The 2025 F1 season is officially starting with the first Testing session of the year held in Bahrain. Following yesterday’s shakedown, which included teams such as Red Bull and Aston Martin, today all teams have issued lineups. Will reigning drivers’ Champion Max Verstappen and team’s McLaren reconfirm their strong end of 2024 pace, or will someone else, maybe one of the six rookies, impress?
The first driver to get out on track during the morning session was Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes, followed by Alonso and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg. Almost all drivers came out immediately, including Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton. Alonso, however, only did two laps before returning to the pits, joined shortly after by Doohan’s Alpine.
First hour
Alexander Albon for Williams is the only exception, still in the garages ten minutes into the session. Antonelli set the first time of the year in 1:44.515s, whereas Lawson hast the best early lap on hards in 1:53.806, set while not testing with the aero rake. Alpine and Ferrari will be testing aerodynamics as well.
Twenty minutes into the session Haas’s Bearman comes out on track, whereas Hamilton steps out of his red challenger. Hamilton in his second Ferrari run won’t be sporting the aero rake and will be running with a lowered floor configuration.
At the half hour mark Doohan is fastest for Alpine in 1:33.196s and holds the most laps completed so far, 13. The Australian driver also cut through a corner.
Alonso’s second lap on fresh medium tyres bolts him to P1 in the provisional standings, in spite of a mistake at Turn 10. Hulkenberg returns into the pits to test out a different floor setup.
Overall the first hour of testing ran smoothly, without crashes or red flags. Albon, who had tested earlier with the rake as well, was the first driver to sign a lap time in the 1:32s, which was improved shortly after by Hamilton to 1:32.621s. The Ferrari driver is coming to terms with understeer on his new car, routinely coming a bit wide at Turn 11, and returns to the pit lane every 6 laps to test different anterior wheels setups and floor heights.
Alonso is undergoing a lot of work on his AMR25, with the nose and the brake cover removed. Piastri behind the wheel of the McLaren almost spins out at the end of the first set of corners, but manages to keep his MCL39
Second hour
All drivers were on track at the same time during the second hour of testing, trying out the different tyre compounds on higher fuel runs. McLaren has set sensors under the diffuser in order to monitor aero data. With 2:36H left on the clock, Lawson goes fastest in 1:32.036s, with Hulkenberg slotting in P2 before pitting. All ten teams have now put a timed lap on the timesheets, with Bearman in last place 3.705s off the Kiwi’s best effort.
Lawson lowers the benchmark to the 1:31s., with Tsunoda and then Hamilton joining him in P2. With 20 minutes left until the middle point of the AM session, Alonso returns on top 0.040s ahead of Lawson.
After almost two hours of 2025 F1 Testing track time Tsunoda is the driver who has completed the highest number of laps, 36. Alonso, Lawson and Hamilton still hold the best three lap times at the halfway point of the session, with the Spaniard pitting to fuel up while Lawson goes fastest 0.300s ahead of Alonso.
Track temperatures and conditions are uncommonly low for Bahrain at this time of the year, with 15°C. The majority of the drivers, apart from Lawson, have switched to the mediums, with Albon going 0.001s faster than the Red Bull driver in 1:31.573s. Doohan and Hamilton improve their lap times as well.
The times right now are less than a second away from last year’s qualifying attempts, proving the strong performance the teams are putting in already. Aston Martin pits Alonso to fix an issue on his seat, whereas Hamilton runs wide at Turn 4.
Third hour
Antonelli is handling his 2025 F1 Testing significantly better than his first official outing for the team in 2024, with only a small lockup at Turn 4.
With 1:30 hours left until lunch break; Williams conduces even more aerodynamic tests using flow-vis paint. The full standings are Albon, Lawson, Hamilton, Doohan, Alonso, Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Antonelli, Piastri and Bearman.
The first yellow flag of the year was issued shortly after because of an hazard on track. Bearman and Antonelli are the only drivers on track. The Ferrari garages are all closed up, while Piastri returns on track.
Racing Bull’s Tsunoda is in the garages because of a brake issue on his challenger. Hulkenberg resumes his running time, now sporting flow-vis paint as well.
The third hour of this morning 2025 F1 Testing session has gone by quite smoothly, with Alonso out for only an out lap and Lawson out on mediums for more aerodynamic visualisation, focusing on the front part of the car.
The Red Bull driver is the only driver so far to have signed his personal best time on hard tyres, compared to his colleagues’ mediums. He suffers from excessive understeer at Turn 4, the same where Hamilton has had issues before.
The seven times World Champion returns on track with 1:05 hours left. His first timed lap was extremely bumpy, with plenty of sparks coming from the floor of his Ferrari.
Tsunoda comes out to test his fixed brakes, whereas Antonelli pits to solve a front wing issue on the left part of his Mercedes challenger.
Lawson has a big moment at the exit of Turn 3, almost spinning out of track but managing to keep his RB21 away from the barriers. His tyres look done for the day.
Fourth hour
Entering the final hour of this segment of testing, Antonelli goes fastest in 1:31.428s. The drivers with the most laps completed are now Bearman with 56 and Hulkenberg with 55, confirming the great reliability of this generation of F1 cars. The British driver is the first to hit the full race distance of 57 laps a few minutes later.
McLaren has had an incredibly quiet morning as well, with Piastri completing 50 laps so far without any hiccups.
Doohan is the latest driver to have issues at Turn 4, however he manages to correct his small mistake without having his Alpine run off track. Antonelli and Bearman were again the only drivers out on track in the first half of the last hour of the session, with the former running wide at Turn 10 because of a lockup. Bearman as well struggles at the same corner.
In the final half hour lap times didn’t improve anymore, ass the track temperature reached a too high temperature. Piastri, Doohan, Hamilton and Alonso return on track in the final 10 minutes of the session. Overall it was a clean session which featured plenty of track time for all drivers involved, which was much needed especially for the rookies, including Antonelli and Lawson leading the morning standings. No crashes or engine issues happened, apart from the red Bull driver’s small spin which didn’t impact his car or session. Tune in in an hour for even more 2025 F1 testing!
