Setting the pace on the second day of pre-season testing, Andrea Stella has tipped Williams to play a role in creating a “top five or the top six” in the F1 2025 championship.

But while that could be countered by arguments that it’s only pre-season testing, Stella backed up his prediction by highlighting Williams’ pace Sector 2 with its medium-speed corners that show the FW47’s improvements.

Andrea Stella says Williams look ‘very competitive’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Formula 1 is laying down the laps at the Bahrain International Circuit this week in a three-day pre-season outing that began on Wednesday and ends on Friday.

Day One belonged to Lando Norris as the McLaren driver set the pace, a tenth up on George Russell while Max Verstappen was third, a further tenth off the pace.

However, on Day Two it was Williams and Ferrari who came to the fore with Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton separated by 0.083s.

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Stella, like McLaren’s rivals, is pouring over the data gathered over the two days of running, not only to evaluate his own team’s gains but also to see where and how their rivals have improved.

And from the early numbers, the Italian believes Formula 1 could have a top five, or even a top six, this season.

“Every team will always be looking at the information they have in relation to competitors,” Stella told the media including PlanetF1.com. “Definitely, we talked about not getting distracted by what we see from competitors.

“The long-run pace… it looks encouraging. At the same time, we see that at low fuel, there are definitely several cars that are in the condition to put together very competitive lap times, which I think are competitive in absolute terms.

“So, if anything, my take so far is that I was thinking, before coming here, that in the past, we used to talk about the top three. Then, thankfully, McLaren has kind of added, now we have the top four.

“But perhaps this year, we might have to adapt our language again, which would be great for Formula 1 and then maybe the top five or the top six. So, we will see. Certainly, there seem to be a few quick cars out there.”

Quizzed on his claim that five or six teams could be fighting at the front this season, Stella pointed to Williams as one team that he reckons could be in the running.

That’s not an assumption based on Day Two’s timesheet, but rather a closer look at Williams’ pace through Sector 2 with its medium-speed corners, which weren’t one of Williams’ strong points with last year’s FW46.

“Five or six, wee don’t know,” he said.

“Well, we’ve seen that in terms of one lap pace in addition to the top four that seemed to be, certainly, Williams are very competitive. I’m not really stating the obvious, because I’m sure everyone will have seen the data. They have the same data that I look at.

“And it’s interesting that, for instance, Williams was very strong in the second sector, which is not only a sector of braking acceleration, is also a sector with a couple of medium-speed corners. So I think this should say that Williams might have improved in that area.

“And over the two days, I’ve seen, like I said, at times, some of the teams in condition to put together quick lap times. I haven’t checked enough. Like in reality you should look at the GPS overlays like it’s not only the sector times or the lap times. You should go through a thorough analysis.

“Vut the early indications already last year, going through qualifying sessions it was quite tight. The Q1 session, it wasn’t any more towards the end of the season those sessions in which you enter and you think ‘we’re going to go through with one set of tyres just the first run will be enough’. Often we needed to go out again. And it was still quite close from a lap times point of view.

“And what I’ve taken from these two days is that if anything is going to be even more of these as we start this 2025 season.”

McLaren are back out on track for Day Three of the Bahrain test with Norris running in the morning session before Oscar Piastri wraps up pre-season in the afternoon.

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