Who was the fastest? What we learnt from F1 2025 pre-season testing
We will have an overview of how Pre-Season testing at the Sakhir International Circuit went down and give my rankings of the 10 teams.
Even with 3 full days of testing, 3896 laps of running for the 10 teams combined and no encounters of reliability issues. We still don’t have a full gauge on how the pecking order looks like due to teams running different run programs at different points in testing on top of the changeable conditions we saw in Sakhir.
However, when taking a look at the long run pace of the team and taking into account top speeds, we’ll have a rough idea of the engine mapping and the extent of sandbagging each team did.
The slowest car - KICK Sauber
By far the least impressive team of testing, with an average gap on long run pace of 1.3 seconds it’s very clear to see this team is lacking the raw speed. The car looked quite unstable in turns 9,10 and 11 for both Nico Hulkenberg and Rookie Gabriel Bortoleto.
On each lap, the drivers had to take different racing lines as the car just wasn’t responding the way the drivers wanted it to.
Especially in the hands of Bortoleto, the car had several snaps of oversteer coming out of turn 11 with the rookie punching his hand into the air out of pure frustration with his machinery. He also went slightly out of shape out of turn 2, clipping the inside kerb which was enough to unsettle the car.
It’s very clear the teams main focus seems to be 2026 when they transform into Audi and come out of the blocks firing for the new regulations in 2026.
9 - Aston Martin
Aston Martin ended the 2024 season at the back end of the grid with several midfield teams overtaking them in performance, a fall from grace considering the 2023 season they had.
The team usually started off the season pretty strong and fell off as the season progressed but Alonso’s comments pointed towards the team left off where they ended last season.
The car never really showed that much pace at any points during testing but it showcased stability in turns 9 and 10. The team had goals for the this year’s car to give more confidence to their drivers, which seemed to have worked but it lacks raw speed.
It doesn’t bode well for Lance’s confidence either as he had to miss half of his testing time on Day 3 due to illness.
With Alonso stating that there are new positives with their 2025 car compared to 2024 but still areas to improve on.
8. Haas
A lot of unknowns with the Haas F1 team as they didn't really show their hand in the first 2 days of testing. It’s difficult to know where they stand.
The team weren't in the garage for that long, indicating not many set up changes were needed which is a good sign.
They produced some long run simulations with their new driver Esteban Ocon on the 3rd day though.
Relative to McLaren, their long run pace was over a second slower but they showcased low tyre degradation which was a strong characteristic of their 2024 predeccessor which allowed them to clinch 7th in the constructors.
Oddities
However, there is a specific issue the team encountered not just in their pre season testing but in their shakedown of the VF25 which seems to be the build quality of the car.
During the shakedown, the sidepod cover of Ocon’s car flew off and then during Testing day 2, the engine cover of Rookie Oliver Bearman’s car flew off as well.
Something to definitely fix before the first race weekend in Melbourne.
7. Racing Bulls
The sister team of the Red Bull team seems to be in the middle of the midfield, nothing bad but nothing spectacular either.
Racing Bulls seems to be in stronger form compared to the three team I’ve talked about before in race trim, being around or within the second gap in long run simulations.
Aside from unspectacular testing sessions, the team did encounter some issues with understeer. Rookie Isack Hadjar encountered a 360 spin coming out of turn 4. From a rookie.. that’s to be expected.
In this hands of Yuki Tsunoda, the VCARB-02 looked like a decent package with decent data accumulated, with a total of 454 laps.
6. Alpine
If you think to this time last year, Alpine are in a much more favorable position in 2025.
With Pierre Gasly and Rookie Jack Doohan at the wheel of the A525, the fastest time recorded in 2025 testing was over 2 seconds quicker than their quickest lap time in pre season testing last year. A huge step up in performance.
The decision to carry over last year’s chassis for this year seems to have paid off.
It seems like they will be in a nip and tuck battle with Williams especially at the start of the year. Alpine ran slightly heavier fuel loads than Williams and were very similar in pace. With Pierre Gasly being on average around 6 tenths slower than the leaders.
Generally the car seemed to handle pretty well and both Gasly and Doohan were happy with the behavior of the car. It’s pretty much interchangeable between the 2 teams.
5. Williams
The uptick in performance from Williams in testing seems to have caught a few people out. With the team setting the overall quickest time of testing with a 1.29.348 in the hands of Carlos Sainz.
That lap time is under 2 tenths of a second slower then Verstappen’s pole time last year, showcasing the evolution of the 2025 cars but also the step up Williams have made and the best thing is that it was set on the Medium tires.
Maybe being a consistent front runner is a step too far but the car clearly has the pace to be a midfield leader for this season. However, the team did admit to running higher engine modes and lighter fuel loads in comparison to Alpine, so it’s difficult to pick a “best of the rest”.
4. Red Bull
The Red Bull is still a front runner in the pecking order, but it still retains characteristic issues the RB20 predecessor had.
With Red Bull’s technical director Pierre Wache being dissatisfied with the work put into the RB21 with not all the necessary goals being met for this year.
“I am not as happy as I could be because the car did not respond how we wanted at times". - Pierre Wache
When Max Verstappen drove the RB21, he didn't look as confident when driving the car and also made an uncharacteristic spin. Lawson also had a spin during day 1 of testing, but that’s less of a surprise as he still comes in as a rookie and trying to get to grips with the Red Bull.
There was some positives during some of the long runs on Day 1 but they were unable to a full race simulation and lack the relevant data.
Red Bull spent a majority of time doing sets up changes inside the garage and had flow-viz paint for pretty much the most of the final day of testing which is quite unusual.
Meaning, they were really struggling to find optimal set ups for their car. There’s a lot of work to be done.
3. Mercedes
A surprisingly positive test for Mercedes, the Brackley based Formula 1 team managed to keep up to pace with the likes of Ferrari with the car giving George Russell and Rookie and upcoming prodigy Andrea Kimi Antonelli real confidence behind the wheel.
The car looked very well balanced, aside from a few front brake locking issues. Russell described the test as “seamless”. They seem to lack a little bit of pace relative to reigning constructors champions McLaren.
However, time will tell at the Melbourne Grand Prix whether the surprise pace of the car was due to the cooler conditions during Bahrain testing or if Mercedes has genuinely made a step forward for this year.
2. Ferrari
It was rather hard to get a gauge on how good the Ferrari SF-25 truly is. They seemed at one point to have a very successful test not encountering any big red flags within the test and then being rather unspectacular.
The car seems to have a pretty decent chassis, as the car looked quite agile around corners. It seems interchangeable with Mercedes when it comes to outright lap time.
However, they did suffer with some understeer and oversteer with the rear end sliding around. Furthermore, in a couple of long runs they suffered excessive tyre degradation, having to cut their run plan short to make set up changes to their car.
An underwhelming test considering they were tipped to be McLaren’s main rivals, we’ll see if anything changes for Melbourne.
I’ve put them second and given them the benefit of the doubt as Mercedes pace could have been flattered due to the cooler conditions benefitting them.
The quickest car - McLaren
Don’t let the lap times deceive you into thinking McLaren have fallen behind their rivals.
The car especially in the hands of Lando Norris on Day 2 where conditions were optimal, showcased ominous pace in race simulations. As it continues to be the favorites for the championship coming off last year.
They didn’t come out off testing without it’s problems, coming out high speed turns 5 to 7 the rear end of the MCL39 seemed to be a bit unstable as seen onboard and on track. Lando also had a scare at the exit of turn 4 as the rear end completely snapped on him.
McLaren are still the favorites coming into this season but at the cost of great pace in both qualifying trim and especially race trim, there’s instability problems with the rear making it unpredictable.