With two of the three days of official pre-season testing completed in Bahrain, the pecking order for 2025 is starting to take shape.
"McLaren is clearly ahead," stated Germany's respected Auto Motor und Sport magazine, following Mercedes boss Toto Wolff's remark a day earlier that Lando Norris was "on a planet of his own."
This assessment came despite Williams' Carlos Sainz leading the timesheets on Thursday, courtesy of a low-fuel qualifying simulation.
Team principal James Vowles tempered expectations: "My view of things is that the top four will be the top four," he said, pointing to McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton, now at Ferrari in place of Sainz, was observed by the team's chairman John Elkann from the garage. The seven-time world champion commented that he is "slowly bonding" with his red cockpit, marginally outpacing teammate Charles Leclerc on Thursday.
At Red Bull, Max Verstappen remarked after his Wednesday stint in the 2025 car that it has progressed "in all areas," adding: "But it couldn't have gotten worse."
The RB21, which bears a strong resemblance to its 2024 predecessor, will receive new components on Friday's final day. "They won't have such a big impact," technical director Pierre Wache told Sky Italia.
"They were planned for Melbourne but since they are ready we'll try to push a bit. We're doing it because it will give us the chance to see if we're going the right way or not."
Liam Lawson trailed the leading pace by nearly a second on Thursday.
"Let's wait until Max (Verstappen) is back in the car," Red Bull adviser Dr Helmut Marko cautioned.
Addressing McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes' apparent advantage in Bahrain, the Austrian noted: "They seemed very competitive today, but we also had a problem with the cooling and lost a lot of time."
Regarding Lawson, Marko observed that while he may lack a little pace, "at least he hasn't done anything wrong."
Overall, with the field tightly packed in the final year of the current rules, variables like fuel loads and engine settings are influencing lap times more significantly than usual.
"We won't be able to tell the order at a cold, wet Bahrain," Williams' Vowles concurred.
Four-time consecutive world champion Verstappen echoed this sentiment.
"There is no point," he told reporters when pressed to forecast the hierarchy. "You can guess how much fuel everyone is using and which engine mode they're in, but after ten years I'm a bit done with that." body check tags ::
