Despite the blackouts at the Bahrain International Circuit, which caused a long delay during the afternoon session, the first day of testing before Formula one season is in the book.
At Haas, it was the “positive” first day.
Haas, along with Sauber, was one of the teams, defeating the all-new driver lineup for the 2025 Formula 1 season. Like Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg, who is out to Sauber this year, is gone. This year, Haas will be paired with veteran Esteban Ocon and rookie Oliver Baerman, who drove in place of Magnussen in his duties as the team's reserve driver in two Haas races last season.
Bearman was the first to get up at Haas and was driving for the morning session. He dropped 72 laps on the VF-25 and posted the best lap time of 1:35.522. According to the team, Bearman has put together “a series of baseline runs and final outings of C2 compounds on Pirelli's C3 tires.”
The rookie's 72 lap was the second most on the grid in the morning session, with only Andrea Akimian Tonelli, a fellow Mercedes (78) and driver Yuki Tsunoda (78) of Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, at the top.
Ocon took over the afternoon session. This was interrupted by a long red flag due to a power outage. He completed 88 laps with a best time of 1:33.600, and the team reported his lap total was “the best individual driver lap count of the day.”
Lap times were seen The heartth behind the gridOcon's time put him in 19th place and Bareman's 20th place. Still, it's important to remember to intake lap times during pre-season testing, as teams run different programs, test different setups and use different fuel loads.
Both drivers reported that their run plans were going as they wanted and could be built on the first day of their work in Bahrain.
“It's so nice to be back in the team and back in the car as the first day in Bahrain is complete. It's the first time I've been on track with Bahrain and it's a new beast in Formula 1, so it's really good.” “We've got over the entire Lampran, as we'd hoped. The results were as expected. We're learning about the car and its characteristics. We're looking forward to testing the limits in the next two days.”
“It was a very solid day. There was a lot of learning that happened today, both on my side and on Ollie, as it was the first time we've experienced a car in good condition,” said veteran Ocon. “It was a good day as we completed the run program. We focused on long-term performance – it was obvious – it was very interesting. A lot of data has been collected and I'll be back tomorrow morning.”
Team principal Ayao Komatsu showed that Haas not only completed the “whole program” but also “find some answers” during both sessions.
“It was mainly a good day. We completed the entire program, did what we needed and found some answers we needed. Both drivers had a very good day, reaching a lot of laps,” Komatsu reported. “We've made a lot of changes to the staff of the race team, but we felt the communication and teamwork across the team was very good. So we've got a positive start to pre-season tests from us.”
Both drivers will be active in Bahrain on Thursday, with Ocon handling the morning shifts and Bearman taking over for the afternoon session.
