F1 pre-season ranked - who performed best in Bahrain?

Sergio Perez tijdens de wintertestdagen — Photo: © LAT Images

Formula 1

F1 pre-season ranked - who performed best in Bahrain?

GPFans ranks the teams from who had the best weekend of testing down to the team that struggled the most

Ewan Gale

Monday 15 March 2021 18:20 Updated: 18:40

5. Ferrari

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Ferrari may not have set the timing screens alight, but there is definitely cause for optimism at the Scuderia.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz raked in the laps - the third most of any team during the test - whilst the new power unit seemed to take a step in the right direction.

There were issues that the team will have to work on over the next two weeks, but that is what testing is for. No one can expect miracles in a largely stagnant two-season run, so the steps made seem to be as much as could be asked for.

4. Alfa Romeo

Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi hardly put a foot wrong all weekend. The team completed more laps than anyone else with 422, whilst the pair were consistently in the top six of the timesheets throughout.

The new front-end shown on the C41 looks to have worked as desired, with the only reason the team is not higher up this list is the fact a portion of its progress is down to the Ferrari engine.

Regardless, the Swiss-Italian outfit definitely looks to have made a step forward.

3. AlphaTauri

AlphaTauri appears to be one of the teams that has made the most progress with its AT02. Pierre Gasly looked as assured as ever behind the wheel whilst Japanese rookie Yuki Tsunoda asserted himself as a star of the future.

Tsunoda jostled with Verstappen on the final evening during qualifying simulation runs to finish second quickest to the Dutchman, whilst the team was also second in the table of total laps completed with 421.

Oh, the team runs a high-rake car concept which looks to be the way to go with this year's aerodynamic.

2. McLaren

In theory, McLaren should have been the team with the most workload in testing, and we were expecting to see some issues as the Mercedes power unit married with the MCL35M chassis for the first time in relative anger.

But in reality, it was a nigh-on perfect weekend for last year's third-place finisher and with plenty of pace displayed by both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, there seems nothing to suggest the team cannot repeat last season's successes.

1. Red Bull

It is hard to disagree with anyone who will say Red Bull had the strongest three days. Verstappen was quickest overall and Perez had his own moment of glory on Sunday morning.

But away from timings, the RB16B looks stable and planted, a far cry from the concerns created by a so-called tricky rear-end in the previous two seasons.

So strong was this team that many have touted Red Bull as favourites for the season-opener at the same venue.