McLaren were always going to dominate in Bahrain from what they showed at the same venue during pre-season testing towards the end of February. However, Oscar Piastri seems to have thrown down the gauntlet in terms of the MCL39’s pace by being eight-tenths clear of the second-best car—which was Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari—in FP3 on Saturday.
To put into context, eight-tenths has often been the field spread of the top 10 or top 15 in qualifying and, at times, the entire grid of 20 drivers at tracks like Austria. While this gap may easily reduce in qualifying, it just reflects where McLaren stand relative to the rest of the field at a track that suits them.
After Friday’s practice, the data showed that the Woking outfit will enjoy a three to four-tenths advantage over the likes of Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari. When the sun goes down in Sakhir and the track lights up, Piastri or Lando Norris may clinch pole by a similar margin.
However, teams and drivers in the paddock are bamboozled by the kind of pace Piastri has shown in FP3 so far, as he was over six-tenths clear of his own teammate in P2. Leclerc‘s reaction summarized this surprising sentiment in the paddock when he asked his engineer to confirm whether the #81 driver actually set a lap time of 1:31.646 in the final hour of practice before qualifying.
“But where the hell did they find this time?” the Monegasque asked his race engineer, Bryan Bozzi. To this, Bozzi gave a short and simple response: “Faster everywhere.”
Oscar Piastri is setting a crazy pace
His 1:31.646 lap is over six tenths ahead of his team mate, Norris and 0.834 faster than third place Leclerc #F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/bbRxJbvx2o
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 12, 2025
While drivers’ pace over a lap is often compared to see who is faster in which sections, dominant cars help drivers exert their dominance over the entire lap. The McLaren drivers seem to be doing the same at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir.
As for Leclerc and Ferrari, who have been chasing the Woking-based team, this seems to be a huge gut punch right before qualifying. Despite bringing a substantial upgrade package this weekend, the Scuderia seems to be on the back foot, lacking a massive chunk of performance relative to the reigning world champions.
Who can challenge McLaren’s supremacy in Bahrain?
Ferrari don’t seem to have gained any pace via their upgrade this weekend so far. While Leclerc is struggling to figure out where he can close in on the McLarens, his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, hasn’t been happy with the handling of the car around Bahrain since the weekend started.
In FP3, he ended up only 10th, a whopping 1.465 seconds behind Piastri. And even if the field closes up in qualifying, it seems like the Ferrari drivers will feel the pinch of their pace deficit to McLaren, as has been the case throughout this season so far.
Red Bull are also in the same boat as the Italian outfit. While Max Verstappen was able to keep the McLarens at bay in Japan last week, the RB21 is lacking a ton of performance around Bahrain for him to emulate the same feat on Sunday.
Whenever he has tried to push, the Dutchman has experienced issues with his brakes, and the complex nature of the corners in Sakhir is further complicating Red Bull’s lock-up issues on the front wheels.
That leaves Mercedes as a potential challenger to McLaren, with George Russell leading their charge. But even they are facing at least a three-tenths gap to the MCL39; such has been the dominance of the papaya car in the desert.
