Ferrari Not Yet Dominating Red Bull & Mercedes, Says Windsor

Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes neck-and-neck heading into Australian GP

Formula 1’s competitive landscape is tighter than many think as teams head to Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix.

Despite what some pundits are claiming after Bahrain testing, Peter Windsor doesn’t see Ferrari pulling ahead of Red Bull and Mercedes just yet.

“I would not have said, based on what we saw, that Ferrari are more likely to be ahead of Red Bull than Mercedes,” Windsor explained during a recent YouTube livestream.

The 2024 season started with Red Bull’s dominance, but their advantage evaporated as the year progressed. McLaren and Ferrari closed the gap dramatically, with McLaren eventually clinching the constructors’ championship.

Now everyone’s wondering if Red Bull will start 2025 on the back foot.

After three days in the Bahrain desert, many observers placed McLaren at the front of the pack. Ferrari appeared to have a slight edge over Red Bull and Mercedes.

Windsor disagrees with this assessment.

“They looked pretty good, but I thought Red Bull looked pretty good too, and I thought Mercedes looked pretty good too,” he said. “It’s getting pretty very between those three.”

He also cautioned against reading too much into McLaren’s test performance.

“A lot of people saying how well McLaren are going to go. They didn’t actually go that well in the test, did they? But that doesn’t mean anything.”

Testing results can be misleading. Teams run different fuel loads, test various components, and follow completely different programs. The stopwatch doesn’t tell the whole story.

One thing seems certain though – we’re in for an incredibly tight battle at the front of the grid when racing begins in Australia.