F1 fans are finally going to get a first glimpse of all the 2025 cars on the track as it is pre-season testing time. This year’s pre-season testing will take place from February 26 to 28 in Bahrain.
But why do teams need pre-season testing when all race weekends have at least one free practice session? Since all F1 teams build completely new cars for each season, they need to understand if their new designs are working as they expected them to.
Moreover, pre-season testing also helps teams evaluate the reliability of their cars as drivers — who themselves are testing the new machinery for the first time — put in several laps. The more the number of laps, more the data the teams gather that they could use to make any other changes before the first race of the new season.
But with all drivers and teams using pre-season testing as an opportunity to evaluate how quick their cars are, the question that arises is how accurate is it.
History suggests that fans must not make too much of pre-season testing times. The Race put up a post on X (formerly Twitter) to indicate a comparison of the fastest lap time of each team from last year’s Bahrain testing and where they eventually finished in the Constructors’ Championship.
As seen in the post below, Oscar Piastri set only the seventh-fastest time for McLaren, who went on to win the Constructors’ Championship last season. In stark contrast, Sauber — who finished rock bottom in the championship with just four points — set the third-fastest lap thanks to Zhou Guanyu.
⏱️ How much should be read into fastest testing times? Maybe not always *that* much… pic.twitter.com/UjXcDjR00v
— The Race (@wearetherace) February 25, 2025
On top of that, the top two fastest lap times set by Carlos Sainz and George Russell were on the C4 tire, which was a softer compound. Pirelli provides all five compounds from C1 to C5 in its range for pre-season testing, and teams test on each tire compound extensively across the three days of the test.
However, some teams opt to go for a hot lap on the softer compounds like C4 and C5, which is not always representative of their true pace. The reason is that other teams and drivers would have set their lap time on a harder compound like C2 or C3, which will naturally be slower.
For instance, Piastri‘s fastest time last year came on the C3, while Sainz, Zhou, and Russell all topped the timesheets courtesy of the C4 tire. So, that explains how McLaren had more pace in the tank.
And to be precise, tire compounds aren’t the only factor that skew the testing lap times from the actual pecking order.
Why aren’t the F1 pre-season testing times accurate?
One crucial reason why pre-season testing times are often inaccurate is that teams often have different run plans for their drivers, depending on what they want to evaluate during testing. For example, some teams may decide to fuel their cars a lot more to evaluate their pace on the long runs.
And since teams rarely reveal how much fuel they have used in their cars, no one can make a fair comparison of the pace of different sides. Another reason — and perhaps one of the most important reasons — is that several teams sandbag, not wanting to showcase their true pace.
Mercedes were often accused of sandbagging during the turbo hybrid era. The Silver Arrows would deliberately underperform during pre-season testing to not give any indication whatsoever about the true potential of their cars and then would light up the timing charts once the season officially got underway.
So, it is fair to say that until the 2025 F1 season officially begins in Australia on March 14, fans are unlikely to have a good understanding of the pecking order.
