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. # Driver Team FP1 time FP2 time Gap Laps
1 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1’34.508 1’30.505 54
2 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1’33.204 1’30.659 0.154 51
3 63 George Russell Mercedes 1’31.032 0.527 25
4 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1’31.045 0.540 27
5 12 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1’38.051 1’31.227 0.722 30
6 6 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls-Honda RBPT 1’34.667 1’31.238 0.733 46
7 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda RBPT 1’31.330 0.825 27
8 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1’33.800 1’31.576 1.071 46
9 87 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1’31.584 1.079 27
10 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Williams-Mercedes 1’31.623 1.118 28
11 23 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1’33.928 1’31.696 1.191 53
12 30 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Honda RBPT 1’34.397 1’31.706 1.201 50
13 5 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber-Ferrari 1’34.628 1’31.772 1.267 48
14 7 Jack Doohan Alpine-Renault 1’34.396 1’31.788 1.283 50
15 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Mercedes 1’31.825 1.320 19
16 31 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1’34.184 1’31.870 1.365 46
17 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Renault 1’33.442 1’31.947 1.442 50
18 22 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull-Honda RBPT 1’34.484 1’32.024 1.519 48
19 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 1’35.116 1’32.382 1.877 50
20 27 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1’34.262 1’32.496 1.991 48
21 46 Luke Browning Williams-Mercedes 1’34.885 4.380 20
22 38 Dino Beganovic Ferrari 1’35.055 4.550 20
23 34 Felipe Drugovich Aston Martin-Mercedes 1’35.198 4.693 19
24 50 Ryo Hirakawa Haas-Ferrari 1’35.261 4.756 20
25 72 Frederik Vesti Mercedes 1’35.325 4.820 26
26 37 Ayumu Iwasa Red Bull-Honda RBPT 1’35.475 4.970 20

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