Williams love-in revealed as SHOCK retro domination tipped - GPFans Testing hot takes

Twenty four hours of pre-season testing have been and gone, and Formula 1 is ready for the start of the 2025 season.

The teams and drivers have been at the Bahrain International Circuit this week, getting in lap after lap in their new machinery, attempting to iron out any major creases and getting their 2025 cars ready for the season.

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2025 officially kicks off at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, which is now just two weeks away.

But which team is in the best shape heading into the opening grand prix of the year? What did we learn from the six testing sessions? If you missed it, here are the GPFans team's hot takes from testing.

GPFans' Bahrain Testing hot takes

Dan Ripley - Deputy Editor

F1 testing has been on our screens officially for a few years now and what is evident is that if you want to watch hours upon hours of live sport - stick to Test cricket.

But for something you can dip in and out of during a day, there really is no harm in keeping it on TV to view. It's a great little appetiser to see the new driver line-ups and teams ahead of the new season.

So what have we learned apart from where to put Spa's long lost Bus-stop chicane? Frustratingly not much, but as ever there are clues and maybe a blast from the past as we look at the times from the likes of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

It's not testing without a bit of sandbagging going on and with that in mind, it's worth a casual glance to the Kings of that from the Lewis Hamilton title-winning era, and a play on a familiar rhyme of the time where we also looked ahead to the opening race in Australia.

Roses are red, violets are blue McLaren are looking quick, but... Mercedes one-two.

READ MORE: Haas F1 car has chunk ripped off in FREAK testing incident

Matt Hobkinson - Global Lead Editor

Never have I seen three days of F1 action that has been as boring as it was chaotic.

The eight hours of track action was punctuated by freak incidents that you will likely never see again. A circuit-wide power cut, eight teams unable to get out on track due to a lack of wet weather tyres, a pane of glass falling on track to cause a red flag and a car literally having its bodywork ripped off while driving round the track.

Those all sound mightily exciting and bizarre in their own right, as they were – but my word the other 23 hours and 56 minutes were a hard watch.

Is it time that we do away with F1 testing being the public spectacle that it is? I think so.

I am all for the sport publicising itself to the max (no, not that Max) and I confess that I fell in love with the F1 launch. But the big song and dance around testing is utterly bizarre.

We will never know just how much teams were sandbagging, and why should we? Who here wouldn’t love for a Williams to stick it on pole out of the blue in qualifying come Melbourne? Or a Sauber to score a point?

I understand it's a necessity for teams, but let’s keep it behind closed doors.

Sam Cook - F1 Journalist

If we’re looking for stories to take specifically from the testing times, we’d be saying that Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz are ready to challenge for the world championship title. But really, is there anything we can take from 24 hours-worth of track action?

All cars were going about their own business, conducting their own testing programmes, with no indication on how much fuel they had in their cars, and whether they were on race runs, qualifying sims or just generally getting the laps in.

While the three days of testing provided starved F1 fans with their first bit of F1 action since the end of 2024, it was very non-eventful, with brilliant reliability across the board due to the sport currently heading into its fourth season of the same regulation cycle.

Once you’d got used to seeing Lewis Hamilton race round in a Ferrari for the first time, there wasn’t much else for fans to celebrate. Hamilton will be grateful that he and Charles Leclerc were at the sharp end of the timing screens on all three days of testing, however, it looks nice even if it doesn’t mean anything.

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

If there’s one thing to learn from pre-season testing it’s to not let the timesheets get to your head.

Lewis Hamilton’s first official runs on track in the SF-25 did bring a certain level of excitement to the three-day period but let’s not start making space in the wardrobe for Hamilton Ferrari championship merch just yet seeing as the F1 legend didn’t complete a race simulation unlike many of his rivals.

As things stand with varying run plans, different team aims and a lack of clarity over who exactly may have been sandbagging, it seems a thrilling constructors’ championship is still firmly on the cards between McLaren and Ferrari at least.

As far as the drivers’ championship stands, Verstappen may just about scrape through to claim a record-equalling fifth consecutive title victory - that is if he can avoid picking up point deductions every weekend for throwing up a rogue middle finger.

Among Verstappen’s own testing faux pas was a near-miss drive through into the McLaren garage, but that’s exactly what testing is for, to iron out the kinks, and if the Dutchman can get used to the fact that Red Bull no longer claim the top spot in the paddock order, perhaps the team’s sleek pit stops and Verstappen’s err… tenacious manner can carry them to further championship success.

Chris Deeley - F1 Journalist

What exactly is the need for the big hullabaloo around pre-season testing, at this point?

Sky get some time-filler on their F1 channel, good for them, but we’ve just watched 24 hours of track time that mean absolutely nothing to us. The most exciting thing that happened in three days was a bus getting lost. It’s obviously an invaluable three days for the teams as they get to grips with their new machinery, but we absolutely just don’t need to see it.

As someone who works in F1, I get it. It’s a bit more content for the mill, it’s a nice little thing to base a few days’ coverage around, it’s a chance to talk about how all cars look better with bright green flow-viz paint on them. As a fan though? Christ alive, what a bore.

Ronan Murphy - Social Media Editor

Testing is nice, isn’t it? But have we learned anything? Probably not. Did we need to? Probably not. But Formula 1 is back. Kind of.

Did we need to learn anything anyway? Of course not. We got something better.

Lewis Hamilton in red. Hamilton driving a Ferrari. The greatest driver of all time driving for the greatest team of all time.

Who cares about the timings and the tyres and the race runs and the qualifying runs? I don’t need any of that.

Just give me Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari. That’s all the F1 we need. For now.

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