Our bold predictions for the Bahrain Grand Prix

After a slog in Japan, Formula 1 is heading off to Bahrain for the second race of F1 2025’s first triple header. But what can we expect?

The staff here at PlanetF1.com have a few ideas, and we’re sharing our boldest ones here with you. Got a bold prediction of your own? Drop it in the comments!

A strong return for Liam Lawson

By Elizabeth Blackstock

Liam Lawson is due for a good race, and I think he’ll have one in Bahrain.

He fumbled the start of the season with Red Bull Racing, resulting in a demotion back to Racing Bulls that saw him run a difficult race in Japan thanks to a pit strategy that just didn’t work. But I still think Lawson has plenty of fight in him, and we’ll see it in Bahrain.

The Kiwi driver has competed at Bahrain in Formula 1, and with strong results: One sprint win, one sprint podium, and one feature podium. He had a chance to test at Bahrain before the start of the 2025 season (albeit in the RB21). And he’ll be hungry to remind the naysayers that he’s a formidable player in the F1 paddock.

Now, I won’t be so bold as to predict a podium for Lawson, but I do think we’ll see him finishing well in the points, ahead of teammate Isack Hadjar.

Carlos Sainz scores his first true Williams top 10

By Jamie Woodhouse

It has been a torrid start to F1 2025 and to Williams life for Carlos Sainz, but I’ll back him to boost himself with a top 10 finish in Bahrain, where only a month-and-a-half go, he set the fastest time of pre-season testing.

Sure, Sainz has already scored his first Williams point, but that was only after Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly were all disqualified in China, Sainz going through an unexpectedly challenging adaptation to Williams after joining from Ferrari.

But, with the Spaniard having made reference to how it was all going so well through the 2024 post-season Abu Dhabi test and then Bahrain pre-season, a return to a track that Sainz knows he can feel comfortable around in a Williams could well spark the breakthrough and confidence lift he so desperately needs.

As for where he will finish in the top 10, it will not be easy, with Racing Bulls looking so strong early doors, but I reckon Sainz will sneak in at P10.

More F1 2025 analysis:

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Sainz to out-qualify and out-race Albon for the first time

By Henry Valantine

Okay, maybe I went a bit too bold with going for Yuki Tsunoda to earn a podium at Suzuka – let me reel it back slightly this weekend.

Sticking with the Carlos Sainz theme, he has spoken positively about the changes he has looked to implement in his short time with Williams so far, adjusting his driving style somewhat at Suzuka in the hope of the best result.

He has been out-qualified by Alex Albon at every opportunity so far in 2025, and finished behind him every time so far as well, but I reckon this could be the first time we see the real Carlos Sainz show up at Bahrain.

It has to be said that Albon has been excellent since his new team-mate has arrived, but with the gap between them at half a tenth in Q2 at Suzuka, he’ll have to stay on his game to stay ahead.

Lando Norris to win with a 20-second gap to the first non-McLaren driver

By Oliver Harden

So how far ahead are McLaren in real terms? What’s their true pace advantage over the rest?

Even with three races already completed, still we don’t have a firm answer to 2025’s biggest question.

First there was the rain in Australia to keep things close, then there was the need to preserve the tyres (and manage Lando Norris’s late brake issue) in China.

And then, at Suzuka, Max Verstappen did what Max Verstappen does.

George Russell is among those convinced that we haven’t seen “the best of McLaren yet”, tipping the team to move to another level of dominance as the calendar moves to warmer climes starting in Bahrain.

It was here in pre-season testing just six weeks ago that Norris’s long run late on the second of three days put the fear of God into the opposition to cement McLaren’s status as pre-season favourites.

Historically strong here personally – this was the scene of his only F2 win on debut in 2018, his first F1 points finish in 2019 and his first punch to Daniel Ricciardo’s gut in 2021 – if he keeps his composure Norris should have the measure of Oscar Piastri in Sakhir.

Expect a winning margin comparable to Max Verstappen’s Bahrain GP victories in 2023/24 and up there with Lando’s best drives (Zandvoort, Singapore) of 2024.

Read next: F1 2025 power rankings: Who are the best performers on this year’s grid?