Formula 1’s pre-season, for what it is worth, is done. All three days were completed with Mercedes covering the most laps and Carlos Sainz setting the overall fastest lap time at 1:29.348 on Day Two.

And to that Allard Kalff says: “I don’t see a championship car among them at all.”

F1 2025 expectations: A prelude to disappointments

The Formula 1 teams laid down the laps at the Bahrain International Circuit last week, all 10 teams present for the three days of pre-season testing.

Mercedes topped the lap count, 458 laps to Haas’ 457, Williams set the fastest time, Carlos Sainz’s 1:29.348 0.03s up on Lewis Hamilton’s best, and McLaren, according to PlanetF1.com’s data analyst Pablo Hidalgo, were the quickest over a race distance.

However, it was just testing, and therefore neither the fuel loads nor engine modes were revealed by the teams.

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One can only surmise and draw educated guesses based on years of experience, and experience is one thing Kalff, a long-time Viaplay analyst, has.

“I don’t see a championship car among them at all,” he told WNL after pre-season testing.

“The trend is McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. Those are all four cars that are there when they go on the track. They are inside a few tenths of the fastest. These are often the cars that will set the tone all year round.

“Expectations are always a prelude to disappointments.

“What you see is that it is very close together. The difference between the first and the tenth is smaller than it has ever been in Formula 1. It’s going to be super exciting and it’s really about the details.”

But amongst those four teams and eight drivers, Kalff believes there are two standout drivers – Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

This season, Verstappen is chasing his fifth successive Drivers’ Championship title while Hamilton is seeking to regain the crown that he lost to the Dutchman in 2021 and bag his record-breaking eighth title.

“Max Verstappen is one of the favourites for the World title,” Kalff said, “but that also applies to Lewis Hamilton.

“People don’t like it when you say it, but the two best racers in Formula 1 at the moment are Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

But there is more in play at both Red Bull and Ferrari than just Verstappen versus Hamilton.

Although Verstappen will continue to work with his long-time race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, ‘GP’ has an extended role as Red Bull’s head of racing while Hamilton is now working with Riccardo Adami at Ferrari.

Those, however, are just two big changes the title contenders will have to deal with when the F1 2025 championship begins in Australia in March.

“You want the strategy to be in order is,” said Kalff. “You have to test all those things and they were those days are also very important. And there are new mechanics and everything. You have to become a team.”

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