F1 2025: Pre-season testing, explained

Formula 1 is back.

This week the entire grid will roar to life for the first time since the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year, which saw McLaren capture their first Constructors’ Championship 1998. The 2025 F1 season is shaping up to be a transformative campaign for the sport, as Lewis Hamilton makes his debut for Ferrari and the year will be the last before an entire new set of technical regulations arrive next season.

As well as a new team.

Ahead of these three days of testing in Bahrain, you might have some questions if you are just getting into the sport, or need a refresher.

Let’s try and get you some answers.

What is F1 pre-season testing?

Let’s start with a basic question.

What is pre-season testing?

Pre-season testing is a three-day event at the Bahrain International Circuit, site of the Bahrain Grand Prix which follows later this season, that sees all ten teams put their challengers for the upcoming F1 season to the test. This is the first time each team will have extended sessions with their 2025 cars, beyond minimal filming or promotional days that are allowed for under the F1 Sporting Regulations.

Over three days this week (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) teams are allowed to put their cars on the track with minimal restrictions, to get a sense of how their setups, power, weight, aerodynamics, and more will look for the season ahead.

Each day is broken up into two sessions, a morning session which starts at 10:00 a.m. local time and an afternoon session which starts at 3:00 p.m. local time. The importance of that afternoon session is that it will last beyond sunset, allowing teams to get a feel for how the cars will run during night-time conditions.

Teams can approach these sessions in a number of different ways, but the main goal is to iron out any major issues, hone setups, and make adjustments as necessary. Teams can also isolate what areas of their cars need to be upgraded ahead of the season, which begins a few weeks later in Australia.

When is it being held?

Pre-season testing is set to begin on Wednesday, February 26, and will run three days as noted above. Each day consists of two sessions, a morning session that begins at 10:00 a.m. local time, and an afternoon session that begins at 3:00 p.m. local time.

Wednesday

Morning session: 10:00 a.m. local time / 2:00 a.m. Eastern
Afternoon session: 3:00 p.m. local time / 7:00 a.m. Eastern

Thursday

Morning session: 10:00 a.m. local time / 2:00 a.m. Eastern
Afternoon session: 3:00 p.m. local time / 7:00 a.m. Eastern

Friday

Morning session: 10:00 a.m. local time / 2:00 a.m. Eastern
Afternoon session: 3:00 p.m. local time / 7:00 a.m. Eastern

Why is it held in Bahrain?

Some seasons, a reason for holding testing in Bahrain was logistical. With the schedule beginning with the Bahrain Grand Prix, it cut down on travel and freight as the teams could simply roll things over for the start of the season.

But with the season beginning with the Australian Grand Prix this year — due in part to Ramadan taking place during the month of March — logistics are not at play.

That leads us to another reason Bahrain is the host: The configuration of the track. Here is the layout of the Bahrain International Circuit, which you can see here in a diagram from F1.com:

The design of Bahrain International Circuit allows teams to test their cars under a few different conditions. There are some long straights — including the very long straight coming out of Sector 3, through the start/finish line and into Sector 1 — and some tight corners, most notably in Sector 2.

This layout means teams will be able to test out how their cars handle both long straights, as well as tight corners.

How are tires handled at F1 pre-season testing?

Pirelli, the tire provider for F1, provides all teams an equal number of each tire compound. This allows the teams to complete as many laps as they wish with each tire compound. This allows teams to get a sense of pit strategy for when the season begins.

Last year Pirelli announced that all five slick tire compounds available to the teams this season — ranging hard-to-soft from the C1 to the C5 — will be available for the teams during pre-season testing. While Pirelli has yet to confirm that all tire compounds will be available for testing this year, including the ultra-soft C6, there is every expectation that the teams will be able to bolt on any compound they choose this week during testing.

Are their specific things teams can or cannot do during testing?

Testing is not held under grand prix conditions, and while normal safety requirements must be followed, teams are permitted to design their own testing programs. That includes selecting which drivers are going to participate, including reserve and/or testing drivers who are not slated to compete in the upcoming season.

I am seeing neon paint on some of the cars. What is that?

In F1, aerodynamics is everything. How well air flows — or does not flow — over the car can mean the difference between a podium finish, and a finish outside the points.

So finding out how the air is flowing over the cars is a huge part of the process, including during testing.

To get a clearer picture of how air is flowing over different parts of the car, teams will use what is called “flow-vis” paint. This is a paint composed of a fluorescent powder mixed with a light oil, applied to the front of the car before it takes to the track. As the car works through the circuit, the paint flows over the car, following the air.

Here is a closeup photograph of Oscar Piastri and his MCL38 from pre-season testing a year ago:

Photo by Peter Fox – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images

Here is a better look at how the flow-vis paint can disperse over an entire car:

Photo by Bradley Collyer/PA Images via Getty Images

In the above photograph taken from pre-season testing ahead of the 2022 season, you can see the flow-vis paint on the Williams Racing car driven by Nicholas Latifi.

Do not be surprised if, when watching pre-season testing, teams try and hide the results of a run using flow-vis paint. Often when the cars return to the garage after a run with flow-vis paint, teams cover the car so their competitors cannot get a sense of what is working … and what is not.

Did someone just drive through a fence?

The flow-vis paint discussed above is not the only method teams use to gather data on the track during testing.

Allow us to introduce “aero rakes.”

Aerodynamic rakes, or “aero rakes” for short, are another means of gathering data on the cars in near real-time. These devices include “pitot tubes,” which are sensors designed to measure off-body air flow. These can be placed on various parts of the car, to measure how air is flowing over various parts.

For example, if you wanted to see how the air was flowing over the front wing, you can place the aero rake behind the front tires. If you wanted to see how air was flowing over the entire car, you can place the aero rake on the rear of the car, as you can see in this example from Alpine during pre-season testing last year:

Photo by Simon Galloway/LAT Images

This image from testing in 2022, with a massive aero rake fitted to the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly, gives you a sense of how big the aero rakes can be:

Photo by Bradley Collyer/PA Images via Getty Images

So if you see these on the track this week, do not worry. Someone has not taken a wild wrong turn, instead it is another means of their teams gathering data on the car.

Are these the final cars that teams will use this season?

Adapt or die is part of life in F1. Teams are constantly looking to upgrade their cars, looking to squeeze every last bit of power out of them, and shave of every possible millisecond.

To that end, while the cars we will see this week are close to the final product, the results of testing often force some upgrades. A prime example comes to us from McLaren two seasons ago. During pre-season testing in 2023, it became clear that the MCL60 needed some upgrades.

The team rolled those out over the course of the season, and while they were fighting for points at the start of the year — as Lando Norris explained to me ahead of the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix — they were fighting for podiums and wins by season’s end.

There there is Alpine last year. They arrived in Bahrain and quickly learned that the A524 was overweight, and focused on upgrades throughout the season.

The team brought a substantial upgrade package to Austin for the 2024 United States Grand Prix, as both Pierre Gasly and Team Principal Oliver Oakes describe to me last October. While Alpine was at the back of the grid to start the year, they ended up finishing second thanks in large parts to those mid-season upgrades.

How much should we read into the lap times this week?

In reality? Not much. Given the number of variables at work — teams are trying different programs, with different tyre compounds and different fuel loads — it is usually hard to get a clear sense of how the grid stacks up before the season begins. Remember, while all the tyre compounds are available during testing, once the season begins, Pirelli allocated just three of the five different dry-weather tyre compounds for each Grand Prix. So we might see a team this week put down a fast lap time on a tyre compound that is not going to be in use next week during the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Also, teams do try and hide just how strong they are during testing, saving their full performance capability during the first qualifying session of the season. This is a tactic referred to as “sandbagging.”

Still, in recent history we have seen teams strong during testing come out and secure the pole position at the same track during the season. In 2021 Max Verstappen of Red Bull posted the fastest lap time during testing, and secured the pole at the Bahrain Grand Prix later in the season. In 2020 Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes posted the fastest lap time during testing, and his teammate Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole at the Spanish Grand Prix later that year. That season testing was held in Barcelona.

What we can mainly ascertain is what teams are going to start the season on the front foot, and what teams will begin the year with some work to do. Take the 2023 campaign. During pre-season testing that season it was clear that Red Bull’s RB19 was going to be strong, and that proved to be true as Red Bull won all but one grand prix in 2023, and Max Verstappen lapped the field in the Drivers’ Championship.

But we also learned that Aston Martin had something cooking with the AMR23, and they began the year on the front foot and were in second place behind Red Bull during the early going. We also got our first glimpses of what Williams was going to bring to the table, as they delivered a promising seventh-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship.

We also learned that McLaren had some work to do with the MCL60. They left Bahrain promising some future upgrades to their challenger, which they slowly rolled out over the course of the 2023 season. While they indeed started on their heels, they made a mid-season charge up the table, to finish in a stunning P4 in the Constructors’ Championship.

So in many ways, pre-season testing will tell us who is on solid footing to begin the year, and who has some work ahead of them.

Is there a winner of F1 pre-season testing?

As with anything in F1, times will be kept.

But you should, as noted, take them with a pinch of salt.

Teams will be running different programs, using different setups and tire compounds, and using reserve drivers as well. So while each session will see a driver post the fastest lap time, you cannot immediately assume that that team/driver pairing will see that success continue into the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

(Although, the past few years have seen Verstappen top the timing sheets so maybe there will be some truth in the numbers).

In addition, just because a team completes a lot of laps (or conversely the fewest amount of laps) does not mean that they are either going to be consistent over the season, or struggle with reliability issues on the other end of the scale. In 2023 for example McLaren posted the fewest laps during pre-season testing.

Still, McLaren found a way to charge through the field over the second half of the season for a fourth-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship.

That trend continued into 2024. Last year McLaren posted the second-fewest laps in Bahrain, ahead of only Williams.

But when the dust settled at the end of last season, McLaren stood atop the F1 world as Constructors’ Champions.

What are the major storylines for F1 2025 pre-season testing?

New faces, new places

The 2024 F1 season marked the first time in the history of the sport that the driver lineup that ended the previous season, began the next one. The entire grid remained unchanged from the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, to the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.

2025, however, is a much different story.

Several drivers will embark on a debut season with a new team this year, and pre-season testing will be the first time the public gets to see them in action with their new outfit. Esteban Ocon joins Haas after leaving Alpine. His spot was vacated by Nico Hülkenberg, who has a new home with Sauber ahead of that team becoming the Audi works operation in 2026, and Carlos Sainz Jr. has a new home at Williams.

Of course, Sainz became a free agent when Lewis Hamilton shocked the F1 world and announced he was leaving Mercedes at the end of 2024 to driver alongside Charles Leclerc at Ferrari.

The rookie class of 2025

Beyond the veterans who landed in a new spot for 2025, there are six incoming drivers set to begin their first full-time season in F1.

Oliver Bearman

At Haas super-sub Oliver Bearman — who shined in his debut last season for Ferrari driving for an ailing Carlos Sainz Jr. — makes the jump from F2. Bearman started three races last year (one for Ferrari and two for Haas in place of Kevin Magnussen) and scored seven points on the season, finishing seventh for Ferrari at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and finishing tenth for Haas at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Bearman also finished 12th in the F2 Drivers’ Championship Standings, a year after finishing sixth.

Gabriel Bortoleto

The driver that won the F2 Drivers’ Championship last season will also be on the grid, as Gabriel Bortoleto earned a promotion to a full-time seat at Sauber. Bortoleto won the F3 Drivers’ Championship in 2023 while driving for Trident, and secured the 2024 F2 Drivers’ Championship last year while driving with Invicta. He also made some motorsport history when he won the F2 Feature Race at Monza last season despite starting last on the grid, becoming the first driver in either F1 or F2 to win from last on the starting grid. He also became the first F2 Drivers’ Championship to earn a direct promotion to F1 since Mick Schumacher back in 2021.

Bortoleto also became the fourth driver in the F2 era to win the F3 Drivers’ title, and the F2 Drivers’ Championship, in successive years.

The other three will see him on the grid this week: Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and Oscar Piastri.

Jack Doohan

Alpine promoted reserve driver Jack Doohan to a full-time seat for 2024, and Doohan made his debut for the team at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year, driving in place of Esteban Ocon.

Doohan finished third in the F2 Drivers’ Championship in 2023, but focused on his reserve driver duties for Alpine last season.

For more on Doohan, I sat down with the young driver ahead of the 2024 Miami Grand Prix:

Isack Hadjar

When Red Bull made the decision to promote Liam Lawson to a full-time spot at Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen (more on that in a moment) it opened up a spot at VCARB next to Yuki Tsunoda.

That spot went to the driver Gabriel Bortoleto narrowly beat for the F2 Drivers’ Championship.

When the grid arrived at Yas Marina for the final F2 race weekend of the 2024 season, Hadjar was just a half-point behind Bortoleto in the standings. That gap increased to four points when Bortoleto finished the F2 Sprint race in Abu Dhabi in second, with Hadjar in fifth. But the title was still up for grabs in the feature race, but Hadjar stalled right at the start and when he was finally able to rejoin the fight, he was two laps down, effectively ending his title race.

“I can’t believe all this hard work for that. The worst moment of my life, right now,” lamented Hadjar after the race.

Still, Red Bull has seen enough to give him a spot at VCARB, and a chance at moving into a bigger spot in the future.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli

Since joining Mercedes’ junior team back in 2019, Andrea Kimi Antonelli seemed destined for a spot on the F1 grid. After winning titles in the Italian F4 and the ADAC F4, and. competing in regional F3 competitions, Antonelli skipped the F3 Championship altogether to head straight to F2 last season.

That came as Lewis Hamilton was stunning the motorsport world, and announcing he was leaving Mercedes for Ferrari for the 2025 season.

While Antonelli’s F2 season got off to a slow start with a P14 in the F2 Sprint Race in Bahrain, he broke through with points in the feature race later that weekend. His first win came in the F2 Sprint Race at the British Grand Prix, and his first F2 Feature Race win came in Hungary.

He participated in FP1 for Mercedes at the Italian Grand Prix, and despite crashing after posting a thunderous time on his first lap, the team announced the much-anticipated news that weekend: He would be driving alongside George Russell in 2025.

What has Antonelli done to get ready for his inaugural F1 season?

Secure his road driving license, for one thing. The young driver turned 18 last summer, and when his season begins he will be the third-youngest F1 driver in the history of the sport, behind only Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll.

Liam Lawson

That brings us to the sixth driver who earned a full-time spot on the grid for 2025.

While Liam Lawson is no stranger to F1, having driven in each of the past two seasons, 2025 still represents uncharted waters for the driver from new Zealand. Lawson made his F1 debut during the 2023 campaign, stepping in for an injured Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri. He broke through with his first points in just his third race, finishing ninth at the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.

Lawson began 2024 as a reserve at VCARB, but replaced Ricciardo late in the year ahead of the United States Grand Prix in Austin. Lawson did not exactly ease back into action, as he battled with veteran Fernando Alonso throughout the weekend.

Much to the delight of Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner.

“Yeah, I think if you’re getting into a spat and getting your elbows out with Fernando [Alonso] on your first race back in, you’re doing all right. And I think that he drove an exceptional race today from 19th to ninth,” said Horner to the media, including SB Nation, following the United States Grand Prix. “He was fast. He was courageous. And I thought it was an excellent comeback for him.”

Lawson finished ninth in the United States Grand Prix, and added another ninth-place finish at the São Paulo Grand Prix a few weeks later. When Red Bull made the decision to part ways with Sergio Pérez, it was Lawson who was given the shot to drive alongside Max Verstappen this season.

And anyone who was in the Red Bull hospitality space Sunday night after the United States Grand Prix was not exactly surprised at that news, given how Horner spoke highly of Lawson’s return to the grid.

Fight at the front

The 2024 F1 season saw McLaren secure their first Constructors’ Championship since 1998, as they edged out Ferrari by 14 points in the standings. That represented the closest finish in the Constructors’ race since 2006, when Renault won the title by just five points, again with Ferrari left wondering what could have been.

Will 2025 offer more of the same?

Pre-season testing, while to be taken with a grain of salt, will give us our first look at the entire grid in action. It will also be our first window offering a view at what the season may entail.

Will we have another tight title fight in the Constructors’ on our hands? And maybe the Drivers’ as well?

This week gives us our first chance at answering those questions.

2025 … or 2026?

A major storyline to follow during the 2025 season?

How quickly will teams turn the page to 2026.

That is when a new set of Technical Regulations will arrive, with the potential to dramatically shift the sport. The proposed regulations will include active aerodynamics, a “push-to-pass” system that replaces the current Drag Reduction System (DRS), and a hybrid power unit with 50% of the power coming from the V6 turbo engine, and the other 50% coming from the electrical system.

With these major changes on the horizon, how quickly will teams focus from upgrading their 2025 cars, and preparing for 2026?

Some of that work has already begun. Teams were able to start work on their 2026 projects after the first of the new calendar year, and teams such as Haas have already stated work on 2026 is underway.

While pre-season testing this week is all about 2025, keep an eye out for discussions regarding 2026 not just this week, but all season long.

What drivers are testing, and when?

As of the time of original publication, none of the teams have confirmed which drivers will be driven when. According to a report in Dutch outlet De Telegraaf Red Bull has set their schedule for the three days of testing.

We will update this list as confirmations are released by the teams.

F1 pre-season testing driver schedule by day

Wednesday am: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

Wednesday pm: Liam Lawson (Red Bull)

Thursday am: Verstappen

Thursday pm: Verstappen

Friday am: Lawson

Friday pm: Lawson

F1 pre-season testing driver schedule by team

Alpine

TBD

Aston Martin

TBD

Haas

TBD

Ferrari

TBD

McLaren

TBD

Mercedes

TBD

Red Bull

Wednesday am: Max Verstappen
Wednesday pm: Liam Lawson

Thursday (all day): Max Verstappen

Friday (all day): Liam Lawson

Sauber

TBD

VCARB

TBD

Williams

TBD

Can I watch pre-season testing?

That depends on where you are reading this from, dear reader.

For those joining us from the United Kingdom and Ireland, Sky Sports F1 will broadcast the entirety of F1 testing.

Those outside of the United Kingdom and Ireland will be able to watch testing via F1TV, F1’s streaming service.

This post will be updated as driver and team schedules are announced.