Formula 1: start of winter testing in Bahrain, Hamilton highly anticipated with Ferrari

Formula 1 kicks off its 2025 season on Wednesday in Bahrain, where the ten teams and twenty drivers will meet for winter testing, with the main attraction being the official debut of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari.

A week after the presentation evening organised with great fanfare in London, the atmosphere will be more subdued in the paddock of the Sakhir circuit where the teams will have their work cut out for them two weeks before the first of the 24 Grands Prix of the season in Australia.

If we already know the liveries of the single-seaters and we have already been able to see some images of some of them on the track, these three days of pre-season testing will allow us to know a little more about the performances of each one during this season which promises to be very tight.

"I think it will be a continuation of last year with four teams (McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes, editor's note) capable of winning races, capable of winning the championship and it will be a good fight," predicted Frédéric Vasseur, the boss of Ferrari.

In this last year of the regulatory cycle before the major upheaval of 2026 which will see the technical regulations change enormously, whether for the engine or the chassis, the convergence observed in 2024 should continue, leading to a tightening of the hierarchy.

The single-seaters will be an extension of last year's cars, and even if the teams have worked hard during the off-season to improve their tools, they already have their eyes fixed on 2026 and will soon stop the development of the 2025 car to concentrate on their single-seater for next year.

While waiting for the time to choose, the ten teams will use these three days of driving in the Gulf to learn more and fine-tune the settings in preparation for the first race, on March 16 in Melbourne.

Even though we will have to remain cautious and not draw hasty conclusions, last year's winter tests allowed us to detect the superiority of Red Bull or the great difficulties of Alpine, for example.

But before talking about the time trial, the Sakhir circuit will above all be the scene of the moment so eagerly awaited for a year: the first official laps of the Briton Lewis Hamilton aboard a Ferrari, after twelve seasons with Mercedes.

These tests will also allow the six +rookies+ (novices) to find their marks.

While New Zealander Liam Lawson, the new Red Bull teammate of Dutch quadruple world champion Max Verstappen, has already completed 11 Grands Prix, Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) and Frenchman Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) have never yet competed in a race in the premier class and will have to absorb a lot of information this week.

"I can't wait to see what it's like in Bahrain. I'm really looking forward to these tests," Hadjar told AFP. "Am I ready for F1? Honestly, I'll have my answer after the test days. For now, I'm still a little apprehensive. But I did the necessary preparation before this test. I couldn't have prepared better."