Behind the top four, there appears to be a gap of in the region of 1.5 to two seconds before a midfield group comprising Haas, Alpine and Audi, followed by Racing Bulls and Williams. At the back are Cadillac and Aston Martin, who are the one team being completely transparent about their performance.
There is so much attention and expectation on Aston Martin, with Alonso at the wheel, design legend Adrian Newey at the helm since March, and Honda their new works engine partner.
But the year has started badly. The car is way off the pace – around four seconds, Alonso’s team-mate Lance Stroll said on Thursday.
Break that down over the lap using GPS data available to all teams, and it seems about 1.5secs of it is from the engine and the rest from the car, which performs worse the slower the corner gets.
How, one might wonder, is this possible?
The answer seems to be a combination of the car design process being behind, partly because of Newey’s late arrival, partly because the team are building their own gearbox for the first time ever, and Honda being behind because… well, there is no clear answer to that one.
Honda officially pulled out of F1 at the end of 2021, and dismantled much of its engine department before changing its mind in 2023. But it still had people working on upgrading its existing engine in the meantime, and its lead time for the new regulations has not been very different from Red Bull’s, and yet the Japanese company seem to be nowhere in comparison.
Alonso was not happy about Aston Martin’s performance on Thursday, throwing his gloves down at one stage after getting out of the car. And who can blame him?
This could be his final season in F1. He is 45 in July and out of contract at the end of the year. Spending it at the back was not what he was expecting.
“Definitely we are not in the position we wanted to be,” Alonso said, pointing out they had been late to start testing, that reliability was still not good, and that was costing them time to hone the car.
The former F1 driver Pedro de la Rosa, who has been with the team as long as Alonso and has now been appointed team representative to take some of the load off Newey, said: “Looking back is always easy. If we had possibly started earlier, if Adrian would have been here not 2 March, but a few months earlier, if Honda wouldn’t have gone and then come back – it’s ifs and buts.
“Bottom line is we are slow. We’re not where we want to be. Let’s get a plan together. Let’s look ahead, not back [at] what went wrong.
“The important thing is that we we know exactly what’s wrong and [can] work on it. That’s what gives us the confidence. We don’t know [how long it will take] but slowly, gradually, the difference will shrink.”
Fastest lap times, Bahrain test one
1 Kimi Antonelli (Ita) Mercedes one minute 33.669 seconds
2 George Russell (GB) Mercedes 1:33.918
3 Lewis Hamilton (GB) Ferrari 1:34.209
4 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:34.273
5 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:34.549
6 Lando Norris (GB) McLaren 1:34.669
7 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:34.798
8 Oliver Bearman (GB) Haas 1:35.349
9 Esteban Ocon (Fra) 1:35.578
10 Franco Colapinto (Arg) Alpine 1:35.806
11 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Audi 1:36.291
12 Isack Hadjar (Fra) Red Bull 1:35.610
13 Gabriel Bortoleto (Brz) Audi 1:36.670
14 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine 1:36.765
15 Alex Albon (Thi) Williams 1:36.793
16 Liam Lawson (NZ) Racing Bulls 1:36.808
17 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Cadillac 1:36.824
18 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Williams 1:37.186
19 Arvid Lindblad (GB) Racing Bulls 1:37.470
20 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:38.165
21 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin 1:38.248
22 Sergio Perez (Mex) Cadillac 1:38.653