2025 Season: Pecking order discussion

[Cs98]

After day 1 mine is:
1. McL
2. RB
3. Merc
4. Ferrari
5. Alpine
6. AMR

List yours.

[SB15]

I’m going

1. McLaren
2. Redbull/Mercedes
3. Ferrari
4. Williams/Aston

[Chuckjr]

1. Macca/Red Bull
3. Merc
4. Ferrari
5. AM/Williams
7. Alpine

[pantherxxx]

1. Verstappen
2. Mclaren
3. Red Bull
4. Ferrari
5. Mercedes
6. Aston

[selvam_e2002]

1. Verstappen
2. Mclaren
3. Red Bull
4. Ferrari
5. Mercedes
6. Aston

I don't recall any team named Verstappen in entire F1.

[continuum16]

After day 1:
1 - McLaren: Looks balanced and lap time looked effortless in the afternoon. Low deg in long runs. Ominous.

2 - Red Bull: Looks less balanced than McL but lap times were still good. Maybe with balance changes could be even faster than McL. Low deg in long runs. Bahrain has been good for them in the past so might be too optimistic.

3 - Ferrari: Looks more balanced than RB but not McL; Long runs less encouraging. Ultimate speed is a mystery.

4 - Mercedes: Might be competitive here, but I reckon on a hot day/night they will struggle like last year. Long runs inconsistent; some good some less so.

(some gap)

5 - Williams: Looked inconsistent but with high potential. Not many long runs but seems OK. Historically runs a bit lighter than the field so who knows. Could be down a few spots.

6 - Haas: Ultimate pace is a mystery but some long runs were really good; deg comparable to some Ferrari or Merc long runs. With no fast times it is not possible to tell if this is because the car is light or not.

7 - Aston: Looks OK on track but so few laps compared to the rest it is hard to see long run pace. The 6-8 lap runs from ALO and STR were inconsistent. Biggest mystery IMO.

8 - Alpine: Seems like it is decently balanced; degradation was OK but not great. Not much to say. 5th-8th seems very close.

(some gap)

9 - Racing Bulls: Car that looked the most twitchy from onboards and the laptimes were not remarkable. Not as understeery as 2022 but same relative position compared to the field IMO.

10 - Sauber: Last few Saubers have looked well-balanced but slow. This one looks less balanced but seemingly no faster. Historically run lighter in testing than most and still only ahead of Haas who only ran high fuel. Basically last year again.

[TeamKoolGreen]

1. McLaren , Red Bull
2. Mercedes , Ferrari

3. Alpine, Aston Martin, RB , Williams

4. Haas , Sauber

The RB is even more obviously a Red Bull car. The team just can't seem to take a step. They were closer to Red Bull in 2021 than they have been since

[SirBastianVettel]

1. McLaren
2-4. Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull

[f1isgood]

McLaren
Ferrari/Red Bull/Mercedes

McLaren looks most stable from what I have seen.

[dren]

Verstappen
Williams
AM
Haas
Red Bull
Ferrari
Mclaren
RB
Sauber
Mercedes

[McLarenHonda]

Red Bull are quite fast without even touching a single surface on their car! So with the rumored update they’ll be ahead I think! So:

1. Red Bull
2. McLaren
3. Ferrari
4. Mercedes
5. Aston Martin

[Cs98]

So the rough averages for the race sims.

Lando.
Stint 1 (C3): 35,5s
Stint 2 (C1): 34,4s
Stint 3 (C2): 33,0s

Leclerc
Stint 1 (C3): 35,8s
Stint 2 (C2): 34,7s
Stint 3 (C1): 34,1s

[Raleigh]

1) Mclaren
2) Ferrari
3) Mercedes
4) Red Bull
5) Williams?

McLaren seems to have a slight edge over Ferrari.

Mercedes and Red Bull clearly not quite up there.

Aston and Alpine really not doing much of anything, might have been jumped by Williams who look quite impressive.

And then the usual backmarker trio.

[FittingMechanics]

1. McLaren
2. Mercedes
3. Ferrari
4. Red Bull (Verstappen will be able to over achieve).

Red Bull is a question mark for me as they were on a different run plan and hard to judge. I am putting them 4th due to their car being only slightly updated visually.

[djones]

1. McLaren
2. Redbull
3. Ferrari
4. Mercedes
5. Aston

Watching the front wings moving, I’d then say after they change the wing rules:

1. Ferrari
2. Mercedes
3. Redbull
4. McLaren
5. Aston