Bahrain '25: FP1 Recap

A total of 6 rookies took to the track for FP1 in Bahrain: Ayumu Iwasa (Red Bull), Dino Beganovic (Ferrari), Luke Browning (Williams), Ryo Hirakawa (Haas), Felipe Drugovich (Aston Martin), and Fred Vesti (Mercedes). Last weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix, Hirakawa drove for Alpine, but now returning to F1 in Sakhir, he took a seat in the Haas of Oliver Bearman. Iwasa also interestingly made up an all Japanese lineup for Red Bull Racing, however it was Luke Browning that topped the timings out of the 6 drivers. 

The replacement choice was surely a frustrating situation for Wiliams’ Carlos Sainz though, who is clearly still getting to grips with his new machinery. It seems like a constant struggle for the Spanish driver at the moment, but (as Carlos himself has said), we are only 3 races into the season, and there is much time for improvement! Lewis Hamilton is in a similar boat this season with his recent move to Ferrari, but seems to be improving at a faster rate. His sprint win in China must have been a confidence boost, and now in Bahrain, he was third fastest in FP1. 

Jack Doohan ran 7th fastest, and his passion to improve his performance seems to be working so far (he was recently spotted analysing clips on TikTok with his fellow countryman Daniel Ricciardo). His teammate Pierre Gasly had a great session and ended up setting the second fastest time of the session, only bested by Lando Norris.  Piastri however fought with the last turn multiple times, wobbling off of the track and therefore damaging his lap times, which resulted in the McLaren driver running 10th fastest. The overall gap to McLaren’s race pace is proving to be a growing problem for the rest of the grid, but ended up being squashed by Max Verstappen last weekend.

It seemed like almost everyone was complaining about their cars on the abrasive track of Bahrain: Ocon’s car was pulling, Hamilton said his car felt “horrendous”, Piastri felt zero grip, Lawson called the balance of the VCARB “shocking”, and the worst of all was Antonelli, who only managed 3 laps over the session’s entirety. Kimi’s mechanics were tending to the car for most of the free practice due to an unfortunate water issue.

Although Alex Albon had a few very successful laps, unpredictable brakes and abandoned laps ultimately led to frustration. The issues continued for Williams when Alex Albon was released from his garage in front of Yuki Tsunoda in the pitlane, who swerved out of the way and overtook Albon (the stewards hit Tsunoda with a penalty for this). But the problems didn’t stop there! A close call also occurred between the two Williams drivers on track, and Albon was later fined €7,500 for impeding the rookie. Drugovich witnessed Browning on a quick lap move off of the track to avoid the crawling Albon, remarking, “Wowch. That was close.” over his team radio.

Photo credit: "2013 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sunday" by CaterhamF1 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.