F1 Testing Day 1

The 2025 F1 Season officially started yesterday with the first of three days of testing in Bahrain

The first day saw all drivers take part and one of the key things to note, was reliability. None of the teams seemed to suffer any major reliability issues that caused them to lose any significant time, and most teams managed a good number of laps.

HaaS	160
VCARB	154
Mercedes	148
Ferrari	141
Alpine	140
Red Bull	132
Williams	131
Mclaren	118
Kick	114
Aston Martin	88

McLaren will obviously take the headline for topping the session, but we all know that testing means nothing, and we won’t know the true order until we get to Australia. However, the car does look good. From the onboards there isn’t much wheel spin, and it seems very planted through the corners.

McLaren, unlike some of the other teams have not made any radical changes, Zak Brown has said that whilst it looks the same as last year there are plenty of new innovations on the car that have not been seen, and rumour has it that they have gained 4 tenths on last year’s car. The other three teams at the front have all tried something different this year, Ferrari have changed their suspension layout, Red Bull have re-designed the front of the car to improve their understeer issues and Mercedes are trying something different, which they are trying to keep under wraps.

The rest of the field look quite close again. Alpine are certainly having a better start to testing than they were this time last year which is positive. Aston Martin, although completing the lowest number of laps look solid and I would say so far, the car looks better than last season. The remaining teams all look like they have made improvements on this time last season but what the order will be is hard to guess

Unusually there were no red flags brought out by cars stopped on track, however there was a lengthy stop after the power to the circuit was lost which was slightly embarrassing. As a result, the session was extended so the teams could recuperate the lost running time, and all the rookies got through the session without issues save for the odd spin and running wide at some corners.

This is how the first day ended.

1) Lando Norris, McLaren, 1:30.430, 52 laps

2) George Russell, Mercedes, 1:30.587, 70 laps

3) Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 1:30.674, 74 laps

4) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 1:30.878, 71 laps

5) Carlos Sainz, Williams, 1:30.955, 68 laps

6) Pierre Gasly, Alpine, 1:31.353, 72 laps

7) Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, 1:31.428, 78 laps

8) Liam Lawson, Red Bull, 1:31.560, 58 laps

9) Alex Albon, Williams 1:31.573, 63 laps

10) Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls, 1:31.610, 78 laps

11) Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls, 1:31.631, 76 laps

12) Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber, 1:31.690, 59 laps

13) Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, 1:31.834, 70 laps

14) Jack Doohan, Alpine 1:31.841, 68 laps

15) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, 1:31.874, 46 laps

16) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, 1:31.949, 42 laps

17) Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 1:32.084, 66 laps

18) Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber, 1:32.169, 55 laps

19) Esteban Ocon, Haas, 1:33.600, 88 laps

20) Oliver Bearman, Haas, 1:35.522, 72 laps