A new dawn is breaking at Mercedes in Formula 1. After finishing a distant second to Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship in 2023, Mercedes slipped to fourth in the standings last year. This came despite both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell reaching the top step of the podium,

Lewis Hamilton did more than a full race distance on his first day of testing for Ferrari on Wednesday but Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli, his replacement at Mercedes, topped the opening session timesheets and did the most mileage.

George Russell insists he will know “within five laps” of testing whether he can win the F1 world championship this year. The Mercedes driver, who is entering his fourth year with the team but first without Lewis Hamilton as a teammate,

Lando Norris was fastest and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton 13th as Formula 1 teams had to deal with a power outage that disrupted preseason testing.

Title favourite Lando Norris was fastest for Formula One champions McLaren after a power cut disrupted the first day of pre-season testing in Bahrain on Wednesday. The session was extended by an hour into the evening after the outage,

McLaren's Lando Norris topped the times in Formula One pre-season testing on Wednesday, the first of three days in Bahrain punctured by a power outage that left the pitlane and circuit in darkness. But even so on the evidence of day one's testing the 75th anniversary season could be one to remember with less than one second covering the top seven drivers.