Pre-season testing is well underway at Bahrain with all the teams getting an opportunity to run their Formula 1 cars ahead of the first race in Australia.
Each F1 driver usually gets at least four hours in the car depending on what a team’s run plan is, with Lewis Hamilton getting his first go in the Ferrari SF-25 in the morning of the first day.
The Briton finished the morning session fifth fastest having completed 66 laps, which is effectively equal to a race distance in his car, without any problems.
Other teams also ran a lot of laps including fastest man Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who produced the fastest time on a 1:31.428s and completed 78 laps on track.
Fellow rookie Oliver Bearman was the slowest of the morning session, at one stage commenting on how cold it was out on track. The temperatures are unseasonably cold in Bahrain this time of year, and it has led to an issue for some teams, according to AMuS journalist Michael Schmidt.
Ferrari brought softest tyres to F1 testing amid low temperatures
In the months leading up to pre-season testing, all the F1 teams were given the opportunity to select the tyres they wanted to bring out of a possible 35 sets from Pirelli.
Ferrari is one of the teams that brought sets of all six compounds along with Williams, while teams like Aston Martin and Alpine went for the harder compound. This will have an impact on their run plan according to Schmidt, as the Bahrain circuit is notoriously tough on tyres.
“No joke: it’s cold in Bahrain. Currently 15 degrees air and 25 degrees on the asphalt. And it should stay that way. Even light drizzle is forecast for Thursday afternoon. If the teams had known that, their tyre selection for the test would have turned out differently,” wrote Schmidt.
“But the tyres had to be ordered from Pirelli weeks ago. That’s what Ferrari and Williams will be most happy about. They are the only two teams each who have ordered a set of the two softest mixes C5 and C6. If you have very hard tyres in your range like Aston Martin and Alpine, you can actually forget about them. You just slip around at the temperatures.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli already showing ‘confidence’ in 2025 Mercedes
Antonelli’s fastest time was 0.406s faster than Hamilton’s, with the 18-year-old appearing to settle into his new car without any major issues.
Alex Brundle believes Antonelli’s ability to hustle the Mercedes shows that he has confidence in the car, similar to how Hamilton used to drive when he was at the team.
READ MORE: Juan Pablo Montoya reveals the advice he gave Andrea Kimi Antonelli ahead of his debut F1 season
Antonelli has already completed a lot of private testing prior to this season to get himself ready for the season, although tehre was mixed stories on how he performed.
Juan Pablo Montoya said he heard ‘rumours’ of Antonelli crashing during testing, which was likely a result of him attempting to find the limits of the car.
