Fresh from four days of number crunching, Formula 1’s 11 teams were back at the Bahrain International Circuit for the first of just three more days of pre-season testing before we get the 2026 show on the road in Australia. While several teams had a few issues, others started to stretch their legs a little.
Ferrari’s form gets people talking
Ferrari have gone under the radar a little in pre-season testing, with rival Mercedes saying Red Bull are favourites while Red Bull were calling the Silver Arrows the ones to beat – but on Day 1 in Bahrain, the Italians joined the party with an impressive showing.
The Scuderia brought a neat little wing that sat behind the exhaust in a bid to add more downforce and stability. It’s one of a number of new parts they are expected to bring to Bahrain this week as they finalise their ‘race one’ spec car for the opener in Australia.
Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton lost around 90 minutes of track time in the afternoon while the team sorted an issue, but he was able to get back out for the final hour or so of running before the FIA carried out a start procedure test.
Speaking in the official press conference, Hamilton cut an optimistic and positive figure who said he is hopeful this year will be stronger – and that this year’s machine has some of his DNA in it as he was able to contribute during the design process.
Having consistently said they were only focusing on reliability in the first test, the team started the search for performance on Wednesday – and the early signs were encouraging. There’s still a long way to go yet, but Ferrari certainly look like they’re in the mix.
“I feel like we’ve made progress compared to last week and I’m continuing to build my understanding of the car,” said Hamilton at the end of the day. “We’re still working on fine-tuning the balance, but we’re moving in the right direction.”
Mercedes still look very impressive
George Russell set the pace on Wednesday – and while the timesheets don’t mean much because everyone is running such different programmes, it’s undeniable that the Silver Arrows looks like a very strong package out on track.
It was a smoother day for Kimi Antonelli, who has been at the wheel when Mercedes have suffered the bulk of their problems in pre-season, with the Italian clocking 69 laps – just nine shy of his more experienced team mate’s tally.
Mercedes brought new parts to the W17, with trackside chief Andrew Shovlin saying “they seem to be doing what we hoped” as they worked through a programme of set-up changes. Encouragingly for them, Shovlin said they have been able to “keep the car in a good window” and keep degradation “under control”.
Naturally, they are still keeping their expectations in check, but providing they continue to run reliably over the next two days to complete their programme, it feels certain they’ll be among the frontrunners in Melbourne.
McLaren deliver productive day of running
Reigning World Champions McLaren had a productive day of running in Bahrain, with champion Lando Norris and team mate Oscar Piastri splitting the running between them.
McLaren, like all their rivals, are keeping their cards close to their chest regarding their relative performance, but the feeling is they are inside the top-four teams, albeit probably not on top.
Both Norris and Piastri reported to be feeling more comfortable in the car, as they managed 124 laps between them as they focused on a variety of short and long runs while exploring different power unit modes.
Performance chief Mark Temple said the team are “still learning with each lap, but that’s a good sign that we’re making solid progress” as they look to unlock further gains in the remaining two days.
Haas continue encouraging start to testing
Haas have been quietly very impressive throughout pre-season, the American team running reliably straight out of the box – and when niggles have occured, they’ve done a good job of reacting very quickly to minimise the loss of track time.
Boss Ayao Komatsu said the team learned “quite a lot” on Day 1 of the second test and that the team have a “pretty clear direction in terms of what we need to do to improve the car”. He also praised the Ferrari Power Unit and energy management.
The team ran a suite of new parts, as they continue to evolve their package ready to tackle the first race of he season – and the feedback from both Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman is that, as the car has changed, the feeling has continuously improved.
It’s still too hard to tell anything definitively but, in talking to senior sources, the feeling is that Haas are comfortably in the midfield at the very least.
Cadillac endure interrupted day of running
Cadillac have done an impressive job to get a very tidy car to the Barcelona Shakedown before building on their learning in last week’s pre-season test in Bahrain, even if they did suffer a series of niggles during those three days in the desert.
But the second test got off to a difficult start as a series of issues limited their running to just 59 laps across the day, split between Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas.
Perez lost some time at the start of the day while the team resolved a sensor issue – and then when he got running again to focus on tyre evaluation, running different fuel levels and performance work, some of those runs were affected by a loss of telemetry.
When Bottas got in the car in the afternoon, he carried out a similar programme – but he could only add a further 35 laps to Perez’s tally, leaving the American squad keen to bounce back over the final two days in the hope of some smoother running.
