If McLaren can bring their Bahrain F1 testing long-run pace to Melbourne, then they will start the season with a one-two.

That is the claim put forward by Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko, who saw a second per lap advantage for McLaren in race conditions. But, he did have hope to offer his team.

McLaren heading for ‘one-two’ at Australian GP?

McLaren’s Lando Norris went into F1 2025 testing in Bahrain as the early Drivers’ title favourite, and those three days of track action did little to change opinions.

PlanetF1.com’s best guess over the F1 2025 pecking order starting out, formed from conversations with teams across the paddock and trackside observations, indeed places McLaren as the front-runner, followed by Red Bull/Mercedes and Ferrari behind them.

Marko meanwhile has been crunching the numbers from testing and believes McLaren has the first win of F1 2025 wrapped up if they bring their Bahrain pace to Melbourne.

“McLaren was very fast,” Marko admitted on ServusTV’s ‘Sport and Talk from Hangar 7’.

“In the race runs, the drivers had to drive with a lot of petrol on board, so they were a second faster. If they realise this speed in Australia, then it will be a one-two for McLaren.”

However, Marko was not painting a picture of doom and gloom for his team.

Instead, the Austrian is confident that even if McLaren pick up where they left off in testing at the Australian GP, that pecking order is not set in stone going forward.

“You can’t use the winter tests as a completely valid benchmark, they were atypical conditions,” Marko warned. “I don’t think the picture we saw in Bahrain is valid for the whole year.”

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Red Bull’s Max Verstappen goes into F1 2025 chasing a remarkable fifth World Championship in a row, an achievement not before pulled off by a Red Bull driver with Verstappen last year matching Sebastian Vettel’s title streak with the team between 2010-13.

But, Verstappen also has expressed doubt over making a winning start to the season.

“[There is] work to do,” said Verstappen at a Viaplay event.

“I think McLaren is the favourite if you look at the lap times. And for us not everything went completely smoothly.

“On the other hand, I think we do have some ideas on how to improve the car. I’ve also spent a lot of time in the simulator – for example, yesterday – with the team.

“I don’t think we can compete for victory in Melbourne, but hopefully we will be able to make improvements within a few races.

“It’s never good enough, of course, but I think we expected a tiny bit more from it ourselves.

“After the test, you do have time to go through the data and come to certain conclusions.

“But as I said, I think we do need to improve some things.”

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