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The 2025 F1 pre-season test at Bahrain is just around the corner as we see the cars on track for the first time this year. As always, when the season is about to begin there are questions around each team and how the cars would look on the track.
There is also the excitement of seeing cars on track after months. Quite a few teams have shown their liveries, and a few snapshots of the cars during the shakedown are now public. With that being said, the F1 pre-season test could help answer quite a few questions. Let's take a look.
2025 F1 Pre-Season Test
#1 Lewis Hamilton's first verdict after driving the Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton has already said that he's working from a deficit compared to his teammate Charles Leclerc. The 7x world champion has joined the team this season while the youngster has been a part of the squad since 2019. One would expect some level of deficit anyway, but what would be interesting to see here is what initial verdict Hamilton gives about the car.
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The shakedown times mean nothing, and that's not something that anybody should pay even a second of attention to. There is, however, a bigger sample space during a preseason test, and that might be the first time when Lewis could push the Ferrari a little to see how he copes with it.
A driver who's coming off an underwhelming season at Mercedes due to adaptation issues has a lot at stake here, and his first verdict is something that would be worth keeping an eye on.
#2 Has any team introduced anything out of the box?
The car/livery launches are just not the moment when we see the real thing. The real thing only makes an appearance when the car is out on track during the F1 pre-season test. When the cars roll out for the first time in Bahrain is when everyone would be keeping an eye on what is in store.
Has any team put together a solution which is something different from the interpretation that everyone has a thought of? With the prescriptive nature of these regulations and it being the 4th year with stable regulations, it's obviously going to be hard to find something innovative. But that has never stopped these geniuses in F1 from giving it a try and finding something brilliant.
#3 How many teams have implemented the 'flexi-wing' concept?
The flexi-wing was something that took everybody by surprise when both McLaren and Mercedes introduced a solution that had their front wings flexing to a certain extent. After multiple clarifications, the FIA gave the solution a green light and we saw quite a few teams trying to implement the same.
At the same time, teams like Ferrari and Red Bull opted not to, owing to budgeting constraints for 2024. In 2025, however, for the first 9 races, they will have the freedom to implement it, and it would be interesting to see which one of the teams has a good enough solution in place and how big a jump in the F1 pecking order it gives them.
#4 What would Max Verstappen say about the Red Bull after his first run?
Away from the spotlight, questions around Red Bull and its immediate form have persisted. This is a team that has built an empire on being brilliant aerodynamically. There has, however, been a massive brain drain, with Rob Marshall first leaving and making a massive impact at McLaren.
The aero wizard who was the backbone of Red Bull (Adrian Newey) is off to pursue a new F1 project with Aston Martin. The team was on the back foot in 2024, and for 2025, it is working off a deficit as there was quite clearly some ground that needed to be covered.
Max Verstappen's first comments about the car and how it is behaving are surely going to put a lot of things in perspective here, and it would also give an indication of where the team is in terms of F1 competitiveness after losing so many key personnel.
#5 How does the Aston Martin look?
There is a common theme in the F1 paddock that when Aston Martin puts all the pieces together, this team will be unbeatable. While that could be true, there hasn't been much to cheer for if you're a fan of the brand or of Fernando Alonso in the last year or so.
The pieces are being put in place, but the on-track improvements are just not there. Aston Martin has brought a somewhat different-looking car for the 2025 F1 season, but how it looks on track is possibly something that quite a few people would be keeping an eye on.
