This Test – Bahrain Two (20/02/2026)
Hello, the second pre‑season test in Bahrain offered the clearest picture yet of how teams are adapting to radical 2026 regulations. Across three days of running, patterns began to emerge, not only in outright pace, but in reliability and the evolving competitive order. The true competitive order will only become evident once racing begins in Melbourne.
Are the favourites Mercedes fast but fragile when it comes to reliability? These regulations may have delivered from the off, with it looking to be possibly a four-way fight? Ferrari and McLaren might be quiet, but does that come with confidence? Three tests are complete, going back a year, we said, “We could have a great season if testing comes true,” but then McLaren dominated early on…
General News
The five power unit manufacturers are set to vote on a proposed tweak to how engine compression ratios are measured, which could come into force over the summer break. This season, the compression ratio has been cut from 18:1 to 16:1, there have been concerns that Mercedes has found a way around it.
That compression ratio has always been measured at ambient temperature when the engine isn’t running, so it doesn’t account for any material expansion under heat when cars are running out on track.
A group of rival manufacturers, understood to be led by Audi, has been worried about Mercedes coming up with a trick to increase the compression ratio closer to 18:1 when the car is actually running, while still complying with the static test, which some OEMs are worried could bake in a significant horsepower advantage.
Mercedes and customers McLaren, Alpine and Williams would be compromised if there were to be changes to the regulations. One compromise would be to introduce additional hot tests over the summer break or ahead of the 2027 season instead, with the former solution now the subject of a vote, proposing an additional mandatory test at 130 degrees to be introduced from 1 August 2026. This would require a supermajority of four votes between the manufacturers, the FIA and Liberty.
A statement said, “Over recent weeks and months, the FIA and the Power Unit Manufacturers have collaboratively developed a methodology to quantify how the compression ratio changes from ambient to operating conditions.”
“Following validation of this approach, a proposal has been submitted whereby, from 1 August 2026, compliance with the compression ratio limit must be demonstrated not only at ambient conditions, but also at a representative operating temperature of 130°C.”
F1 is actively looking at doubling the number of sprint races to cover half of the season, as well as other changes to the format for 2027. Liberty Media has been keen to expand the number of sprint races for a while as it has found they lead to more interest from fans, broadcasters and race promoters, even if they place a bigger burden on the drivers and teams.
One of the motivating factors is to add a meaningful and competitive action to each day of the weekend, rather than two practice sessions, similar to F2 and F3. F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali told reporters, “The reason why we started to discuss the number of sprints and maybe some different format is because of the feedback we received from the fans, the promoters, that people want to see real action during the three days, so already on Friday people want to see something sporting – qualifying or whatever it is.”
“Even if it is not a sprint weekend, there is a trend of [wanting to have] something different. We’re thinking to keep every day we are on track relevant.”
However, FOM is aware that adding competitive action to more Fridays would pose a problem for inexperienced rookie drivers, so one of the ideas is to allow them additional practice time.
Barcelona will remain on the calendar in rotation with Spa until 2032 after signing a three-race deal over the next six years. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya lost the rights to the Spanish Grand Prix in 2024 to Madrid, and many believed the race wouldn’t be retained.
The Barcelona race will rotate with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, which last year was confirmed as a host for 2027, 2029 and 2031, along with this season. The Barcelona event has been renamed the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, having lost its previous Spanish Grand Prix title to the Madrid race.
A previous rotation deal with Valencia never materialised after the city withdrew a year into the deal, and it remained in Barcelona until 2025.
Barcelona has gone into the final year of its existing contract and has been under severe pressure to invest in its outdated facilities and safeguard its place on the calendar. Its infrastructure dates back to the 1992 Olympic and Paralympic Games, while the regional government has been keen to invest.
Spa is set to welcome F1 in 2027, 2029 and 2031, while Barcelona will take over the same slot in 2028, 2030 and 2032. The deal looks set to all but end Spa’s hopes of negotiating a full-time deal for the time being, with Belgian promoters having attempted to turn their alternating role back into a yearly race. Both circuits will host this season.
Pol Gibert, CEO of Circuits de Catalunya, said, “This renewal is the result of a strong relationship and close collaboration and represents a very important step in further consolidating Catalonia as a key fixture on the international calendar.”
“Formula 1 generates an economic impact of more than €300 million per edition, but above all it is a strategic event that helps project Catalonia worldwide as a country capable of hosting top-level sporting competitions.”
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali added. “Barcelona is an incredible city, and the Formula 1 fans there always welcome us with such passion, so I am delighted that we will continue to race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for years to come.”
“The team have invested heavily in the circuit and hosted fantastic fan festivals in recent years, so we look forward to seeing how they continue to develop the experience, both for attendees at the race and for the city as a whole.
The producer of the Lewis Hamilton / Brad Pitt F1 movie, Jerry Bruckheimer, has told the BBC that a sequel is in the works. The film is nominated for four Oscars this year – including best picture. Pitt stars as veteran driver Sonny Hayes, who returns to the grid with the fictional team APXGP after a long absence, with Hamilton playing himself.
Speculation about a possible sequel has been circulating for months but had not previously been confirmed, including during Apple TV’s press day last week, where the film is streaming. At the annual Academy Awards luncheon in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Bruckheimer said, “We’re working on a sequel.”
The producer declined to give a timeline for the project or confirm casting details, including whether Pitt would reprise his role. But Bruckheimer added that he would “of course” be involved in casting decisions.
Released last summer, F1 grossed £467m worldwide, making it Apple Original Films’ most successful theatrical release to date. The production featured extensive filming during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, with scenes shot at multiple race weekends. =
The Aston Martin Vantage, which previously served as the safety car in the controversial 2021 season, has gone up for sale for £599,990 via Auto Trader. The car was driven by Bernd Mayländer in 34 races between 2021 and 2023.
The advert reveals that two of the three safety cars have become available for sale via the Silverstone outfit and have been signed by two-time champion Fernando Alonso and his Aston Martin F1 team-mate, Lance Stroll. “‘SC02’ VIN N00045, as you see here, has helped create a lot of sporting history, appearing at 20 Grand Prix between 2021 and 2023, totalling 4280km across track tests and race deployments for F1, F2, F3 and other support series,” the advert stated.
Events of that evening in Abu Dhabi when race director at the time, Michael Masi, ordered only the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen, who was in second place at the time, to unlap themselves rather than all lapped cars, so that racing could resume – a decision that has been a hot topic of debate ever since.
Verstappen, on newer tyres, made the most of the decision and overtook the seven-time champion to win the race and secure his first championship title.
Recap
Day One saw George Russell set a 33.459 to go a hundredth faster than Oscar Piastri. The top two set their fastest times during the afternoon session to push the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc off the top spot by a quarter of a second. Russell’s time was better than the fastest time set during last week’s first test by just over two tenths, set by teammate Kimi Antonelli on Friday, set during what will be the qualifying hour for the Grand Prix, which allowed him to pip Piastri.
Day Two, Antonelli set the fastest time with a 32.803 to put himself just under six hundredths faster than Piastri, with the fastest time of the five days of testing in Bahrain by six tenths. Antonelli’s outright fastest time was six and a half tenths faster than Russell’s. However, Piastri and Max Verstappen’s times came earlier in the afternoon, before what will be qualifying for the Grand Prix. The Dutchman’s third fastest time, three and a half seconds behind the Mercedes
Day Three, Charles Leclerc was fastest on the final day with a best time of 31.992, which put him eight and three-quarters tenths faster than McLaren’s Lando Norris. Leclerc set the fastest time of testing with a one-and-a-half-second improvement on the C3 harder medium tyre, but when he switched to the softer medium, he improved by a further three tenths. Verstappen put his Red Bull third, but despite appearing to push during the qualifying hour for the Grand Prix, the Red Bull-Ford power unit doesn’t yet appear to be a match for Ferrari or Mercedes.
McLaren
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has admitted Mercedes and Ferrari “were quicker than us” in race simulations at the first pre-season test in Bahrain, and also believes Red Bull will be in the mix. As teams dug into long runs on Thursday and Friday last week, the fog of war surrounding pre-season testing was lifted little by little.
Those long runs suggested at this stage that the traditional top four Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren remain unchanged and have a clear advantage over the other seven teams. But Mercedes and Red Bull look to be slightly further ahead.
Mercedes, with its early reliability in Barcelona’s shakedown, and Red Bull, with its impressive-looking energy deployment from 2026’s more powerful electric motor, are particularly commendable achievements given that they are first-time power unit manufacturers.
Ferrari has grabbed the headlines, too, but they haven’t been as impressive compared to Mercedes. Mercedes did hit reliability issues last week as well. Stella says both his former employer and Mercedes seem like a step ahead at this stage.
Stella said, “In terms of race pace, I can confirm that the race pace of Ferrari looks pretty competitive. In the simulation that Hamilton did, and then there was at the same time one from [Kimi] Antonelli and one from Oscar [Piastri]. I think Antonelli and Hamilton were quicker than us in the race simulation. I would say that the one from Charles [on Thursday’s] was quite competitive and at the same level as today’s simulations.”
But he reminded everyone to be careful, as we know there can be a lot of spin at this time of year and we need to be cautious to read into early indications from testing, they are just an indication of where the order is likely to be. Stella also feels Red Bull was “very well equipped”, so he doesn’t believe any of the traditional big four teams have missed the mark.
McLaren were another to be productive on day one, saying they are not expecting to be leading the pace but in the top four teams. Norris and Piastri reported feeling more comfortable in the car, as they managed 124 laps between them on day one, focusing 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.
The world champion has also tried to play down expectations, saying they don’t have the same advantage on the long run pace as in 2025. Speaking in the press conference, he said, “From what we see at the minute, no, I mean, last year we also had just a pace advantage. So going into the race, we could almost drive slower. Things worked better, and then we could drive quicker. At the minute, we’re a little bit off.”
“So, to match the race pace of some of the others, we have to push a bit more, and then we have more degradation. Not entirely, but I’m sure there are some things. I know there are some things that were our strengths last year that will continue to be our strengths this season.”
“But there’s a lot of work just to get the balance in a good window. The car worked very well last year. It was difficult to understand, but it worked well. And it’s still just very, very early days for this car at the minute.” I think reading between the lines, McLaren could be in the mix at the front still, but it’s still predictions, but I think that they are slightly behind unless we haven’t seen everything
Norris has reportedly broken up with Portuguese model and actress Magui Corceiro, barely a year after confirming their relationship. The rumours primarily stemmed from an official F1 video showing the drivers lining up for the traditional season-start grid photo ahead of 2026 testing.
In a clip where he’s chatting to Carlos Sainz, lipreaders’ alleged exchange between the two drivers went something like this:
Carlos: “You okay with Magui?
Lando: “We broke up.”
Carlos: “Really? Why?”
Lando: “It’s over.”
Carlos: “So you’re a single man now!”
The clip has exploded online, with fan pages and gossip accounts posting slowed-down versions and begging proper lip readers to confirm. The photographer Kym Illman addressed the situation in a recent social media video.
In his post, he said, “You’ll read about this in The Sun tomorrow, he has broken up with his girlfriend [Magui Corceiro]. You might’ve already heard rumours, but it is definitely true.” There has been no official confirmation, and there have been rumours about his sexuality because of a few comments and actions.
Mercedes
Mercedes, for what it’s worth, set the pace on Wednesday, further underlining their status as favourites, baring their reliability problems, 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.
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.
On the final day of testing, George Russell said the team needs to “keep on improving reliability” after three days of reliability problems. During the final morning of testing, teammate Kimi Antonelli stopped on the track due to a pneumatic issue, while the Italian also suffered some technical problems during the first test one week earlier.
Speaking to the media on Friday morning, Russell conceded that there have been strong points for Mercedes across the two tests but also acknowledged that there is room for improvement, particularly in terms of reliability.
He explained, during the press conference, “I think there definitely have been positives, but for every time there is an issue it does definitely set you back quite a lot. Unfortunately for Kimi this morning, he had an issue on track, and he lost a good couple of hours, and the first test in Bahrain last week, we also had quite a few issues.”
“There are positives to take – the car is feeling good, the new power units are feeling fast and we’re making improvements every single day. However, we need to keep on improving the reliability.” While Russell says they have the potential to be winning races, their biggest problem was the practice starts and getting off the line.
Adding: “I think we’ve got a lot of potential beneath us, but to win a race you’ve also got to get off the line quite well, and I think the two [practice] starts I’ve made were worse than my worst-ever start in Formula 1 – Lewis [Hamilton] down in P11 got into P1.”
CEO and team principal Toto Wolff has insisted the compression ratio drama is “a storm in a teacup”, meaning his team was no longer willing to fight the backlash against their engine.
When asked by Motorsport.com, about the row explained in the general section, on Thursday during Bahrain pre-season testing, Wolff replied: “We said it all along that this looks like a storm in a teacup, the whole thing. Numbers were coming up that were, you know, if these numbers would have been true, absolutely understand why somebody would fight it. But eventually, it’s not worth the fight.”
“It doesn’t change anything for us, whether we stay like this or whether we change to the new regulations, and that’s been a process. But we also want to be good citizens in the sport because it doesn’t make a big difference. We then changed opinion. Philosophically, you can disagree with it, because I believe regs are there to be made and you keep the FIA close to you – and that’s how it should be.”
Red Bull
Red Bull chief designer Craig Skinner has resigned from the team. He was appointed to the role in 2022, but it has been reported that he has decided to leave the team. Red Bull confirmed Skinner’s departure, but as of yet, has not announced its plans to replace him.
He joined Red Bull in 2006 after spells at Jordan and Williams. Skinner joined Red Bull in 2006 as a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) engineer. He rose up the ranks to become group leader in 2009. Skinner was appointed chief aerodynamicist in 2018, before earning promotion to chief designer in 2022.
A Red Bull statement read, “After twenty years with the team, Craig Skinner, our Chief Designer, will be leaving the Red Bull Technology team. Craig has been an integral part of our team and its success, and we would like to thank him for his hard work and commitment. The whole Red Bull team wishes him all the best for the future.”
In this role, Skinner had a hand in the design of the RB19 that would go on to become the most successful F1 car in history, winning 21 of 22 races during the 2023 season.
Skinner’s departure was not expected and comes as a blow for the Red Bull team, as he is the latest high-profile figure to exit Red Bull in recent years. It comes against the backdrop of Red Bull being under pressure, having built their own power unit, and Max Verstappen’s recent brutal criticism of the new cars in F1 comes after the four-time world champion previously indicated he could quit the world championship if he did not enjoy the 2026 generation.
Ahead of the test, team principal Laurent Mekies said the team believes they were fourth in terms of performance, despite the “remarkable job” done by the team’s new power unit division.
Red Bull heads into 2026 having designed both their car and engine in-house, in partnership with Ford, for the first time, with Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar talking up the powertrain’s performance and reliability.
Speaking ahead of the test, technical director Pierre Wache said, “It has been a positive week, running a full day with Max, with plenty of testing time as we worked on understanding the car and the direction to go in with the power unit. Unfortunately, on day two, we had some problems with the hydraulics on the chassis side, which compromised Isack’s running in the morning, but we were able to recover this in the afternoon.”
Last Friday, “with Max we evaluated set-ups and saw some good direction, and this was similar with Isack [in the] afternoon, so it’s been quite positive with the mileage done. We need to make sure the car continues to develop a lot more to improve the issue on the balance side, and we know that there is a lot of room for improvement.”
Wache says the drivers are very motivated and have been given them a lot of feedback to improve the car and change the direction of development.
Wache then offered some thoughts on the early 2026 pecking order, putting Red Bull fourth overall at this point – even if it follows a trend of teams pointing to their rivals.
He added, “The second step is to see where we are sitting compared to others and improve. There were a few teams which were clearly very quick [on Friday] and it looks like we are behind, so there is still a lot to improve. Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari are there at the top.”
Verstappen is hoping that the team’s former power unit supplier does well in their new partner Aston Martin. Although Toto Wolff’s comments about the outright performance of the DM01 – as the Red Bull engine is officially labelled – were politically charged, reliability has so far proven to be better than many had expected.
Honda, by contrast, has encountered several early issues. Lance Stroll said during the first week of testing in Bahrain that Aston Martin had completed 400 laps fewer than most other teams by then, and that it could be lacking four seconds per lap. Asked by Motorsport.com whether he is surprised that Honda appears to be struggling for now with Aston Martin, the four-time world champion replied: “Yes, it does look that way, but I don’t know exactly what they are doing or what is going on. Of course, I hope that they will get everything well sorted, but I don’t know.”
Despite Honda’s switch to Aston Martin, Verstappen still wishes the manufacturer the very best. It should be noted that Honda’s current F1 project differs somewhat from the successful years with Red Bull. This was after they ‘withdrew’ at the end of 2021, but did a deal with Red Bull to maintain the power unit until 2025
Last year, Koji Watanabe acknowledged that many people had been taken off the F1 project and reassigned to other Honda R&D activities. This means that they are in the rebuilding phase. He added, “Our engineers often fly to Silverstone, and also engineers from Aston Martin are working very hard in our factory in Japan. So this in itself is a challenge, and maybe flight costs are a little bit of a disadvantage for us compared to the European manufacturers.”
Ferrari
Ferrari caught the eye on the first morning of the test with a brand new aerodynamic feature for the start of the second pre-season test. A small wing appeared in front of the SF-26’s exhaust pipe.
Teams are allowed to place an aerodynamic device in that area of the car as long as it does not exceed 60mm from the axle and, normally, this constraint does not allow the device to extend beyond the end of the exhaust. It appears Ferrari has resolved any issue by moving the differential as far back as possible, taking advantage of the space under the deformable structure.
On Thursday, another innovation was on the rear wing, the upper flap of the rear wing appears to be able to rotate 180 degrees, meaning it also allows the rear of the flap to open as well. This creates a sort of expansion, with the front centre of the flap becoming the guiding element of the outgoing flows. According to Motorsport.com, Ferrari’s rear wing is only a test item rather than a permanent feature.
It ends with the front portion pointing downwards, with the rear part facing upwards, which means that the trailing edge, the rearmost part of the upper wing flap, takes on a completely different profile once it is opened.
Lewis Hamilton has dismissed suggestions that F1’s start procedure has developed a safety issue with the all-new cars for 2026. The removal of the MGU-H from the power unit means the drivers are now having to rev up the V6 combustion engine for around ten seconds to spool up their turbochargers at the start of the race, leading to experiments with laborious procedures to make a clean getaway from the grid.
Last Friday, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella proposed changes to the start procedure, allowing drivers more time to line up on the grid and spool up their turbos.
It’s a suggestion that was given the cold shoulder by Ferrari, which Motorsport.com understands inquired with the FIA about that exact issue over the course of 2025 and was told the procedures would remain unchanged. As a result, Ferrari is believed to have designed its turbo in such a way that it would reduce the amount of time it needs to be brought up to the right boost level.
With the FIA in a position to make changes on safety grounds if it felt it was necessary, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was keen to shrug those concerns off. Hamilton said, “It’s definitely not dangerous. I think we should probably take that connotation away from it, because it’s just a different procedure.
“It’s just a longer procedure than it has been in the past. If right now you put the five lights up, we would all still be standing there when the lights went out for a little bit longer. But you can still pull away without the turbo going. It’s just that you probably will anti-stall a couple of times. So perhaps the anti-stall is something that maybe is a potential for some people. But I don’t think that it’s dangerous.”
One compromise could be to extend the start procedure for just a handful of seconds to give backmarkers a fair chance to make a solid start, an option which is understood to have been discussed.
Hamilton says he feels “more connected” to Ferrari’s 2026 car than its predecessor and that he is “really excited” to see what the team can achieve this season. After a difficult 2025, the seven-time champion has seemed more confident and positive throughout the tests.
Ferrari went into the third test this week as one of the favourites when the season begins in Melbourne in two weeks. Asked by Sky Sports whether he felt the most optimistic he had done ahead of the season in the last five years, he said, “I don’t remember the last five years, but maybe, yeah.”
“I always try to enter into a season with confidence, but of course, you’re faced with all sorts of different challenges along the way. I’ve obviously gone through quite a bit, and for me, all of last year is behind me.”
“I spent a lot of time rebuilding over this winter, refocusing, really getting my body and mind to a much better place. I genuinely feel, personally, in the best place that I’ve been in a long time, with rearranging things within my team.” Last season, the team spoke about embedding the seven-time champion’s ‘DNA’ in his car, which he says made him more connected.
Hamilton cut a frustrated figure at times during his first year in red, but insists his faith in the team hasn’t wavered and that he always knew transforming Ferrari wasn’t going to be “an overnight thing”. He says that he still has faith in the team, and they have learned a lot from the last year.
Team principal Fred Vasseur has reflected positively on testing in Sakhir, saying that the team, did “pretty well” in terms of meeting their target to gain a lot of mileage, though also cautioned that development will be key to “keeping momentum” during the season ahead.
Leclerc ended the second and final test with the fastest time set throughout the three-day event, topping the timesheets with a 31.992 as well as 132 laps on Friday. This test I think, while it hasn’t been headlining for Ferrari, they have been productive and consistent.
When asked after Day 3 of the second test if he was happy with how everything had gone for the squad, Vasseur answered: “Happy, yes, but we have to keep in mind what the target was at the beginning. Our target was to do a lot of mileage, and I think this went pretty well, to collect data, to try to improve session after session, and I think this went well.”
“Now, performance is not relative – it’s not performance relative and, at the end of the day, we don’t know the level of fuel of the others, we don’t know the engine mode, we don’t know that we didn’t have the same tyres. It means that, let’s be focused on ourselves to try to do a better job in Melbourne and this weekend, and we’ll see where we are.”
Vasseur also suggested that the key for this season is how quickly the teams can develop the cars, more crucial than the results in Melbourne.
Williams
Carlos Sainz believes that the team has recovered from missing the Barcelona shakedown in January, but warns that there are still a lot of areas for improvement on the FW48. The team missed the first test in Barcelona because of production delays.
On Thursday, the Spaniard said he believes that the team has done what it can to recover the lost time, but they have found “quite a few” limitations on the car.
He told a press conference, “As far as testing goes, I think what we needed over the last few days, which was to recover the time lost in Barcelona by adding a lot of mileage to the car, I think we’ve managed to do that well, and the car is running reliably from the beginning.”
“That’s allowing us to find out the limitations and the areas where we have to improve, which, unfortunately, there are quite a few. But as I said, the main thing last week was mileage, and then this week we are finally starting to try and find a bit of lap time and performance out of it and try to put it in a better set-up window.”
When asked what he meant by a better set-up window, Sainz explained that it was probably down to a mixture of missing Barcelona, which put them behind, and these last two weeks have been quite windy.
Alex Albon added, “There’s still a lot we need to understand and plenty of performance left on the table that we need to extract, but I’m glad the tests went to plan. It’s now all about maximising the next few days to prepare for the first race of the year.”
Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso is in no doubt that Aston Martin will “eventually have the best car” with Adrian Newey at the team, but says they are first braced to be on the “back foot” in the first part of the 2026 season.
The team has made no secret of their ambitions, but during testing -at least the first two- the team appeared as if they were lacking pace compared to the leading teams they hope to challenge in F1’s new era of car and engine rules.
After a late arrival to the Barcelona test, when the new AMR26 completed just sixty-five laps, one lap less than a race distance, Aston Martin completed the fewest laps and set the slowest times at last week’s first Bahrain test as they continue to learn about not only their maiden Newey design, but also the team’s first Honda engine and in-house gearbox too.
Asked by Sky Sports, what the legendary Newey, who has taken on team principal duties this season in addition to the technical role he took up when he joined last spring, was providing, Alonso said: “All the things we need. He has the experience. He has been in better times, tougher times, and I think we have a clear path of improvement.”
“There are a lot of things that we need to unlock. For us, it’s really the first test, to be honest, because missing Barcelona was not ideal. So, we are still going step by step, unlocking performance, and we’ve identified some areas that we need to improve.”
“We said at the launch of the car that we go from maybe a little bit more difficult start on the back foot to a much better second part of the season, and I still think the same. The second part of the season is when we need to be where we want to be.”
Aston Martin has promised before Melbourne that they will have a different car from the one which they ran in Barcelona. Alonso once again pointed out that Newey has over three decades of experience with several championships and periods of dominance.
Honda has released a statement after a difficult second test in Sakhir. On day two, Fernando Alonso stopped on track early on in the afternoon. That ended Aston Martin’s running for the day and marked another setback in their preparations for the 2026 campaign, after a late debut for the car at the Barcelona Shakedown and struggles throughout the two Bahrain gatherings.
Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack admitted last week that “we know we are missing pace and we have areas we know we need to improve”, while driver Lance Stroll claimed Aston Martin is as much as “four-and-a-half seconds” behind the front-runners.
Responding to the latest incident, a Honda statement read: “Our last run with Fernando Alonso yesterday showed a battery-related issue that impacted our test plan with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team.’
“Since then, we have been carrying out simulations on the test bench in HRC [Honda Racing Corporation] Sakura. Due to this and the shortage of power unit parts, we have adapted today’s run plan to be very limited and consist only of short stints.”
Aston Martin’s test came to an early conclusion after further technical issues prevented them from running on the final afternoon.
Having switched to a Honda engine supply for F1’s new era, Aston Martin is the only team to use the Japanese power units and has struggled so far. Regardless of its mediocre pace, the AMR26’s unreliability has been the biggest issue at Sakhir.
Stroll spun off at the start of the afternoon, which again appeared to be down to the power unit. This setback compounds Aston’s issues; the AMR26’s 35.974 testing benchmark is a whopping 1.4s slower than anyone else but new team Cadillac.
A statement from Honda’s trackside general manager and chief engineer, Shintaro Orihara, released on Friday, said, “Our main target during this week’s test was to build up mileage on the power unit, check the engine reliability and gather data. We collected data successfully; however, we didn’t achieve the accumulated mileage that we were targeting.
“On Thursday, we identified an issue in the power unit, and all of us have been uniting efforts to find a solution during our last day of testing. Overnight and today, HRC Sakura, the AMRTC in Silverstone and our crews in Bahrain worked together on a limited run plan, which was jointly agreed considering a shortage of parts.”
Haas
Ollie Bearman has described the sprint race at the second round of the season as “optimistic” as drivers and the teams continue to adjust to the regulations. Next month’s race in Shanghai will feature the first sprint race of the year, meaning the drivers will only have one practice session to prepare.
While the teams could take part in the Barcelona shakedown from 26-30 January in addition to the two three-day blocks of testing in Bahrain, the British driver explained that having a sprint race so early in the season puts even more importance on being on the ball when they arrive at the season opener in Australia.
In a media briefing, asked by Motorsport.com how much more complicated a sprint race weekend will be, he said, “Exactly. That’s everyone’s fear, I think, heading into the start of the year. I think a Sprint weekend in Round 2 of such a massive regulation overhaul is a bit optimistic, but we’ll see what we come up with.”
“Even more important to make sure that we’re on the ball already from Australia at the beginning, and so that we can put those learnings into practice, and certainly the simulator will be critical to make sure that we’re on it from the get-go in China, otherwise the gaps are going to be huge in sprint qualifying.”
I was surprised when I saw the calendar how early the sprint was, given the regulation changes this season, but since it returned in 2024, Shanghai has been a sprint. At one stage, there was talk about allowing the championship to ‘bed in,’ but that hasn’t happened. I thought Bahrain would be the best place for the first sprint, having had six days of testing.
In their ten years, the team has had its best testing ever, while they may not be grabbing headlines, they look to have good reliability and pace for a midfield team.
Bearman added, “Final day complete in Bahrain and I’m really proud of the hard work that the whole team has put in over pre-season testing. The steps that we’ve made have been super impressive, and today was by far the most productive of the test.”
Alpine
Managing director Steve Nielson says the team has created a “much better” car for 2026, and they have noticed “big gains” with their new Mercedes power unit. After successive top-six finishes from 2021 to 2024, Alpine finished tenth and last in the 2025 Constructors Championship standings, having switched focus to the 2026 rules reset earlier than the majority of their rivals.
Asked to sum up how he was feeling about Alpine’s programme in the Sakhir desert, Nielsen said: “Pretty confident. It’s probably quite a dull answer, but we’re working through the programme, trying to understand what everyone else is doing, trying to second-guess what their pace is, what our pace is.”
“Very new cars, a lot of new things to learn. You’ve probably heard a lot of people talk about energy recovery and deployment; it’s a big learning curve for us, the drivers. How you use that has a huge effect on lap times on so on. So, there’s a lot of new stuff to understand, and drivers are having to drive in a completely different way than they used to.”
These comments were made between the tests. Despite the gains, Nielson was unsure where the team stood in the pecking order but was certain they had a better car than in 2025. Like many, Nielsen expects more answers over the competitive order to come during this week’s second test at the Bahrain International Circuit, where teams are likely to chase more performance ahead of the season-opener in Australia.
The team also backed their power unit supplier in compression ratio furore, arguing the FIA would set the wrong precedent should it intervene. As explained above, its rivals have accused it of illegally exploiting the compression ratio, Nielsen stated his support in the German marque, arguing: “My personal view is I’m not concerned about it because I think the regulations are crystal clear on when compression ratio is measured.
Adding “Some other people are trying to introduce different parameters to that. That’s for reasons best known to themselves, but no, we’ve got full confidence in Mercedes. They’ve built a PU in good faith with a very clear set of regulations, and we’re happy with it. We trust the governing body to do the right thing.”
Nielsen claimed “it very clearly says ambient temperature” for when the ratio is measured, so the prospect of teams protesting ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in March doesn’t faze him. He says that they do have resolved this by Melbourne, so it doesn’t become the story.
Cadillac
Cadillac has given an update on where they are with developing their own power unit as they look to debut it in 2029, whilst acknowledging that they will “speed up” the process if there are ways to do so.
After Cadillac’s entry for 2026 received its final approval in March 2025, it was confirmed one month later that GM Performance Power Units, founded by TWG Motorsports and General Motors to build powertrains for the team, had been officially approved as an F1 power unit supplier starting in 2029 by the FIA.
TWG Motorsports boss Dan Towriss was quizzed ahead of the team’s 2026 debut on whether this timescale for the engines was still the plan, with his response being that the hope is for Cadillac’s own power unit to be up and running “as soon as possible”.
Towriss explained, “We’re really following the conversation on the [regulations] closely. It’s possible that the regulations could change before 2031, it’s possible that they don’t change before 2031.”
“Regardless of the funding, I think it’s important that we see a Cadillac power unit on the grid as soon as possible, and so that’s really the main focus from my standpoint. If there are ways to speed it up, we will, but right now the focus is still 2029.”
Towriss also shared news on how work is progressing on the team’s new United States headquarters in Fishers, Indiana, which will run alongside their European facility next to the Silverstone track. He says that construction in Fishers would finish at the end of or beginning of next year.
Fastest Overall Lap
- Ferrari 01:31.992
- Mercedes 01:32.032 +0.040
- McLaren 01:32.861 +0.879
- Red Bull 01:33.109 +1.117
- Alpine 01:33.421 +1.429
- Haas 01:33.487 +1.495
- Audi 01:33.775 +1.763
- Racing Bulls 01:34.149 +2.157
- Williams 01:34.342 +2.350
- Cadillac 01:35.290 +3.298
- Aston Martin 01:37.472 +5.480
(Fastest lap of the whole test)
What we learned
It has felt like, from the opening day of this test, there has been more talk about Ferrari potentially joining the fight with Mercedes at the front. Ferrari brought what will be their final pre-season upgrades, focused on more downforce and stability.
Mercedes may be the favourites going to Melbourne, but they may have the strongest package this season, but their biggest problem may be reliability as there were a series of power unit issues which strangely have mainly affected the works team. Thinking back to Melbourne 2014, Lewis Hamilton retired with an engine issue. So maybe fastest but could be hindered reliability throughout this season.
It’s one of several new parts they are expected to bring to Bahrain this week as they finalise their ‘race one’ spec car for the opener in Australia. The focus they admitted shifted this week to performance; early indications suggest they are making progress, but there is a long way to go until qualifying in Melbourne.
One of the big questions continues to be whether we genuinely have a four-team fight, mainly led by Mercedes and McLaren, with Ferrari and Red Bull slightly further behind but able to come into the fight. The evidence, though there could be sandbagging, is that there could be a four-team fight. We need to be cautious, as we could get to Melbourne and one team could sail into the sunset as Brawn/Mercedes did in 2009 and 2014.
But we are still talking about fine margins between the top four, but the caveat is that we didn’t see performance runs from Mercedes. Ferrari has done decent mileage, and their performance runs stood out on Friday afternoon; they look reliable. McLaren left it late to show their performance runs, but they’ve come a long way since Barcelona.
I think that has been the trend for McLaren since Miami 2024, and if they were to be in the championship mix and go on to defend one or both championships after such a big regulation change, that would be impressive.
Andrea Stella is not known for actively misleading people over his team’s performance, and he placed Ferrari on a par with Mercedes and ahead of McLaren and Red Bull. Whether this is spin or not, it will take until I think the Grand Prix in Sakhir in April to truly figure out the order in terms of performance.
Racing-wise, we don’t know until we go racing in Melbourne. This will be speculated for weeks, but while we have a picture of where things stand, the only real answer will come a couple of races into the season.
One thing which I think is certain going into this season, since Barcelona three weeks ago, the rate of development throughout this season and perhaps the next few years will be high. We know we have had one of the biggest regulation changes, and the cars between now and when we return to Barcelona in June, or even here in April, could look radically different.
I think Aston Martin, while I wasn’t expecting them to jump towards leading the midfield, but Honda hasn’t delivered as we thought, but I think that’s because they technically withdrew at the end of 2021. While they later decided to return, they would have lost development time, and it would take time to make up for what the other manufacturers would have had since the regulations were announced.