No team has ever won the championship by being fastest during Formula 1 pre-season testing, but many have been ruled out of contention after just a few laps before the campaign begins.
All 20 F1 drivers took to the track in Bahrain last week to get up to speed in their new cars with different levels of success.
McLaren are considered the quickest team in the paddock right now, although their car did look slightly unstable during qualifying runs.
Then it appears to be a three-way battle between Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes to be the next-strongest team, with each car having obvious strengths and weaknesses.
Carlos Sainz impressed with Williams, setting the fastest time across the three days.
It took time for Sainz to get used to driving the Williams, but they appear to be the best of the rest in the midfield alongside Alpine.
However, pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz in his latest Ted’s Notebook delivered a much more worrying verdict on one of their potential rivals.
Despite finishing fifth in the constructors’ championship last year, Aston Martin fell away as the season went on.
After three days of running at the Bahrain International Circuit, Kravitz doesn’t think they’ve made any changes over the winter that will help them bridge the gap to the top four teams.
In fact, he’s worried they might only be quicker than the disastrous Sauber team at times this year.
Ted Kravitz says Aston Martin could be the ‘ninth-quickest’ F1 team in 2025 after testing
Reflecting on how the £1.6bn-valued F1 team coped in Sakhir, Kravitz said: “Fernando Alonso ran the car in the morning, Lance tried in the afternoon but really wasn’t up to it and then Fernando came in.
“Clearly it would have been better if Fernando, they had just said to him or Lance said, ‘Look, Fernando, take the whole day’, they didn’t, they had to change the car over.
“Obviously, there’s a difference in heights, [the] difference in seats and pedals and everything, so they wasted I’m afraid is the right word for it, time with putting one driver in and then putting the other.
“Alonso did 82 laps in the end, Lance only 34. Alonso was P16 because he was trying race runs and Lance Stroll, P13.
READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage
“They have cured some of the ills of last year’s car.
“[In] some places the Aston Martin is still unpredictable, it seems to be better but here is another team that could easily be ninth quickest in the order on a bad day but then could be fifth around Williams, Alpine if they have a good day.
“So, it’s that close, but on a bad day, Aston, so say some of the GPS tracers and people who are analysing the lap times, Aston could be ninth, second-last only to Sauber.
“So, it is that tight.”
Aston Martin welcome Adrian Newey with 2026 regulations on the horizon
Lawrence Stroll has spent a huge amount of money trying to reach the top of Formula 1 and aside from a strong start to 2023 for Fernando Alonso, they’ve never bridged that gap to the pinnacle of the sport.
The hope is that will change when F1’s new regulations begin in 2026 with new signing Adrian Newey expected to lead their design efforts when it comes to the new car.
Alonso and Lance Stroll are unlikely to be happy battling in the midfield this year, but it’s a sacrifice worth making if next season is more successful.
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Newey is expected to have full control of Aston Martin’s new wind tunnel and that will lead them in the right direction.
Honda’s upcoming arrival should also benefit the team and if things aren’t going well at Red Bull, potentially convince Max Verstappen to jump ship.
With Newey having reservations about Stroll, the ultimate combination of Alonso and Verstappen would be mouthwatering for the Silverstone-based team.
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