lawson and Alpine’s Jack Doohan have all appeared in F1 in some capacity in the past, but make their full-season debuts in 2025.
Bearman’s debut came at Ferrari, filling in for an ill Carlos Sainz and impressively securing P7 in Saudi Arabia.
The young Brit then replaced Haas’ Kevin Magnussen at Azerbaijan and Brazil later on in the year.
Lawson is no stranger at this point - the young Kiwi has twice entered an ongoing F1 season for Racing Bulls but makes the daunting step up this season to join Verstappen at Red Bull.
Doohan made an appearance for Alpine at the Abu Dhabi finale last season but is already said to be under intense pressure following the signing of Williams ace Franco Colapinto as a reserve driver.
The last thing the young Aussie needs is a messy pre-season, especially with rumours that his contract only runs for the first few rounds of the 2025 campaign.
The actual cars
Last week, at the F175 season-opening event at the O2 in London, fans got to see the 2025 cars for the first time.
Both in attendance and performing on stage were Hollywood actors, musicians, and F1 stars of the past and present, all there to see the cars’ fancy new paint jobs.
And while it was all very nice, not much was learned about the actual car designs for the upcoming season.
Mercedes, Aston Martin, Alpine and Red Bull have already released images of their proper 2025 cars, and some have been pictured on shakedown laps in Bahrain.
Even then, a lot of care is usually taken with those sorts of images to not give away too many secrets - Red Bull’s RB21 was showcased in a conveniently dim studio, for instance.
In the Bahrain pre-season tests though, there will be nowhere to hide.
Media, fans, and the teams themselves will be doing everything they can to spot any upgrades that have been kept under wraps so far.
In terms of performance, it is always tricky to tell where everyone is truly at.
Many variables have to be taken into account, such as fuel loads, tyre compounds, engine modes and evolving track conditions.
Top teams that find themselves further down the grid than expected are often accused of ‘sandbagging,’ intentionally underperforming to hide their true performance from rivals.
But make no mistake, by the end of the three testing days, drivers and bosses will have a very good idea of where they stand.
Fans should therefore be following team radios and post-test interviews very closely to get an idea of what the upcoming season will look like.
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Have any midfield teams made a step up?
With all their resources and army of impressive technical staff, Aston Martin are the ones to watch here.
Although with more of a view to the new 2026 regulations, the Silverstone-based team have made huge strides in infrastructure over the winter.
They have developed state-of-the-art facilities such as a new wind tunnel and a simulator, completing a new factory opened in July 2023.
Legendary aerodynamicist Adrian Newey, while not having any part in the current car, will also begin work at Aston Martin on March 3.
New Team Principal and Chief Executive Officer Andy Cowell has said the new car’s aerodynamic package is ‘close to 100% new.
Driver Fernando Alonso believes it won’t be long before the team are challenging at the front.
Aston Martin have finished fifth for the last two seasons, but it was 2023’s pre-season that first showed their true potential to the world.
After turning heads in testing with their new design and impressive pace, Alonso pulled off a sensational drive for Aston in the season opener to take P3.
With a grid said to be as tight as ever, the team in British racing green will be hoping their upgrades make the difference again, and a good testing week will go a long way in proving that.
Alpine are another midfield team to look out for after their strong end to the 2024 campaign.
Last season’s testing was a horror show for the French team, turning up with an overweight car that was poor in the corners and draggy down the straights.
But after David Sanchez’s appointment as Executive Technical Director in May 2024, the team’s performance picked up in a big way, culminating in a P2 and P3 finish at Brazil for Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly respectively.
Ocon has since left Alpine for Haas, who were also beginning to pick up consistent points towards 2024’s end, continuing their development under Team Principal Ayao Komatsu.
Another team on the up is Williams, buoyed by the signing of Carlos Sainz from Ferrari for 2025 and beyond.
Team boss James Vowles has said they have also made good progress over the winter, boasting a ‘world of difference’ from where the car has been in previous seasons.
As for every team though, nothing is truly certain until testing gets underway.
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How are Red Bull shaping up?
Despite winning the World Drivers’ Championship, Max Verstappen and Red Bull struggled to get to grips with their car throughout 2024.
Verstappen, despite winning seven of the first 10 races of the season, only won two more in the entirety of the championship.
The Dutchman had to look nervously over his shoulder for the rest of the year as McLaren’s Lando Norris made his title charge to no avail.
After finishing P6 in Monza, Verstappen described his RB20 as an ‘undriveable monster.’
Meanwhile, his teammate Sergio Perez fared even worse - finishing the whole season in just P8 before being replaced by Liam Lawson.
As a team, Red Bull also dropped behind McLaren and Ferrari in the Constructors’ championship battle to finish P3.
Team Principal Christian Horner’s hopes to get the car back into championship-contending condition have also been dented by the departure of Adrian Newey, the designer of seven championship-winning Red Bull cars from 2010 to 2024.
Still, this year’s testing will surely be a little less chaotic than 2024, which was marred by allegations of controlling behaviour against Horner, resulting in an inner-team civil war that at one stage threatened to see Verstappen depart.
With an ambitious young driver in Lawson next to Verstappen, a lot of eyes will be on how Red Bull will bounce back from such a tricky year in their fight to reclaim the title from McLaren.
How will Lewis Hamilton adapt at Ferrari?
As we have seen, there are a lot of things to look forward to in the Bahrain tests and beyond.
But this is the big one.
On Wednesday, after 12 mostly glorious years at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton will share the track with his rivals for the first time as a Ferrari driver.
There has never been a driver move with as much hype and expectation as this one, Hamilton himself told Sky Sports that his early days with the legendary Italian team have been the “most exciting time of my life”.
But after such a long and successful partnership with Mercedes - a relationship that stretches back into his early teenage karting career - Hamilton also admitted there is a ‘steep learning curve’ in adapting to a new team, culture, and machinery.
Still desperate to win an unprecedented eighth world title at 40 years of age, Hamilton has taken an almighty leap of faith in joining Ferrari.
But after a shakedown session at Ferrari’s test track on Wednesday, February 19, Hamilton claimed the Maranello-based team have “absolutely every ingredient” needed to win a world championship.
“There is magic here,” the seven-time world champion said. “I have worked with two world championship-winning teams before, I know what a winning team looks and feels like.”
Again, for all that confidence and optimism, it will be fascinating to see whether Hamilton can hit the ground running in red.
And it won’t be until testing in Bahrain that we will have any clue as to whether that is a real possibility.
When and where to watch
Pre-season testing in Bahrain will run from Wednesday, February 26 to Friday, February 28 at 10am to 7pm local time (7am to 4pm in the UK).
Fans in the UK will be able to watch all the action on Sky Sports’ F1, and on Sky Sports’ YouTube channel.
