Longhaul Tyke: Sufficient fuel to race all the way, get rid of blue flags, get rid of DRS, reduce the size of front wings, introduce competition between tyre suppliers, points for pole position, all teams to receive the same payments (Ferrari!), reduce costs to encourage more teams to enter.

Stephen_LFC: Improve F1? Half points for qualifying, reverse grid positions for the points positions (top 10) on the grid and remaining 1/2 points for race positions. Mercedes and Ferrari starting behind Red Bull and Fernando Alonso almost every race!

Daniel Eckersley‏: How to improve F1? Make it more like Indycar - cars that can overtake, multi-stop races, more spec parts for closer grids, and old-school circuits that punish drivers.

Only seven minutes left of practice one. Max Verstappen has not set a time, and won't be. An electrical failure is the official diagnosis to his problem.

But it is not all doom and gloom for Red Bull fans.

Daniel Ricciardo has just gone fastest. We wanted a three-way battle between the big three teams. Maybe, just maybe we will get that. Red Bull first, Mercedes second (Bottas), Ferrari third and fourth (Raikkonen and Vettel), Mercedes fifth (Hamilton).

Ricciardo's time to beat is a 1:31.060, three tenths quicker than Bottas.

We mentioned Max Verstappen grinding to a halt very early in this session.

And here it is, courtesy of the official Formula 1 Twitter feed, as he suffered the worst possible start to the weekend.

BBC Sport app users may need to click on the link to see the clip.

We will be seeing an Aston Martin team in Formula 1 in the future?

Andy Palmer, chief executive of Aston Martin, says they are "extremely pleased to hear today's news regarding the future of Formula One" and say it is "a very positive step".

BBC Sport app users may need to click on the link to see the tweet.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

Image source, Getty Images

Formula 1 is pressing ahead with plans to introduce a budget cap in 2021 as part of wide-ranging plans to make the sport more attractive.

Owners Liberty Media presented more detail on their plans to the teams at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday. A budget cap of around $150m is central to the aim to close up the field, along with more equitable prize money distribution and technical changes. Title contenders Mercedes and Ferrari have so far not responded to the plans.

Bob Fernley, deputy team principal of independents Force India, said: "It is a constructive programme. Liberty are going around getting the individual teams' opinions and putting it together collectively into what they believe is the best way forward for F1 for the future, whereas in the past it was a very divisive process.

"I can see the direction they are going in and from an independent team's point of view, it's very encouraging.

"At least four teams - Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren - will have to make some adjustments. But they are keeping everybody on board with that process."

Ok, so who predicted the fastest through the speed trap would be a Toro Rosso and then a Sauber?

Pierre Gasly sixth quickest overall with Marcus Ericsson down in 16th overall.

Image source, F1

Sebastian Vettel, championship leader, is on a flyer on the soft tyres, but it is only good enough for third at the moment.

His Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen is second, Valtteri Bottas still leads the times.

Only 0.106 seconds separate the top three. Just under 20 minutes to go, and we are expecting Lewis Hamilton to be back out there again challenging those.

Image source, Reuters

Kimi Raikkonen, back out on the soft tyres, splits the Mercedes pair and goes second. Valtteri Bottas is still fastest, with Lewis Hamilton in third place. Just over 20 minutes left of this practice session.

Image source, Reuters

Matthew Taylor‏: Sounds to me like the 2021 proposals are aspirational at best. Relatively minor changes, some of which appear contradictory - differentiated, road relevant, cheap, state-of-the-art... sounds too good to be achievable, with F1 teams anyway.

Calvin MUFC Dolan: Scrap grid penalties maybe have like five seconds added to end of race time. No team orders let the drivers trace not being made to let this team mates past if they're good enough they'll find a way fairly.

Jonathan Powell‏: Racing would be helped by restricting front wing aero, making tyres narrower, removing the need to use two tyre compounds in race.

Scotia: F1 is very easy to fix - stop creating dirty air with ridiculous aerodynamics to allow cars to close on competitors.

As soon as I write it, it changes. Both Mercedes are on the softs still. Lewis Hamilton regains the top spot, but Valtteri Bottas, looking to erase that crash in Melbourne from his mind, gets everything right to throw down a lap of 1:31.364, more than nine tenths quicker than Hamilton. Lovely.

Lewis Hamilton is still on the softs unlike the Haas pair of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen on the super-softs.

Hamilton has a good first sector, but his front left tyre locks up at turn nine and he goes wide to make a mess of that lap.

Carlos Saniz's Renault was "an absolute mess" according to him early on. They have just stuck the super-soft tyres on him, and just like magic, he is now third, with Magnussen down to fourth.

Image source, Reuters

Longhaul Tyke: If F1 is to continue to attract interest then it needs to be available free-to-view on terrestrial TV. That's where new interest is garnered, not at the £££ tracks.

David Law: Scrap the limit on Engine Components. Seems to me they were introduced to cut costs but that seems a nonsense as they take their penalites and spend more building more engines. Increase Fuel tank capacity which would avoid "Lifting and Coasting".

Brian Green‏: How about an independents championship for non manufacturer run teams?

Steiger: How about some sort of handicap system reflecting the budgets of #f1, external teams? It could be used to affect qualifying positions.

And the cars are back out there, with Kevin Magnussen, on the super-softs, moving third. Haas' improvements continue as Romain Grosjean, also on the super-softs is now the fastest man out there.

Hamilton's best times have come on the soft tyres though, but still, first and third so far for the American team. They'll take that.

Image source, F1

It is a clean sweep for Lewis Hamilton so far. Fastest in sector one, sector two, sector three, and therefore fastest overall with a lap of 1:32.532.

Image source, F1

A break in action with no cars out on the track. This is how they stand with just over 40 minutes of first practice left.

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
3. Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren)
4. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
5. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
6. Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso)
7. Romain Grosjean (Haas)
8. Nico Hulkenberg (Renault)
9. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
10. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
11. Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
12. Lance Stroll (Williams)
13. Esteban Ocon (Force India)
14. Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso)
15. Sergio Perez (Force India)
16. Sergey Sirotkin (Williams)
17. Charles Leclerc (Sauber)
18. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber)
19. Carlos Sainz (Renault)
20. Max Verstappen (Red Bull, no time)

Kayleigh‍: Prize monies for everyone. Oh you attended all 21races? Fantastic, here’s 10mil. - Financial penalties instead of grid places if it’s the teams fault. - FP shakeup. (I haven’t thought more on this, come back to me) - all races on Free to View TV!

gsc29: A simple way to improve F1 is to have a graded start grid, best drivers start last, slower drivers start at front. It works with other motorsport, and would make the races unpredictable and exciting and provide more winners which would give the smaller teams more revenue.

Matthew Bradshaw: F1 needs to improve its coverage and use of social media similar to what NFL does - more behind the scenes programmes to cover the gaps between races, use the website to provide technical analysis by experts, and strengthen its social media coverage of the sport.

Richard Schunemann: To improve F1 first of all I would tell Mercedes and Ferrari to fall into line or go away. Then do what they plan and do it properly!! Merc and Ferrari are NOT F1.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

While McLaren are introducing here much of the remainder of the aerodynamic upgrade that was originally planned for Australia - new flow-shaping devices, etc - their partners/rivals Renault have what they call a “relatively lighter programme of test items”.

This includes a new fairing on the halo head-protection device and some “aero tweaks” around the back of the car.

There is no messing about from Carlos Sainz. No mixed messages to his team.

"The car is an absolute mess," he says bluntly. The times show that too, as he is in 19th and last of the 19 to have set a time so far.

Ever get the feeling it is not going to be your weekend?

This is what happened to Max Verstappen after only 10 minutes of the first practice session. Ground to a halt after losing power, and then having to get out and push his car home. Not ideal.

Image source, Getty Images