Bold Start and a Brave Finish Leads to Brilliant Podium:

Bahrain GP Recap

Delivering in the Desert

A track that gave George so much heartbreak on his Mercedes debut in 2020, he will leave Bahrain this year with a lot of satisfaction.

It was a bold start – immediately wiping out Saturday evening’s grid penalty – and then a brave finish. 24 laps on the Soft tyre from a Safety Car restart with Lando Norris’ McLaren bearing down from behind.

Throw in an ailing W16 and he could not have asked for a much more stressful conclusion!

A third podium in four races, his first in Bahrain, to start the season continues George’s best-ever opening to a campaign – his 63 points eclipsing his previous best of 49 from 2022.

He also extended the longest active streak of Q3 appearances to 15, and his career-best point-scoring run to 14 Grands Prix.

Best Saturday of the Season (And Why We Were Penalised)

For just the second time since last summer’s shutdown, the team finished Quali with two cars inside the top two rows on the timesheets.

P2 for George mirrored his debut with Mercedes at the track in 2020 and was one better than his effort at the same Grand Prix last season.

Kimi’s P4 time was his best return to date and marked the first time both cars made the top four in Sakhir with the current generation of cars.

It meant the post-session penalty to dock both drivers one place on the grid stung, somewhat.

After the red flag in Q2 for Esteban Ocon’s crash, the team were eager to get both cars to the front of the queue when the session started.

In doing so, both Kimi and George were sent into the pit lane (the fast lane) before an official session restart time had been declared.

An unfortunate error, but one that should take nothing away from two stellar qualifying laps from both George and Kimi.

Kimi Continues Upward Curve

The number next to Kimi’s name at the chequered flag may not have suggested so, but this was another important weekend in his development as an F1 driver.

Three tenths off pole on just his fourth weekend on the grid was very impressive and kept up his run of qualifying higher up the grid with each passing Grand Prix. P16 in Australia became P8 in China, to P6 in Japan, and P4 in Bahrain.

Things became trickier on race day, and after an aggressive start, Kimi found himself struggling to maintain his tyres in the heat of the Bahrain night.

That brought a three-stop into play, any advantage of which was negated further when the Safety Car allowed everyone else to switch to fresh rubber at the same time later in the race.

All in all, this is one Kimi will learn from. And we know he will.

Fred Fridays

Friday saw the team use the first of two mandatory rookie FP1 sessions for 2025, with George vacating his seat in W16 for our Test and Reserve Driver, Fred Vesti.

Having done more laps than anyone else in our team around Bahrain (including pre-season testing!) in our Brackley simulator, this was the perfect time to use Fred’s expertise to set us up perfectly for the weekend ahead.

Twenty-six tours later, and Fred’s first laps behind the wheel of W16 were complete.

“It was awesome to be back in the paddock and working with the team this weekend, said Fred.

“I was really happy to be back in the car – it felt really good to challenge myself and to push to the limit.”

Toto also took time to praise the Dane on his cool down lap at the end of FP1.

“Fred, that was an excellent job. Thank you!”

High Performance in High Temperatures

Working four straight days in the heat of Bahrain is one thing, but try doing that without the luxury of air conditioning for the majority of that time.

Then factor in thick fireproof overalls, too. A huge shoutout to the mechanics and crew in the garage, who worked tirelessly to deliver another seamless weekend in some of the hottest temperatures of the season.

From the 35°C of Thursday’s day-time FP1, to the ‘cooler’ 26°C of Sunday evening’s race – there was little respite from the heat in Sakhir!