Formula 1

Lando Norris has invited Max Verstappen to test McLaren’s F1 car but is confident there will be “disappointment” on the face of the Red Bull driver.

After winning in Japan last time out against the odds, Verstappen declared that if he had been driving the MCL39 of Norris and Oscar Piastri he wouldn’t have been “seen”, such is the perceived speed of the McLaren.

READ MORE: Norris invites Verstappen to test McLaren F1 car

2025 F1 Bahrain Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 results

Oscar Piastri has ended the second practice session at the Bahrain International Circuit on top of the timesheet.

The Australian driver led a McLaren 1-2 as the Woking-based squad boasted an imposing gap over the rest of the field, with Lando Norris almost four-tenths of a second ahead of George Russell in third.

READ MORE: 2025 F1 Bahrain Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 results

Russell makes F1 demand after ‘pretty expensive poo’

George Russell has demanded increased collaboration between F1 and the FIA after Carlos Sainz was fined for a “pretty expensive poo.”

Williams driver Sainz was late to the national anthem at the Japanese Grand Prix after seeking medical treatment for an upset stomach from an FIA doctor and going to the toilet.

READ MORE: Russell makes F1 demand after ‘pretty expensive poo’

Verstappen adds fuel to McLaren fire: ‘I wasn’t joking’

Max Verstappen insists he was not “joking” when he claimed he could perform stronger in the McLaren, after Lando Norris responded to his comments.

Post the Japanese GP where he pulled off a famous win, Verstappen claimed that if he had been driving the MCL39 of Norris and Oscar Piastri he wouldn’t have “been seen” in the race, as Red Bull battles to try and get its RB21 into a more competitive position.

READ MORE: Verstappen adds fuel to McLaren fire: ‘I wasn’t joking’

Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari hopes boosted as big upgrade package revealed

Ferrari has unveiled the big upgrade package for the Bahrain Grand Prix that Lewis Hamilton hopes can turn his fortunes around.

Despite winning the Shanghai Sprint, Hamilton has largely struggled to find a balance he is happy with aboard the Ferrari, and claimed after the Japanese GP that a component on his car was not working correctly.

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari hopes boosted as big upgrade package revealed

FIA make surprise call over Sainz swearing

The FIA has made the surprising decision not to punish Carlos Sainz for swearing during an official FIA press conference, RacingNews365 can confirm.

Williams driver Sainz used the word “shit” during an FIA drivers’ press conference on Thursday at the Bahrain International Circuit.

READ MORE: FIA make surprise call over Sainz swearing

Ferrari “just not fast enough” despite Bahrain F1 upgrades

The good news for Ferrari is its comprehensive Bahrain upgrade package appears to be working. The bad news is the Scuderia is still nowhere near enough to make a fist of challenging McLaren.

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Upgrades have been in limited supply thus far, with few teams registering any novelties coming into 2025’s fourth race weekend in Bahrain. Ferrari led the upgrade chart with a sizable package that included a rework of the floor all the way from the frontal edge to the floor fences and the diffuser at the rear of the car.

Those helped Charles Leclerc take fourth in second practice, on par with George Russell’s Mercedes and ahead of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, yet still half a second behind the leading McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Hamilton was further back in eighth, but was upbeat about the new floor he had at his disposal.

“The upgrades are definitely working,” the seven-time world champion said. “A big thank you to everyone back home for working so hard on bringing the upgrades because it’s never an easy thing.

“It’s a lot of work that goes on in the wind tunnel and a lot of work that goes on in fabricating and putting together these floors, so it’s just good to see that we’re taking steps forward and we’re trying to now extract more from it. I hope that we can make the right steps overnight.”

Given the usual fog of war surrounding Friday practice, Red Bull’s performance in particular must be taken with a hefty pinch of salt. But what is undeniable is that McLaren is well ahead, as much as it might like to play down its advantage on the hot and abrasive Bahrain circuit.

“We’re just not fast enough when we look at the McLaren, they are just on another planet for now,” Leclerc sighed. “It’s annoying but it’s the way it is, and it actually motivates me to try and close that gap as soon as possible. They are incredibly fast.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“[The upgrades] are positive, but unfortunately the gap to McLaren is still big. We’ve got to maximise the car potential that we have for now. If that means finishing third, fourth, fifth, I don’t know what that will be, but we’ll have to take it.

“I hope that at one point we’ll be back at being the fastest car on track and there it will be a matter of maximising the car again. But for wins, and not for third anymore.”

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Leclerc still expects Verstappen to be the papaya cars’ closest challenger but thinks Ferrari and Mercedes will be evenly matched: “With Mercedes it seems that we are pretty much there. With Red Bull it’s a bit more difficult.

“I think Max had one less set of tyres compared to us in FP2, so he’s probably a bit in front. But there’s still some performance to be found on our side by maximising the car and the upgrade, and we’ll see where that leads us.”

In this article

Filip Cleeren

Formula 1

Lewis Hamilton

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

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Ferrari upgrades working, but McLaren still on another planet

The good news for Ferrari is its comprehensive Bahrain upgrade package appears to be working. The bad news is it’s still nowhere near enough to make a fist of challenging McLaren.

Upgrades have been in limited supply thus far, with few teams registering any novelties coming into 2025’s fourth race weekend in Bahrain. Ferrari led the upgrade chart with a sizable package that included a rework of the floor all the way from the frontal edge to the floor fences and the diffuser at the rear of the car.

Those helped Charles Leclerc take fourth in second practice, on par with George Russell’s Mercedes and ahead of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, yet still half a second behind the leading McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Hamilton was further back in eighth, but was upbeat about the new floor he had at his disposal.

“The upgrades are definitely working,” the seven-time world champion said. “A big thank you to everyone back home for working so hard on bringing the upgrades because it’s never an easy thing.

“It’s a lot of work that goes on in the wind tunnel and a lot of work that goes on in fabricating and putting together these floors, so it’s just good to see that we’re taking steps forward and we’re trying to now extract more from it. I hope that we can make the right steps overnight.”

Given the usual fog of war surrounding Friday practice, Red Bull’s performance in particular must be taken with a hefty pinch of salt. But what is undeniable is that McLaren is well ahead, as much as it might like to play down its advantage on the hot and abrasive Bahrain circuit.

“We’re just not fast enough when we look at the McLaren, they are just on another planet for now,” Leclerc sighed. “It’s annoying but it’s the way it is, and it actually motivates me to try and close that gap as soon as possible. They are incredibly fast.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“[The upgrades] are positive, but unfortunately the gap to McLaren is still big. We’ve got to maximise the car potential that we have for now. If that means finishing third, fourth, fifth, I don’t know what that will be, but we’ll have to take it.

“I hope that at one point we’ll be back at being the fastest car on track and there it will be a matter of maximising the car again. But for wins, and not for third anymore.”

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Leclerc still expects Verstappen to be the papaya cars’ closest challenger, but thinks Ferrari and Mercedes will be evenly matched: “With Mercedes it seems that we are pretty much there. With Red Bull it’s a bit more difficult.

“I think Max had one less set of tyres compared to us in FP2, so he’s probably a bit in front. But there’s still some performance to be found on our side by maximising the car and the upgrade, and we’ll see where that leads us.”

In this article

Filip Cleeren

Formula 1

Lewis Hamilton

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

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Tsunoda explains huge gap to Verstappen

Yuki Tsunoda labelled the start to his Bahrain Grand Prix weekend as “pretty messy” whilst bemoaning “miscommunication” at Red Bull which cost him lap time.

The Japanese driver finished the opening practice session ninth fastest, just under 1.3 seconds off Lando Norris in first, before slumping to P18 in the second hour of running.

With team-mate Max Verstappen back in the RB21 for FP2 after Tsunoda’s compatriot Ayumu Iwasa deputised in FP1, the 24-year-old found himself just under seven tenths adrift of the Dutchman who was seventh quickest at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Tsunoda explained he is still struggling to optimise the lines of communication between himself and the Red Bull pit wall.

“Bit of learning, I guess,” Tsunoda said when talking through his second free practice session in Sakhir.

“It’s a bit different, the set up between the cars, to see how the performance looks like.

“But also, just this session was pretty messy overall, being able to put it all together. There was a lot of miscommunication between our side of the garage, on the radio, for example.

“That’s part of the learning process, because it’s still the fifth session from the when I jumped in [to the Red Bull], but was obviously not the finest session.”

Tsunoda’s bleak qualifying warning

Despite the difficulties, Tsunoda is hoping to continue to improve and mesh with his new team.

However, although he is “optimistic”, he warned it will be difficult to reach Q3 in qualifying.

“I hope it’ll be better,” the Japanese driver said when asked about the grid-setting session and the grand prix on Sunday. “[It] has to be better than this.

“I’m sure we’re gonna change a lot of things. For now, the team is struggling, but at the same time, I know a lot will come from cleaner operations and everything.

“So that’s kind of freed up time, so I’m still feeling optimistic. But, yeah, it will be hard for now to go through to Q3.”

Alonso explains bizarre steering wheel break in Bahrain GP FP2

Two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso suffered from a bizarre moment during the second practice session in Bahrain when his steering wheel detached from his Aston Martin.

Just two laps into the session, Alonso’s steering wheel display went blank and moments later, the wheel detached from the steering column. Over the team radio, he exclaimed:

“Change the steering wheel,” Alonso said. “There’s a problem with the steering wheel; it’s switching off.”

Addressing the odd moment with the media following practice, the Spanish driver explained: “Yeah, the car [was] not working, and I could not shift gears at one point, so yeah, I had a dash off.

“So, I could not communicate with the team either, and yeah, in the last corner the wheel was off. So yeah, we realised that maybe the steering column of the wheel or something had a problem. The mechanics quickly changed the parts and everything was fine.

“So yeah, a moment there, but thanks to everyone in the garage to fix it quite fast.”

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Peter Fox – Getty Images

Aston Martin shared the following update at the time: “We had a steering wheel issue on Fernando’s car which we are looking to resolve in the garage. Upon further investigation, we’re changing parts of the steering system on Fernando’s car.”

Alonso was able to get back out to complete the session, during which he placed 15th fastest on the timesheet. Unfortunately, the 43-year-old is still not feeling optimistic about the weekend.

“I think it’s going to be a tough weekend, unfortunately, we seem not to have the pace before coming here,” he said.

“The characteristics of Bahrain was a little bit of a concern for us, for our package, and yeah, probably we confirm today that we are not competitive. It’s going to be a tough weekend, but we will try to learn.

“We will try to push, and we are not giving up.”

In this article

Lydia Mee

Formula 1

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin Racing

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Verstappen sounds Red Bull alarm: ‘The gap is huge’

Max Verstappen lamented his Red Bull at the Bahrain Grand Prix, claiming the gap is “huge” to the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

The Dutchman sat out of FP1 in Sakhir as Ayumu Iwasa took the cockpit of his RB21, as part of the FIA-mandated rookie practice requirements.

However, his weekend started disappointingly in the second hour of the day, ending FP2 seventh quickest and over eight-tenths of a second off the front-running pace of Piastri.

To make matters worse, Isack Hadjar in the Racing Bulls car was faster – on medium tyres to Verstappen’s softs.

“It was difficult,” the four-time F1 drivers’ champion told his official website after the session. “Of course it took one, two laps to get into it, but the gap is huge.”

Throughout FP2, Verstappen could be heard complaining to Red Bull over team radio, highlighting braking issues and a lack of grip.

Diagnosing the root of the issues, the 27-year-old explained that compared to the McLaren MCL39, the RB21 is “simply too slow” at the Bahrain International Circuit.

“I’m not completely happy,” the 64-time grand prix winner said. “We had a lot of grip problems.

“We have a lot of work to do, also on the long runs. We’re simply too slow. To be honest, it wasn’t really fun on the longer runs.

“At the end I even had some drift training. The gap to the McLarens is big. We also had a different approach than other Fridays, so this gap is really big.”

Red Bull claims McLaren is too quick after dominant Friday at Bahrain GP

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner fears McLaren is “a few tenths” too quick for any of its rivals in Bahrain, with a repeat of Max Verstappen’s outstanding Suzuka victory unlikely.

Oscar Piastri topped McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in Friday’s second practice session, with the pair half a second clear of Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.

Having sat out FP1 to give Red Bull reserve Ayumu Iwasa an outing, Verstappen was seventh – eight tenths behind – with Yuki Tsunoda down in 18th after conducting set-up experiments.

According to team boss Horner, McLaren is a class apart this weekend as the hot and abrasive Bahrain circuit looks set to favour the papaya squad.

“We’ve got quite a bit to do tonight, I think,” Horner told Viaplay. “The McLarens look very, very quick. With Mercedes and Ferrari it all looks pretty close, but McLaren definitely look like they have a few tenths on the rest of the field.

“First of all, we’ve got to understand how we can improve what we have, which is mainly temperature-related, I think.”

Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Red Bull overhauled its set-up last weekend in Japan after a similarly difficult Friday to give Verstappen a shot at taking an outstanding pole, but Horner fears Bahrain’s more abrasive layout will reward McLaren’s better tyre usage and make it harder to keep faster cars at bay in the race.

“It is impossible to repeat what he did last week over a single lap and then holding the cars behind for an entire grand prix,” Horner cautioned. “This is a track you can overtake at relatively easily, so a lot of work to do with the engineers tonight.”

Not just engine modes

Speaking to Autosport, the team’s advisor Helmut Marko painted a similar picture, and while Red Bull tends to run with less powerful engine modes in practice he said the squad’s deficit went well beyond that.

“We are too slow and the tyres are becoming far too hot,” the Austrian said. “It’s basically confirming what Max already said yesterday, that Bahrain will be a more difficult one for Red Bull.

“The main problem is the tyre temperature, which we can’t keep under control. And as soon as the temperature goes up, we are sliding, which makes it worse.

“Strangely enough, at one stage the tyre recovered and we were doing the same lap times as Lando, but that was only three or four laps out of 15. This track just doesn’t suit us and neither do these high temperatures.”

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In this article

Filip Cleeren

Formula 1

Max Verstappen

Yuki Tsunoda

Red Bull Racing

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Impossible for Verstappen to repeat Suzuka heroics in Bahrain

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner fears McLaren is “a few tenths” too quick for any of its rivals in Bahrain, with a repeat of Max Verstappen’s outstanding Suzuka victory unlikely.

Oscar Piastri topped McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in Friday’s second practice session, with the pair half a second clear of Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.

Having sat out FP1 to give Red Bull reserve driver Ayumu Iwasa an outing, Verstappen was down in seventh – eight tenths behind – with Yuki Tsunoda down in 18th after conducting set-up experiments to help the Japanese driver settle.

According to team boss Horner, McLaren is a class apart this weekend as the hot and abrasive Bahrain circuit looks set to favour the papaya squad.

“We’ve got quite a bit to do tonight, I think,” Horner told Viaplay. “The McLarens look very, very quick. With Mercedes and Ferrari it all looks pretty close, but McLaren definitely look like they have a few tenths on the rest of the field.

“First of all, we’ve got to understand how we can improve what we have, which is mainly temperature-related, I think.”

Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Red Bull overhauled its set-up last weekend in Japan after a similarly difficult Friday to give Verstappen a shot at taking an outstanding pole, but Horner fears Bahrain’s more abrasive layout will reward McLaren’s better tyre usage and make it harder to keep faster cars at bay in the race.

“It is impossible to repeat what he did last week over a single lap and then holding the cars behind for an entire grand prix,” he cautioned. “This is a track you can overtake at relatively easily, so a lot of work to do with the engineers tonight.”

Not just engine modes

Speaking to Motorsport.com, the team’s advisor Helmut Marko painted a similar picture, and while Red Bull tends to run with less powerful engine modes in practice he said the squad’s deficit went well beyond that.

“We are too slow and the tyres are becoming far too hot,” the Austrian concluded. “It’s basically confirming what Max already said yesterday, that Bahrain will be a more difficult one for Red Bull. The main problem is the tyre temperature, which we can’t keep under control. And as soon as the temperature goes up, we are sliding, which makes it worse.

“Strangely enough, at one stage the tyre recovered and we were doing the same lap times as Lando, but that was only three or four laps out of 15. This track just doesn’t suit us and neither do these high temperatures.”

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In this article

Filip Cleeren

Formula 1

Max Verstappen

Yuki Tsunoda

Red Bull Racing

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Marko explains huge Red Bull concern after Bahrain practice

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has stated the RB21 car is “too slow” in Bahrain as it struggled with overheating tyres during the opening day of practice.

Max Verstappen ended the second practice session as the fastest Red Bull driver, but could only muster seventh place.

The Dutchman’s lap time was eight-tenths of a second down on session leader Oscar Piastri as McLaren set an imposing deficit over the rest of the competition.

Explaining Red Bull’s struggles around the Bahrain International Circuit, Marko detailed the team is struggling in the hot conditions.

“We are too slow and the tyres are becoming far too hot,” Marko told media including RacingNews365.

When asked how much of the deficit is down to low engine modes, Marko replied: “Not much.”

Verstappen’s long-run pace started off in the range of being competitive with the second McLaren car of Lando Norris.

However, as the tyres got hotter, Verstappen’s pace began to suffer as the Pirelli rubber could not be brought back to a normal operating temperature.

“The main problem is the tyre temperature, which we can’t keep under control,” Marko said. “And as soon as the temperature goes up, we are sliding.

“Sliding makes it even worse. Strange enough, at one stage the tyre recovered, and we are doing the same lap times like Lando, but that was only three or four laps out of 15.”

As Red Bull enters the Bahrain round off the back of a victory in Japan, Marko is hopeful it can perform successful set-up changes to get it back into a competitive position.

“If we would know [how to fix the issues], we would change it,” Marko said.

“But we will change it like we did in Japan, and hopefully we get this golden mixture of setup changes and we are more competitive tomorrow.”

McLaren fastest again as Piastri tops Norris in FP2