Thursday was a day of two faces for Ferrari. The SF-25’s work program continued without issues, with the day’s standings showing Lewis Hamilton as the leader in the morning session and Charles Leclerc second in the afternoon, only behind the surprise of Carlos Sainz. The Thursday afternoon session in Sakhir also provided an opportunity to compare full race simulations, which pitted Leclerc against Lando Norris, and in this case, the results for Ferrari were not encouraging. McLaren’s pace was significantly faster.
Within the team, there is no alarm. The atypical conditions of the day and the low temperatures are considered unusual, and the weather forecast for tomorrow (clear skies and temperatures above 20 degrees) should provide a more reliable scenario. Therefore, all evaluations are postponed to tomorrow evening. However, a significant difference remains—the one seen between Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc, which aligns with what was recorded last year: a Ferrari that does not perform at its best in low-temperature conditions (as seen in 2024 in China, Japan, Canada, and Las Vegas).
In the first session, Lewis Hamilton completed 45 laps, partly due to a mandatory stop for all cars on track because of the expected rain. In the first part of the session, Lewis Hamilton continued with the data collection program before focusing more on performance, consistently running on C3 tires.
After the rain break, Hamilton completed a qualifying simulation, setting the best lap at 1’29”379. “We are making great progress in understanding the SF-25,” commented Lewis Hamilton, “and so far, reliability has been good, which is always a positive sign. We didn’t get as much track time as we hoped due to the weather, but tomorrow we’ll have more time to work on our program and gain even more confidence with the car.”
In the afternoon, Charles Leclerc started with a qualifying simulation (1’29”431 as his best time, using C3 tires) before beginning his planned long runs over race distance. Charles completed the first stint on C3 tires before switching to C1 and C2. “Today was a more complicated day on track,” commented Charles, “due to rather unusual weather conditions for Bahrain, with low temperatures and even some rain. We followed our planned program, but with the rapidly changing weather, it was difficult to draw many conclusions. We are fully focused on analyzing the data collected and preparing for the final test day tomorrow.”
The last day of testing will see the Monegasque on track in the morning and the British driver in the afternoon session. The program will be identical, with a full race simulation assigned to Lewis Hamilton, while Charles Leclerc will have the last sets of C3 and C4 tires available for qualifying simulations, which Hamilton will also attempt at the end of his session.
