Red Bull were over two seconds off their 2024 pace on Friday practice in Bahrain

Red Bull looked way off the pace after Friday practice in Bahrain, but as last weekend showed that doesn’t mean they should be discounted.

Teams’ 2024 performance in context

Last year the Bahrain Grand Prix was the first race of the season. Although Max Verstappen won the race with 25 seconds in hand over Red Bull’s closest rival, Ferrari produced a fractionally quicker lap during qualifying.

McLaren was only the fifth-fastest team at this race last year, underlining the progress they have made since then.

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Teams’ progress vs 2024

No team has yet lapped quicker around Bahrain this weekend than they did at last year’s grand prix. McLaren has got closest of anyone, followed by Alpine, though they were the slowest team in this race last year.

Only Aston Martin are further away from their 2024 pace than Red Bull. It was another difficult day for the Silverstone team; Fernando Alonso suffered a particularly worrying setback with his steering wheel in the second practice session.

Ferrari also lagged some way off their 2024 performance at this early stage. Their Friday running was partly taken up with testing the latest changes to their floor, and it will likely not be until after Saturday’s running that they fully understand whether the upgrade is the improvement they hoped it would be.

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Teams’ 2024 and 2025 times

It’s not unusual for Red Bull to make a significant gain in performance between Friday and Saturday. That was the case at this track last year (see below) and at Suzuka last weekend, where they had almost half a second more up their sleeves compared to McLaren.

“We did a bit of a different approach to our Friday, so I think this gap is very big,” said Verstappen after practice.

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First and second practice times

P.#DriverTeamFP1 timeFP2 timeGapLaps
181Oscar PiastriMcLaren-Mercedes1’34.5081’30.50554
24Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1’33.2041’30.6590.15451
363George RussellMercedes1’31.0320.52725
416Charles LeclercFerrari1’31.0450.54027
512Andrea Kimi AntonelliMercedes1’38.0511’31.2270.72230
66Isack HadjarRacing Bulls-Honda RBPT1’34.6671’31.2380.73346
71Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda RBPT1’31.3300.82527
844Lewis HamiltonFerrari1’33.8001’31.5761.07146
987Oliver BearmanHaas-Ferrari1’31.5841.07927
1055Carlos Sainz JnrWilliams-Mercedes1’31.6231.11828
1123Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes1’33.9281’31.6961.19153
1230Liam LawsonRacing Bulls-Honda RBPT1’34.3971’31.7061.20150
135Gabriel BortoletoSauber-Ferrari1’34.6281’31.7721.26748
147Jack DoohanAlpine-Renault1’34.3961’31.7881.28350
1514Fernando AlonsoAston Martin-Mercedes1’31.8251.32019
1631Esteban OconHaas-Ferrari1’34.1841’31.8701.36546
1710Pierre GaslyAlpine-Renault1’33.4421’31.9471.44250
1822Yuki TsunodaRed Bull-Honda RBPT1’34.4841’32.0241.51948
1918Lance StrollAston Martin-Mercedes1’35.1161’32.3821.87750
2027Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’34.2621’32.4961.99148
2146Luke BrowningWilliams-Mercedes1’34.8854.38020
2238Dino BeganovicFerrari1’35.0554.55020
2334Felipe DrugovichAston Martin-Mercedes1’35.1984.69319
2450Ryo HirakawaHaas-Ferrari1’35.2614.75620
2572Frederik VestiMercedes1’35.3254.82026
2637Ayumu IwasaRed Bull-Honda RBPT1’35.4754.97020

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