Testing his concluded in Bahrain and it’s Ferrari who has set the pace in regard to pure speed. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc put the SF-24 into P1 and P2 — the Spaniard was the only driver to dip below the 90s mark through the three days.
More encouragingly for the Scuderia, Leclerc and Sainz showed strong race pace when they did simulations on Thursday and Friday respectively. The evidence suggests they could be Red Bull’s nearest rivals next weekend if the rumours are to be believed about the RB20 and its true pace.
Mercedes started to show some of their own speed as George Russell clocked the third quickest time of testing inside the final 20 minutes of Day 3.
Red Bull did not run on the C4 tyre and unsurprisingly had the quickest laps of the cars who did their best ones on the C3. The C3 will be the softest tyre for the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.
McLaren and Aston Martin look to be in reasonable shape. However, their true place in the pecking order remains to be seen.
The one team who does seem to have made a step forward is RB F1. Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo both looked quick and could be the dark horses along with Alpine to break into the top 5.
| 1 | Carlos Sainz | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:29.921 (C4) |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:30.322 (C4) |
| 3 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:30.368 (C4) |
| 4 | Zhou Guanyu | Sauber | 1:30.647 (C4) |
| 5 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing | 1:30.679 (C3) |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 1:30.755 (C3) |
| 7 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB F1 | 1:30.775 (C4) |
| 8 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1:30.984 (C4) |
| 9 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1:31.029 (C3) |
| 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:31.066 (C3) |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 1:31.159 (C3) |
| 12 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:31.256 (C3) |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB F1 | 1:31.361 (C4) |
| 14 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 1:31.686 (C3) |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:32.029 (C3) |
| 16 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1:32.061 (C3) |
| 17 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 1:32.149 (C3) |
| 18 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | 1:32.227 (C3) |
| 19 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 1:32.578 (C4) |
| 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:33.053 (C3) |
While there was niggling issues here and there — especially for McLaren and Williams — the ten teams completed a total of 3,695 laps between them.
Haas focused on long run simulations during testing as they look to get to grips with their tyre issues that plagued them throughout races in 2023. They topped the charts with 441.
Williams was the only team that failed to reach 300 because of their various issues, such as a drive shaft problem and a fuel system failure.
| 1 | Haas | 441 |
| 2 | Scuderia Ferrari | 416 |
| 3 | Red Bull Racing | 391 |
| 4= | Sauber | 379 |
| 4= | Aston Martin | 379 |
| 6 | RB F1 | 367 |
| 7 | Mercedes | 361 |
| 8 | Alpine | 334 |
| 9 | McLaren | 328 |
| 10 | Williams | 299 |
