The Formula 1 season got underway this week with all 10 teams heading to Bahrain for three days of testing their 2025 cars.
All 20 cars took to the track on Wednesday morning for the first time after their liveries were unveiled last week at F1 75.
The three-day test is the only opportunity for teams to test the cars before the season opening grand prix in Melbourne on March 16. Although laptimes are relatively meaningless, testing does offer some insight into which teams look sharp for the season ahead.
– Race schedule, key dates for the 2025 season
– F1 livery Power Rankings: Grid’s best paint schemes in 2025
– Driver line-ups, team-by-team guide
Day one
All eyes were on Lewis Hamilton, as he went out on track first thing on Wednesday, his first proper outing in the SF-25 after only testing it briefly at the team’s private track. During the launch season he drove 2023, and 2024-spec cars at four separate tests.
After his run on Wednesday, Hamilton said he and the car are “bonding.”
Hamilton’s performance coach Angela Cullen, has returned to the paddock. Cullen and Hamilton parted ways in 2023 and she went on to work with Marcus Armstrong in IndyCar, before joining the seven-time champion in red at Ferrari for this year.
Temperatures in Bahrain are around 15°C this week which is colder than expected for the time of year. Spots of rain fell on day one, with more following on day two.
Day one saw a powercut for over an hour in the late afternoon as dusk was approaching. The pitwall screens went off, as did lights in the garages and floodlights around the track. Mechanics worked under torchlight for a while, and some were seen bringing small generators to the garages while the issue was fixed.
Organisers at the circuit said it was due to a substation failure and the FIA decided to extend the session for an additional hour once the power came back on.
Six rookies join the grid this year, and all made their first appearance on the track this week. Gabriel Bortoleto for Sauber, Jack Doohan at Alpine, Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes, Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls, Oliver Bearman at Haas, and, if you consider him a rookie having already completed 11 grands prix across two years, Liam Lawson at Red Bull.
Find out more about the rookies.
Lando Norris topped the times on Wednesday, ahead of George Russell and Max Verstappen. The times were all set after the power cut.
Day two
Rain returned for a short period on day two, with Esteban Ocon the only driver to go out on intermediate tyres as everyone else waited for it to pass.
Carlos Sainz set the fastest time on day two and the whole test with a laptime of 1:29.348, 0.031 seconds faster than Hamilton earlier in the day.
Flow visualisation paint, or ‘flow-vis’ is a common sight at testing and is used for analysing aerodynamics. The flourecent powder is mixed with a light oil, which creates flows as the car is out on track and dries with the airflow. The paint creates a visualisation of the flow structure that the aerodynamicists can analyse and correct if necessary. The paint is water-based and is washed off afterwards.
Similarly with flow-vis, aero rakes are another common sight for aerodynamic analysis at testing. The rakes can feature at the front and rear of the cars and have lots of tiny sensors designed to measure off-body flow structures for the front wing and front wheels, and body for the rear. The aerodynamicists can analyse the data almost instantly and measure changes when tweaks are made.
1:15
Lewis Hamilton stars as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris joke
Five things from Day 2 at F1 preseason testing in Bahrain.
Verstappen and Norris made light of a question of how their relationship might suffer if they fight for the title again in 2025. Verstappen said: “Yeah, it’s a terrible relationship. We don’t get on any more. It’s taken it’s toll. Yeah. Big drama.”
Day three
To continue the theme of bizarre incidents, more red flags were issued on day three. In the early morning, Bearman’s Haas lost part of the engine cover during a lap, resulting in him slowly limping back to the pits for it to be fixed with some fragments left on the grass.
Towards the end of the morning session, another red flag was issued as a pane of glass from the gantry (where flags are waved), over the start/finish straight shattered onto the track, prompting marshals to swiftly sweep it up so running could continue.
Watch (U.S. only) as the afternoon session was red flagged briefly as a bus was spotted in the run-off area on the track.
Illness struck the Aston Martin drivers meaning a lack of running on day three. Lance Stroll was reported to be unwell this morning, but managed 34 laps before handing over to Fernando Alonso who was also reported to be suffering with a cold.
Charles Leclerc was fastest in the morning session on day three, but George Russell beat four-time world champion Max Verstappen to go fastest on day three with a 1:29.545 in the afternoon.
Sainz remains quickest overall across the three days.
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