Explained: Key car concepts in garages of McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes

Breaking down the car concepts of F1's top four te𝐆ams for 2025 season

Ferrari and McLaren
Ferrari and McLaren

F1’s front-r🧸unning teams have displayed some potentially game😼-changing innovations to their cars at 2025 pre-season testing.

McLaren, 💧Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes have all made differing decisions to iron out the🐭 unique flaws on their machines ahead of the new season.

Those fundamental tweaks and♎ concept designs have 🃏been noticeable at pre-season testing in Bahrain.

McLaren

McLaren
McLaren

“It’s a sensible car, an aggressive car,” Sky Sports’ T𝓀ed Kravitz reported from outside their garage in Bahrain.

“Basically a more aggressive version of last year’s c꧙ar.

“It looks like they’ve made progress. It looks like they’re maki💎ng the best car, in terms of the constructors’ championship last year, even better.

“They worked on slow speed corners, high speed corners, and making the car 🔥quicker in the DRS.

“The front of the car doesn’t look dramatically different but the rear is n🍰icely packa꧑ged.

“From the front? Other teams are doing different things with their design but McLaren look ꦰlike they’re making the best package - which won the last race at Abu Dhabi in 2024 - even better.”

Ferrari

Ferrari
Ferrari

“Lewis Hamilton is happy with the car, he says they’ve got the ingr𝓰edients to be a winning team and challenge for the championship,” Kravitz said while studying the SF-25.

“It’s a completely new car. The susp🌠ension is rethought completely.

“They’ve gone from a push rod suspension to a pull rod ꦚsuspension.

“They felt like they’d hit the ceiling with what they ha♍d before, so they🌊’ve gone down a completely new mechanical concept.

“Will that mean it takes time to get it sorted💧 out? Maybe. In that time, will McLaren ♔win races? Maybe.

“Or, will Ferrari get on top of their new design early eno꧅𝕴ugh to win in Melbourne?”

Red Bull

Red Bull
Red Bull

“Talking about teams going down the wrong route then reversing out, that’s exactly what has happened at Red Bull Racing,” Kravitz said as he looked at the RB21.

“They have abandoned the RB20 which caused Max Verstappen so many issues with understeer, and 🅷not having a good balance.

“They reversed ou♏t of that cul-de-sac and have gone down a new path in terms of trying to get the car to be more predictable.

“Will it push t♊hem back a bit? Yes. But it could lead, later on, to a better car than they had last season, a happier Verstappen and Liam Lawson, so they could challenge for wins later on.”

Mercedes

Mercedes
Mercedes

“Fourth time lucky on the ground-effect rules for Mercedes? Surely they’ve got it right this t👍ime,” wondered Kravitz as he s﷽tudied the W16.

“They didn’t get it right in 2022, 2023 or 2024.

“They tried to address the reluctance o✱f their car turning into slow corners, and calming down the randomness of their tyres working in the right temperatures or not, which saw🍰 them winning races some weekends and touching the midfield in others.”

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