F1 Pre-Season: McLaren Surges Ahead, Red Bull Adding New Parts

Feb.28 - After two of the three days of official pre-season group testing in Bahrain, the hierarchy for 2025 is becoming clear.

"McLaren is clearly ahead," reports the authoritative German specialist magazine Auto Motor und Sport, a day after Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said Lando Norris was "on a planet of his own".

That is despite the fact that Williams' Carlos Sainz was atop the actual timesheets on Thursday, after a low-fuel qualifying run.

Team boss James Vowles is realistic: "My view of things is that the top four will be the top four," he said, referring to McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton, who has replaced Sainz at Ferrari, was watched from the garage by the Italian marque's chairman John Elkann. The seven time world champion reports that he is "slowly bonding" with his red cockpit, slightly outpacing teammate Charles Leclerc on Thursday.

As for Red Bull, Max Verstappen said after his first run in the 2025 car on Wednesday that it has improved "in all areas", noting: "But it couldn't have gotten worse."

New parts for the car that looks very similar to the 2024 machine will be added to the RB21 for the final day on Friday. "They won't have such a big impact," technical director Pierre Wache told Sky Italia.

"They were planned for Melbourne but since they are ready we'll try to push a bit. We're doing it because it will give us the chance to see if we're going the right way or not."

Liam Lawson was almost a full second off the headline pace on Thursday.

"Let's wait until Max (Verstappen) is back in the car," noted Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko.

When asked about McLaren, Ferrari and even Mercedes' superior pace in Bahrain, the Austrian added: "They seemed very competitive today, but we also had a problem with the cooling and lost a lot of time."

As for Lawson, he may be slightly off the pace but "at least he hasn't done anything wrong," Marko noted.

Generally, however, with the field so closely bunched for the last season of the current regulations, fuel load and engine modes are playing a bigger role in the laptimes than usual.

"We won't be able to tell the order at a cold, wet Bahrain," agreed Williams' Vowles.

Quadruple consecutive world champion Verstappen fully agrees.

"There is no point," he told reporters when asked to predict the pecking order. "You can guess how much fuel everyone is using and which engine mode they're in, but after 10 years I'm a bit done with that."

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