Carlos Sainz Jr. remains the king of F1 testing

For the second season in a row, Carlos Sainz Jr. stands atop the Formula 1 pre-season testing timing sheets.

A year ago Sainz posted the fastest time at Bahrain International Circuit, topping the board with a lap time of 1:29.921. Sainz banked that lap in his final season for Ferrari, before joining Williams for the 2025 campaign.

But despite the team change, the Spanish driver led the way this year, putting in a lap of 1:29.348, 0.573 seconds faster than his effort a season ago. Behind Sainz in second and third? None other than the Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

“We did some progress compared to yesterday, improving the balance of the car,” said Sainz following his laps on Thursday, his final day in the FW47 this week.

“I feel as ready as I can be with a day-and-a-half of testing and we will try and push flat out in Australia.”

You can see the telemetry data from Sainz’s lap here, courtesy of F1 Tempo. As you can see the lap seems to have come during some qualifying simulations, with Sainz building on one lap, pushing on the next, and then cooling down on the third:

It is also worth noting, as always, that pre-season testing data is to be taken with a grain of salt.

Still, Sainz followed his strong performance in testing a year ago with an equally impressive season at Ferrari. He secured a win at the Australian Grand Prix — coming in the wake of an emergency appendectomy that kept him out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix — and scored nine podium finishes, helping Ferrari finish second to McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship.

For those believing Sainz will return to the podium in his first season with Williams, you are likely heartened by these results in Bahrain, even with the obligatory grain of salt.