Ranked: The F1 teams on 2024 pre-season testing form

The 10 Formula 1 teams had different objectives for last week's pre-season test in Bahrain, but plenty could still be deduced about their performances. Here we consider who fared best and worst

Formula 1 testing in 2024 ended differently. There was to be little of the final-hour action that had become something worth watching in previous years – teams finally switching to performance running through those typical caveats on fuel loads and engine modes. Think Lewis Hamilton spinning while preparing for a C5 flier in 2021. Or Max Verstappen doing likewise a year later and still taking that set to the top spot.

This year’s event’s top time came via Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz – a 1m29.921s set on the C4s. But the Spaniard was running with three hours to go on the second day. Given his team-mate Charles Leclerc was running slightly later and into falling temperatures when he went second quickest overall on the final day, which Leclerc topped, it seems the track was at something of a peak when Sainz registered the best time.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.