Ranked: The F1 teams on 2025 pre-season testing form

Formula 1 2025’s pre-season test is in the books and most of the paddock has decamped for a brief visit back to base before heading to the season opener in Australia.

The consensus amongst those paddock personnel is that the upcoming campaign should be a thrilling one – with 2024’s twists and turns spliced together with the jeopardy of the need for the teams to not mess up the 2026 rule changes. And there will also be the inevitable tech fallouts and political backstabbing…

Here we present a ranking of the teams based on how the three-day event in Bahrain went, wrapped together with car potential assessment based on GPS trace data, long-run averages and trackside observations.

Remembering where each team finished in 2024 is also important given the lack of car design rule changes over the off-season. And, of course, those usual caveats about fuel loads and engine modes…

10. Sauber

Sauber appears set to finish bottom of the constructors' standings for a second year on the bounce

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

A common consensus in the paddock leaving Bahrain was that, for all its late-2024 gains with a revised floor design, Sauber is still bringing up the rear of the pack and will struggle to escape Q1 come Australia.

That it was so far off in setting its best time of the test overall – 1.7s down on Carlos Sainz for Williams – on day two could point to a higher set fuel load being run as mitigating circumstances.

But it still left Sauber last on the lap time leaderboard – a look as bad as its uninspiring livery…

Worse, however, was how far off the soon-to-be-Audi team was compared to McLaren and its midfield rivals in a day two long run – a whopping 1.69s down on the leader on average using the adjusted metrics and 0.58s behind Racing Bulls. As with others, though, that might’ve been better had Nico Hulkenberg been at the wheel and not rookie Gabriel Bortoleto.

9. Racing Bulls

The Racing Bulls drivers struggled with car balance

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

A slightly default ranking, which will seem harsh, but such is the way in a midfield that is still extremely compressed overall.

The main assessment that brings Racing Bulls’ position down is how most times the car came by during our trackside wanderings, or when its onboards popped up on the media centre TVs, its drivers seemed to be struggling badly with handling balance.

This had an inevitable knock-on for performance running, where Yuki Tsunoda’s best lap for the team (set at the same time that George Russell was doing likewise for Mercedes on day three) came in 0.9s down on the day’s best.

Again, the hotter temperatures of that day overall will offer some relief, as will how the GPS trace data suggests its Honda engine was turned down (not, seemingly, the case for sister team Red Bull on the final evening).

New driver Isack Hadjar is at least impressively confident he’s got up to speed fast in gelling with F1 level machinery.

8. Aston Martin

Aston Martin, which finished fifth in the 2024 standings, look to have regressed following a poor pre-season test

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

More than likely the AMR25 is a much better car than this ranking suggests, but there can be no doubt that the test did not go well for Aston Martin.

Things started awkwardly when sensor and other installation problems cost Fernando Alonso laps on the opening morning, but the green team kicked on from there and it did seem by day two as if its tightly-packaged new car was delivering what Alonso and Lance Stroll wanted.

This is to make the handling more benign and compliant in differing corner types, compared to the recalcitrant AMR24. And, viewed trackside from Bahrain’s Turn 9-10 complex on day two, the AMR25 was arguably the best handling at this tricky, sidewind exposed, plunging double left.

Alonso was just hitting the same line time and again in a way even Oscar Piastri couldn’t manage for McLaren.

But, by day three, the Spaniard was facing lurid slides exiting the same complex (which could of course be down to the raised temperature once the sun was finally out). And Aston didn’t show anything in the way of pucka performance runs nor proper race sims across the test – making it even trickier to place.

And, finally, its test was overshadowed by illness striking both its drivers – with Stroll missing major time on day three. He even got out of the car towards the end of the final session and Alonso got back aboard. Aston was pleased Stroll managed what he could in checking various suspension and ride height adjustments when he could drive.

7. Haas

Oliver Bearman's day three bodywork issue is now a concern for Haas

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Worth remembering here that ex-driver Hulkenberg finished Abu Dhabi 2024 qualifying in fourth place (before he dropped down the order due to a penalty), as Haas’s lack of major design changes mean that strong form just won’t have disappeared. Again, it could easily be considered a few spots higher.

Again in Bahrain pre-season, Haas stuck to the high-fuel priority running for its new drivers Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman that ended up serving Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen so well last year when it came to fixing the team’s previous tyre deg weakness.

And the new arrivals just pounded around – racking up the second highest mileage total with 457 laps.

Bearman’s early day three bodywork issue is now a concern, as he explained this is something the team has encountered before with the problem understood to be related to how thin the engine cover has been produced.

Ocon’s day three long run was 1.04s slower on average than Piastri’s best, with the adjusted metrics compared to 0.78s for Williams.

And Ocon’s rare Haas testing performance run was also well down compared to the best on the final day (by 1.2s compared to Russell), but he did complete this earlier than everyone bar Alpine’s Pierre Gasly when the track was hotter and so more difficult for the drivers.

6. Alpine

Alpine has significantly improved since the start of 2024, when it was at the back of the grid

Photo by: Erik Junius

Very close with Williams and Alpine only goes behind because whenever we watched its drivers on track – particularly at Turn 4 on the final day – they seemed to be really wrestling with the A525.

And then on the long run stakes, overall Alpine slotted in a tyre corrected average produced by Jack Doohan that was 1.03s behind Lando Norris’s best for McLaren on day two. While at Williams, Alex Albon was just 0.78s down using the same metric on the hotter final day. Again, you’d expect Alpine’s gap to be better had Pierre Gasly been driving given the differing experience levels of the Enstone team’s drivers.

But Alpine did get the slight edge on Williams in lap count with 405 and Gasly’s eye-catching performance runs on the final afternoon were done much earlier than most. This meant his 0.5s gap to Russell in that day’s ranking would’ve been closer given how much the track improved later on.

Again, what a transformation from Bahrain in 2024 – where this squad locked out the back row of the grid for the race here.

5. Williams

The situation is looking positive at Williams, which is boosted by its strong driver pairing of race winner Carlos Sainz and podium sitter Alex Albon

Photo by: Williams F1

Another team that seems transformed year-on-year in Bahrain, with the FW47 boosted by starting life immediately at the 800kg weight limit after the pain Williams went through with its predecessor on this front now paying off.

Viewed trackside on the final day, Albon seemed to require no extra steering stabs traversing the plunging, off-camber Turn 4 compared to the drivers in cars fielded by Williams’ midfield rivals.

New arrival Carlos Sainz enjoyed the satisfaction of setting the test’s fastest time at 1m29.348s – the second year in a row for the Spaniard – which also came on the second day’s afternoon session. But Williams insiders are wary that, like Mercedes, its car package has historically gone well in cool conditions, so this sounds a note of caution.

Overall, any of the midfield squads could take this spot depending on how you slice various elements, but this was a strong test overall for Williams, with a decent fifth-best lap total of 395 too.

4. Ferrari

Ferrari had an underwhelming test with its new line-up of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

It is very difficult to read Ferrari’s potential with any confidence because of what Autosport understands was a gearbox hydraulics problem that thwarted Lewis Hamilton’s race sim on the final evening.

But what he did show in that looked bad – with major tyre degradation impacting his early times and the car going off track several times as he grappled with it.

Ferrari did show good performance running when the best times of the test came in on the cool second day, but how the SF-25 responded elsewhere is mostly likely why Hamilton was reflecting “we know that we've got work to do” to catch McLaren and co.

Watching the race sim Charles Leclerc completed on the second evening from Turn 11 suggested it is actually Ferrari lacking most in terms of rear grip. Across the three stints the Monegasque tracked with Andrea Kimi Antonelli during this run, where Norris overtook them both, he came in an encouraging 0.01s down on average compared to the Mercedes. But that was 0.47s overall down on Norris.

3. Red Bull

Red Bull completed the test with the fewest laps of any team

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

On car performance potential, Red Bull surely goes into the season as McLaren’s closest rival – and you can bet Max Verstappen will find an edge to make it very 2024 all over again. But the team that looked so good in this event a year ago must drop down because this test was far from smooth.

Red Bull ended up with the lowest lap total of any team with 304 – 63 down on last year’s test and that is well over a full GP distance of extra running. An engine water pressure loss for Liam Lawson on the second day was particularly costly, plus the team had to work to understand the new nose it brought on the final day with Verstappen back aboard with a series of installation and aero load measuring runs.

The RB21 just isn’t rotating as well as the McLaren on the front end, which is a big change from this stage in 2024. But, much more worryingly for Red Bull, are the handling woes Verstappen encountered on the final afternoon.

The car was understeering in the slower turns and oversteering in the faster ones and though this got somewhat better as the track temperatures fell, Red Bull insiders were left concerned with how unresponsive the RB21 was overall to the set-up changes it tried.

Widening the working range at the cost of peak performance was an aim of the tweaked design, but there is considerable hope in how the strong Bahrain wind has hampered and boosted Red Bull’s car package depending on where it was blowing from.

Red Bull’s very different running meant the team didn’t log any full race sim, but extrapolating what Lawson did get in over two hefty stints in the second session on day put him 0.76s down on Norris using the adjusted metrics. You would expect that gap to be a lot smaller had Verstappen been logging the laps at that time, given his tyre management mastery…

2. Mercedes

Mercedes completed the most laps of any team in testing and look much improved from 2024

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Mercedes leaves Bahrain after surely its best pre-season in the desert for years, with the team insisting it has hit its targets in dialling out the handling inconsistencies of the W15 into the W16.

The big caveat hanging over the Silver Arrows is that it still doesn’t know if the unusually cool conditions in Bahrain overall were boosting its handling – as was seen in all its 2024 wins (bar the Austria one it inherited). At least on the hotter final day in the same conditions as the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix, it set the quickest time of the day.

Mercedes also did the most laps of any team with 458 – overcoming a battery problem that confined Antonelli to the garage early on the final day. He feels he’s lacking qualifying preparation, which may hurt the team in the season’s early stages, but at least that is a Russell strength.

The car looked solid and compliant for the drivers when viewed on track – sitting somewhere in between the McLaren and Ferrari for a loose rear at the long, uphill Turn 11 during the late-day-two race runs.

1. McLaren  

McLaren appears to be the team to beat in its hunt for back-to-back constructors' titles

Photo by: Erik Junius

Finally, a satisfying ‘home’ visit to Bahrain for the reigning world champion team. It didn’t trouble the test’s leading overall times (Red Bull didn’t either in 2024 and look how it started that season) but McLaren was by far the best in terms of the numbers that really matter – race simulation averages.

Norris’s run on day two was 0.46s and 0.47s quicker than the best Mercedes and Ferrari could manage (albeit on a different tyre run plan) when corrected for tyre choice and track evolution – calculated in data provided by Autosport’s sister site Motorsport-Total.

This pace caught the eye early. But Piastri being similarly quicker in the hotter final day conditions (albeit with Mercedes closing to a 0.36s overall average deficit) should be even more encouraging.

The MCL39’s drivers want more rear grip – but that’s very normal for the rough Bahrain track surface and the movement from lacking this even helps on corner entry in some turns here.

McLaren was middling in terms of total laps (381), but it put its lengthy garage spells down to making big set-up adjustments that are tricky to implement in time-limited testing.

There is also a question of reaching the best balance consistently that Piastri raised on the final day, plus the bigger question mark over Red Bull’s ultimate potential. But McLaren seems to have picked up where it left off in 2024.

What will the pecking order be come the Australian Grand Prix?

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images