Temporada F1 2026 🏎

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MCL40:

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@ScarbsTech
·
15h
Aston Martin have what appears to be the same intercooler layout as Red Bull.
An Air-Air intercooler over the engine.

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@AlbertFabrega
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17h
El Red Bull Ford  sin la tapa motor.

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AMR26: Fotos AMuS















https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel-1/aston-martin-technik-details-adrian-newey-seitenkasten-aufhaengung/

[McHouserphy]

Para quien note "algo raro" en las gráficas de meteorología, solo decir que, estoy harto de que se pierdan las señales de telemetría durante las sesiones.
Ayer se perdío a media jornada, hoy a media tarde...

Ni os cuento cómo salen la gráficas en base a tiempos de sesión...       (por eso no las pongo, porque parecen cuadros de Polloc    

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Fastest laps by driver
1 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m34.273s, Day 2
2 Lando Norris (McLaren) 1m34.669s, Day 1
3 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m34.798s, Day 1
4 Ollie Bearman (Haas) 1m35.394s, Day 2
5 George Russell (Mercedes) 1m35.466s, Day 2
6 Esteban Ocon (Haas) 1m35.578s, Day 1
7 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1m35.602s, Day 1
8 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) 1m36.433s, Day 1
9 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) 1m36.561s, Day 2
10 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) 1m36.670s, Day 2
11 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) 1m36.765s, Day 2
12 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) 1m36.824s, Day 2
13 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) 1m36.861s, Day 1
14 Alex Albon (Williams) 1m37.229s, Day 2
15 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) 1m37.470s, Day 2
16 Carlos Sainz (Williams) 1m37.592s, Day 2
17 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1m37.629s, Day 1
18 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) 1m38.017s, Day 2
19 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 1m38.248s, Day 2
20 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) 1m38.653s, Day 2
21 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m39.883s, Day 1
22 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) 1m40.330s, Day 1

*every driver's best time set on C3 soft tyres apart from Norris, Stroll, Colapinto (all C2 medium) and Antonelli (C1 hard)

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Fastest laps by driver (gap to leader)
1 Charles Leclerc 1m34.273s
2 Lando Norris +0.396s
3 Max Verstappen +525s
4 Ollie Bearman +1.121s
5 George Russell +1.193s
6 Esteban Ocon +1.305s
7 Oscar Piastri +1.329s
8 Lewis Hamilton +2.160s
9 Isack Hadjar +2.288s
10 Gabriel Bortoleto +2.397s
11 Pierre Gasly +2.450s
12 Valtteri Bottas +2.551s
13 Nico Hulkenberg +2.588s
14 Alexander Albon +2.956s
15 Arvid Lindblad +3.197s
16 Carlos Sainz +3.319s
17 Kimi Antonelli +3.356s
18 Liam Lawson +3.744s
19 Fernando Alonso +3.975s
20 Sergio Perez +4.380s
21 Lance Stroll +5.610s
22 Franco Colapinto +6.057s

Fastest laps by team
1 Ferrari 1m34.273s
2 McLaren 1m34.669s
3 Red Bull 1m34.798s
4 Haas 1m35.394s
5 Mercedes 1m35.466s
6 Audi 1m36.670s
7 Alpine 1m36.765s
8 Cadillac 1m36.824s
9 Williams 1m37.229s
10 Racing Bulls 1m37.470s
11 Aston Martin 1m38.248s

Total laps by team
1 Williams 276
2 Ferrari 271
3 McLaren 261
4 Haas 245
5 Audi 236
6 Red Bull 223
7 Cadillac 216
8 Racing Bulls 208
9 Alpine 174
10 Mercedes 143
11 Aston Martin 134

Total laps by driver
1 Charles Leclerc 219
2 Lando Norris 207
3 Arvid Lindblad 158
4 Pierre Gasly 146
5 Carlos Sainz 146
6 Max Verstappen 136
7 Ollie Bearman 130
8 Alex Albon 130
9 Nico Hulkenberg 120
10 Gabriel Bortoleto 116
11 Valtteri Bottas 116
12 Esteban Ocon 115
13 George Russell 110
14 Sergio Perez 100
15 Fernando Alonso 98
16 Isack Hadjar 87
17 Oscar Piastri 54
18 Lewis Hamilton 52
19 Liam Lawson 50
20 Lance Stroll 36
21 Kimi Antonelli 33
22 Franco Colapinto 28

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/full-2026-bahrain-f1-test-one-results-fastest-times-total-laps/

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Ferrari blocked F1 race start change - What you need to know

Formula 1 looks set for fresh talks about potential changes to the start sequence at grands prix, The Race has learned, despite a previous move to alter the rules being blocked by Ferrari.

The issue has been triggered by safety concerns about the complicated procedures needed to make good getaways with the 2026 cars.

As previously reported, early testing of the new challengers has highlighted the great difficulties drivers face in preparing for race starts.

The perfect launch now involves ticking off a host of competing demands – which includes keeping the turbo spooled up for around 10 seconds to minimise turbo lag for the getaway, while also avoiding over-charging the battery.

Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto is one driver who could not hide how big a challenge things were right now.

"Oh man, it's complicated," he said when asked by The Race about how he was finding the practice starts.

"Yeah, the 10-second thing and then after five seconds, I already lost the count.

"Then the engine's revving up, it's gear in and out, and you need to release the clutch. It's quite a mess.

"It was much easier last year. Let's see how we end up in Melbourne."

A safety issue

The difficulties that a number of teams and drivers have faced while practicing starts during testing, and the ease with which things can go wrong, has prompted paddock talk in Bahrain about this now being a potential safety concern.

This is because there is an increased chance of drivers getting things badly wrong – with one driver suggesting that analysis suggests 1 in 20 starts are being fumbled.

This effectively means that the likelihood of at least one car hitting trouble at every race is high.

When things go wrong, drivers risk being super slow away from the line – and that could open the door for potential accidents.

Furthermore, questions have been raised about whether there is going to be enough time for drivers to be able to spool up their turbos before the start sequence gets going.

This could be a particular problem for drivers at the back of the grid, who normally have very little time between forming up and the light sequence being triggered.

Cadillac driver Valtteri Bottas, whose five-place grid penalty at his next race means he will likely be starting at the back in the Australian Grand Prix, said he doubted there would be enough time to be fully prepared for the light sequences.

"The only concern for me is the example of, let's say in Melbourne, with my five-place grid penalty, if I'm towards the back of the grid, is there enough time when the light starts to go on to actually get that turbo spinning?" Bottas explained.

"Now it takes like 10 seconds, so that's one thing we've got to figure out."

Rule change debate

Multiple drivers and senior team figures have told The Race that they think the matter needs bringing up with the FIA to discuss whether or not changes can be made to help minimise any risks at race starts.

The first opportunity for this could be at next week's F1 Commission meeting on Wednesday, which is set to debate a range of matters involving the 2026 rules.

Any discussions with the FIA over the matter are likely to revolve around whether or not potential changes can be made to the start sequence to help avoid the risk of drivers hitting problems.

Two options appear to be on the table.

The first is delaying the minimum time between when the final car forms up on the grid and the lights sequence begins.

Some compromise had already been made on this front last year, when the rules were amended to mandate a minimum time for the five-light sequence to play out.

Previously there was no restriction on how quickly the lights could go on – whereas for 2026 the rules now state: "the time interval between the illumination of each of the five red lights in the sequence described above shall be one second."

One option to help give drivers enough time to prepare their turbos could be to impose a minimum time between the final car getting into position and the lights coming on.

Another possibility could be to revise restrictions laid down about the use of the battery off the line – which would help get rid of the requirement to spool up the turbo in the way it needs right now.

Under the current rules, drivers cannot use the MGU-K for extra battery power until the car has reached 50km/h – which means they have to rely on the internal combustion engine entirely for the initial getaway.

The rules also lay down that the MGU-K torque can only be negative – so charging the battery – when the car is stationary.

This rules out any assistance in filling in any gaps with turbo lag. So a change here could also be useful in making starts more consistent.

Ferrari resistance

However, despite the matter being up for imminent discussion, any move to get the start procedure changed may not be straightforward to achieve after it emerged that last year Ferrari resisted a previous effort to revise the rules.

The challenges faced by drivers at the starts with the new cars had been predicted by teams during early work on the 2026 cars.

The Race has learned that, as a result, last summer a proposal to revise the start light sequence had been put forward by F1's Sporting Advisory Committee to the F1 Commission.

However, sources have revealed that the idea was blocked by Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur – who argued that the problems with turbo lag had been well known by teams during the design of their power units.

So any outfit that had made concept decisions that did not work with the start regulations as laid down had to live with it – as it would be unfair to force those who had made compromises to deliver good starts to make accommodations to suit those who had not.

This suggests Ferrari may have designed its engine in a way that minimises turbo lag - so the start issues are not such a problem for it.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/ferrari-blocked-f1-race-start-change-what-you-need-to-know/

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Seven things we learned from day two of F1's Bahrain test

Formula 1's first Bahrain test continues to drop more and more hints about the likely shape of the 2026 pecking order.

Here's everything our team on the ground in Bahrain learned from the test on Thursday:

Where drivers are turning on the 2026 rules

F1's hopes of keeping a unified spirit of positivity surrounding the 2026 rules are over after Max Verstappen lobbed a verbal hand grenade.

Verstappen labelling the new cars as "anti-racing" and like "Formula E on steroids", just one day after Lewis Hamilton started the ball rolling by questioning the complexity of the rules, means that driver unease about F1's new era is now in the public domain.

It was no secret that the new cars would be powerful but energy-starved, and it is the latter aspect that is at the root of unhappiness.

As performance has started to be unlocked from the new cars, and the energy management aspect thrust front and centre, it is no surprise that top-line racing drivers don't like driving in economy mode and having to lift and coast early.

But the real headache for F1 is not that the negativity has started now.

It is instead how bad things could get when we get to even more energy-challenging tracks like Melbourne, and drivers get to experience what the racing is really like with battery annoyances. - Jon Noble

Aston Martin and Honda aren't just lacking laps

"Engine, balance, grip" - Lance Stroll's summary of where the Aston Martin is lacking makes for grim reading as Thursday revealed that its problems run deeper than just lacking laps.

There is a link between the two. If the AMR26 had hit the track sooner and completed more laps than a disrupted single day (of meaningful running) at Barcelona, or the paltry 36 Stroll managed in Bahrain on Wednesday, it would be a lot further along its obvious early curve troubleshooting.

Fernando Alonso had a much more productive Thursday, at least, falling just short of a century on 98 laps - but all that has done is expose the various weaknesses of the Aston Martin-Honda package.

It looks prone to front and rear locking under braking, stiff, awkward to drive and lacking grip on both axles. The engine's not strong, the car's heavy and far from being optimised.

All that will save this combination from a deeply underwhelming start to the season is if there's a lot of low-hanging fruit by finding big, big chunks of laptime just by dialling out various problems quickly – but it seems some limitations are more baked-in than that. - SMM

Where the Ferrari engine is an outlier

How good the Ferrari is remains a mystery in this test as there are moments on track where it still looks tough to control, but others where its pace on short and long-ish runs looks quite good.

Charles Leclerc's test is over after a full day in the car on Thursday, and he said the feeling is "OK" – but we didn't get to hear from him properly, so he is yet to elaborate.

The main thing that day two really confirmed about Ferrari is on the engine side, and where it is an outlier. Its cars are the only ones that seem to be eschewing the high-revving tactic most are adopting.

The technique of dropping the first gear as much as possible – seemingly mastered earliest by Verstappen and Red Bull – has become commonly adopted as this test has progressed. Unless you're driving a Ferrari, Haas or Cadillac.

It seems the Ferrari engine and gearbox are designed around a shorter first gear and that ratio means the shift from second to first is too disruptive to each of the cars dynamically.

If it's worth crucial extra energy harvesting, it might be something out of reach for Ferrari – although it is important to note it could be prioritising recharging through other methods. - SMM

An extreme Audi approach comes with a price

If Verstappen and Red Bull are the leaders in getting on top of extra downshifts in Bahrain, Audi is definitely top of the pile for how extreme the approach gets – but it comes at a high price.

The Audi drivers regularly arrive on the scene bashing through the gears quickly and early but that tends to leave the car all over the place and not looking comfortable to drive at all.

Gabriel Bortoleto seems to be taking a bit more time to get used to this than Nico Hulkenberg and when we asked how bad the downshifts are in terms of how much instability it's causing, it's telling that Bortoleto replied: "It's a great question" and in his answer said: "Let's put it this way, we are working a lot to improve that."

If Audi can, it will go a long way to helping its drivers because there is an awful lot of scrambling around trying to catch a lairy rear end and make it to the apex at the moment. - SMM

Race starts are weird and complex

As drivers have begun to unlock the complexities of the new F1 2026 rules, some aspects have emerged as being more challenging than others.

One of the big headaches at the moment is race starts – which are proving to be a massive step more difficult than they were in the past.

Demands to spool the turbo up for around 10 seconds, not over-charge the battery, and then balance revs for the perfect getaway have resulted in a number of fumbled practice attempts – and opened concerns about startline issues occurring when things get real in Melbourne.

Some now suggest that F1 should look at tweaks to the start procedure, to either give drivers more time before the start lights come on to properly prepare things, or even just make their life easier by allowing them to use the battery and not need to cover from turbo lag gaps.

But getting changes across the line will not be easy, after it emerged that Ferrari blocked a previous attempt at a rules tweak last year – because it felt it would be unfair to those who had prepared their engines in a certain way. - JN

Red Bull has its first real setback

Yes, Isack Hadjar crashing on the second day of the Barcelona test wasn't ideal - it meant Red Bull had to ship out spare parts so it could participate on the final day of the test - but in pure mileage terms, it didn't cost the team much.

So Thursday in Bahrain was Red Bull's first proper testing setback as an issue meant Hadjar could only log a single installation lap right at the end of the morning session.

He did get back out in the afternoon and clocked 86 more laps, leading to the post-session claim that "the morning disruption hasn't affected our overall plan" because Hadjar was able to work through plenty in a short timeframe.

Hadjar will share the car with Verstappen on Friday for the final day of what has been a solid, if now not bulletproof, test. - Josh Suttill

Cadillac's first show of pace

Cadillac seemed to be building up some speed on day two in Bahrain.

On day one, Cadillac was four seconds off the pace with Sergio Perez 14th and Valtteri Bottas 16th out of 18 drivers. Today, Bottas was just over 2.5 seconds off the pace (although Perez was still around four seconds off).

And, despite Bottas's mirror falling off at one point, Perez was able to reflect positively on the team's showing.

"In general it's been a more productive day," he replied to a question posed by The Race. "We still have some work to do, but generally I think we're getting the maximum out of the car and hopefully in the coming weeks we are able to improve more."

Recharge might be a contentious feature of the new breed of F1 cars but Perez said the team had made a proper step up with its Ferrari engine.

"Mainly, it's been the progress we've been able to make, understanding on the engine side - it's a tremendous change... a lot of understanding to do as well, so [I'm] looking forward to getting on top of all those things."

It's not just raw pace, but consistent pace that Perez says the team is working on - given the variation of "half a second to one second on each lap" in this new era. - Samarth Kanal

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-we-learned-day-two-of-f1-bahrain-test/

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The car that looks most difficult at F1 testing

Aston Martin's tough start to Formula 1 testing with Honda is laid bare when watching the car trackside.

In the hands of Lance Stroll and even the great Fernando Alonso, it looks the most difficult of all 11 cars on track. At its best the AMR26 is constrained and slow, and at its worst it looks plain bad.

No drivers seem to be consistently grappling with the same problems like the Aston Martin pair. The concentration of lock-ups – and big lock-ups, too – into Turn 10 was remarkable even by the standards of this test, in which several drivers have been caught out by the off-camber left-hander.


What is hard to discern is how much of this is car, and how much is engine. The two parts of the package are more co-dependent than ever due to the increased demands of the engine's energy recovery system, and how that impacts the behaviour of the car under braking and on throttle.

On the first morning of the test, Stroll locked up three times in four laps entering Turn 10. The front of the car looked very stiff, and sensitive to the bumps, which suggested the car's mechanical set-up could be more to blame.

This continued early on day two, now with Alonso in the car. Three laps in a row, three lock-ups – one particularly massive one that ended in Alonso aborting the corner entirely. After regrouping, his next two push laps featured rear locking, one time midway into the braking phase and the other just at the apex.

When the rear locking occurred, it sounded as though there was silence from the engine for a split-second – a sound (or silence!) that anyone who has locked the rear axle of a kart or rear-wheel-drive car might be familiar with. Whatever this was, to be clear, it is not normal to hear in an F1 car...

The question is the cause. Is the car's mechanical platform so stiff, and awkward, and maybe heavy, that it is prone to front locking and then the rear locking occurs because the brake balance is being moved backwards, or the engine braking is being increased? Or is this linked to the performance, or lack thereof, from the Honda engine?

Asked by The Race how downshifting impacted the car's behaviour, Stroll replied tellingly: "It's not great at the moment, that's for sure."

Later on in the day, Alonso could be seen locking up yet again at low speed and catching snaps at higher speed, so there is not one isolated area of trouble. Rather it looks like a package that is further than any other from being refined and is surely the furthest from its potential. It could become a good F1 car, maybe even a very good one, but it doesn't look like that right now.

This is not to say the Aston Martin is F1's slowest car. And others are not great either, and have their own ills.

At low speed the Audi looks awfully unstable as the drivers mash through the gearbox all the way into first. The Williams appeared quite a handful, early on Thursday evening at least, and Carlos Sainz didn't seem to be having a good time at all.

Meanwhile, newcomer Cadillac – as sure-fire a team likely to be behind Aston Martin as there is right now – just looks grip-limited front and rear, and is simply a slow car by F1 standards.

Every team is working through issues to some degree, and every team is on a different programme with massive swings in performance possible. So the times are still hard to read into, even if Alonso's end-of-day deficit of four seconds was bang on how far away Stroll hypothesised Aston Martin is at the moment.

But how the car looks on track tallies with the initial driver feedback that there's a lot to improve.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-makes-aston-martin-so-bad-to-watch-on-track/

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Full 2026 Bahrain F1 test one results: Fastest times + total laps

The first of two pre-season tests at Bahrain marks the first official on-track running for the 2026 Formula 1 teams - as the five days at Barcelona in January was held behind closed doors and dubbed the 'shakedown week'.

With the first week of Sakhir running complete, below you'll find a summary of each driver's quickest laptime of the test as well as the total mileage completed per team.

Fastest laps by driver
1 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1m33.669s, Day 3
2 George Russell (Mercedes) 1m33.918s, Day 3
3 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) 1m34.209s, Day 3
4 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m34.273s, Day 2
5 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1m34.549s, Day 3
6 Lando Norris (McLaren) 1m34.669s, Day 1
7 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m34.798s, Day 1
8 Ollie Bearman (Haas) 1m35.394s, Day 2
9 Esteban Ocon (Haas) 1m35.578s, Day 1
10 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) 1m35.806s, Day 3
11 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) 1m36.291s, Day 3
12 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) 1m36.561s, Day 2
13 Alex Albon (Williams) 1m36.665s, Day 3
14 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) 1m36.670s, Day 2
15 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) 1m36.765s, Day 2
16 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) 1m36.808s, Day 3
17 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) 1m36.824s, Day 2
18 Carlos Sainz (Williams) 1m37.186s, Day 3
19 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) 1m37.365s, Day 3
20 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) 1m37.470s, Day 2
21 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 1m38.165s, Day 3
22 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m39.883s, Day 1

*every driver's best time set on C3 soft tyres apart from Norris, Sainz and Stroll (all C2 medium)

Fastest laps by driver (gap to leader)
1 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1m33.669s
2 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.249s
3 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.540s
4 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.604s
5 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.880s
6 Lando Norris (McLaren) +1.000s
7 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +1.129s
8 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +1.725s
9 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.909s
10 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +2.137s
11 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +2.622s
12 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +2.892s
13 Alex Albon (Williams) +2.996s
14 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +3.001s
15 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +3.096s
16 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +3.139s
17 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +3.155s
18 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +3.517s
19 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +3.696s
20 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +3.801s
21 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +4.496s
22 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +6.214s

Fastest laps by team
1 Mercedes 1m33.669s
2 Ferrari +0.540s
3 McLaren +0.880s
4 Red Bull +1.129s
5 Haas +1.725s
6 Alpine +2.137s
7 Audi +2.622s
8 Williams +2.996s
9 Racing Bulls +3.139s
10 Cadillac +3.155s
11 Aston Martin +4.496s

Total laps by team
1 Williams 422
= McLaren 422
3 Ferrari 421
4 Haas 390
5 Audi 354
6 Red Bull 343
7 Racing Bulls 327
8 Cadillac 320
9 Alpine 318
10 Mercedes 282
11 Aston Martin 206

Total laps by driver
1 Charles Leclerc 219
2 Oscar Piastri 215
3 Carlos Sainz 214
4 Alex Albon 208
5 Lando Norris 207
6 Lewis Hamilton 202
7 Ollie Bearman 200
8 Max Verstappen 197
9 Esteban Ocon 190
10 George Russell 188
11 Nico Hulkenberg 178
12 Gabriel Bortoleto 176
13 Franco Colapinto 172
14 Liam Lawson 169
15 Sergio Perez 167
16 Arvid Lindblad 158
17 Valtteri Bottas 153
18 Isack Hadjar 146
= Pierre Gasly 146
20 Lance Stroll 108
21 Fernando Alonso 98
22 Kimi Antonelli 94

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/full-2026-bahrain-f1-test-one-results-fastest-times-total-laps/

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Why Newey's 2026 Aston Martin is so far behind already

Aston Martin is "clearly behind" at the start of its new Honda-powered era under the leadership of Formula 1 technical great Adrian Newey.

Newey, F1's pre-eminent design genius, joined Aston Martin in March 2025 to spearhead the team's development for the new 2026 car rules alongside a new works partnership with Honda off the back of the Japanese manufacturer's title-winning seasons with Red Bull.

But the new AMR26 has had a troubled start. It was late joining the Barcelona test and struggled for mileage on the only full day it ran there, which continued into the start of this week's test in Bahrain.

Days two and three have been more productive but the car looks difficult on track and Lance Stroll claimed on Thursday that Aston Martin is four seconds adrift. Team representative Pedro de la Rosa said on Friday "no one is happy when you are a second slower than what you were expecting" – indicating Aston Martin already thought it was in for a difficult start, and it is worse than that.

How this could be possible for a Honda-powered Newey design has been the obvious question given that combination, along with further big recruits like ex-Ferrari technical chief Enrico Cardile, the construction of a brand new factory, and a state-of-the-art windtunnel, has led to grand expectations for the team and F1's new 2026 rules were meant to be the first step towards the success demanded by such significant investment.

Asked this by The Race, de la Rosa indicated it is a consequence of Newey not arriving until March last year – something Newey himself said put aerodynamic development four months behind rivals – and the 18 months Honda spent in the wilderness between technically abandoning its F1 project and then agreeing to a 2026 Aston Martin deal.

"Looking back is always easy, in terms of how we should have, shouldn't have – it doesn't work in motorsport," said de la Rosa.

"But if we had possibly started earlier, if Adrian would have been here not March 2, but a few months earlier, if Honda wouldn't have gone and then come back - it's ifs and buts.

"Bottom line is we are slow, we're not where we want to be, let's get a plan together. We know exactly what's wrong, and work on it.

"So let's look ahead, not look back at what went wrong, what we didn't [do]. It's very easy to blame the time and that we started late. It was many reasons.

"The important thing is that we know what they are, really. That's what gives us the confidence that slowly, gradually, the difference will shrink."

As previously explained by The Race, while Honda is the same manufacturer that grew to achieve massive success in recent years, this Aston Martin project is a fresh start beyond just being based around new rules.

Honda technically withdrew from F1 at the end of 2021, and though its engines continued to be used by Red Bull through to the end of last season with Honda assembling and maintaining them based on frozen specifications, the F1 research and development programme was gutted.

Resources were diverted to other projects within Honda, as that was the whole point of quitting F1, which meant it had to effectively start up again from scratch.

In addition to Honda's development issues, it is working with an unproven (in F1) fuel supplier in Aramco, at a time when the championship switches to more complicated advanced sustainable fuels.

Plus, Newey has joined Aston Martin when it has yet to prove itself capable of designing and then sustaining a frontrunning car – so while his arrival and Cardile's are undeniably positive, they cannot address an entire organisation's shortcomings immediately. Any existing weaknesses in tools or processes still have to be identified and ironed out.

The result, based on Bahrain so far, is a car and engine that are far from optimised – tricky to drive, overweight and down on power and efficiency. The two sides are intrinsically linked in this new rules era given the need to charge the battery to power the 300kW MGU-K, which is providing almost half the engine's total power output.

What the car and engine does under braking is critical to charging the battery, for example, but the Aston Martin has been constantly locking up at both axles and looks very unpredictable in the hands of both Stroll and Fernando Alonso.

"We are clearly behind," de la Rosa said. "And as Lance said, we are four, three or five [seconds].

"We are clearly behind and when you are losing or you're missing that amount of time, it's clearly the overall package.

"You cannot say it's this or the other, because a lot of areas where we have already identified clearly and we are already working in Silverstone to address them.

"It won't be an overnight fix, it's not a five-minute job, it's obviously a lot of work involved, a lot of learning, a lot of optimising.

"But we have the confidence that we have the team, have the resources, we have everything in place.

"So yes, we are not where we want to be, but we have the people. And this is the most important thing."

Being late in building the car, then suffering reliability issues, has also left Aston Martin further back in its understanding.

Asked by The Race if the mileage limitations at least meant there was some low-hanging fruit to make bigger gains in the short-term, de la Rosa agreed and highlighted examples like the car not even completing a proper long run yet, and only doing a representative run on the C3 compound on the third day in Bahrain.

"We are on this steep learning curve," de la Rosa added. "Obviously we were, until yesterday [Thursday], the team that had completed, less laps between the Barcelona shakedown and Bahrain.

"So we are behind schedule, clearly. We are catching up. We are learning. And we are basically in the part of the process where you are starting to learn about your package and about the new rules.

"That's where we are. Clearly, we are behind other people. We are not in a stage where we are changing the set-up to learn, to see what the car has, optimising the set-up.

"We are just keeping the car as it is  and just trying to achieve as many laps as possible, doing aero mapping, learning about deployment, about harvesting and all the usual stuff."

De la Rosa said he can "can't imagine how difficult it has to be" for Stroll and Alonso, given the expectations for the project, but backed the team at Silverstone to improve the car significantly under Newey.

"Since Adrian has arrived, his leadership is unquestionable," said de la Rosa.

"The biggest difference I felt is, for example, yesterday, after a very difficult day testing here in Bahrain he spoke on the technical briefing: his leadership is so strong that all the team knows exactly what they have to do.

"This is very different from previous years, where everyone would have their own theory about things. Adrian is very clear what has to be done. And no one raises the hand to question it.

"Therefore you have this massive amount of resources working in one single direction.

"I know it might not sound convincing to you, but believe me, sitting there and listening to these comments was very inspiring for us. Especially when things go wrong.

"When things go right, we don't need a leader. It's when things go wrong."

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/why-adrian-newey-2026-aston-martin-is-so-far-behind-already/

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What we've gleaned from F1 testing race sims so far[/i]

Formula 1 still has three more days of testing before the start of the 2026 season, but any fears teams would be under-prepared have already been long put to bed, as several proved themselves race-ready in this first Bahrain test.

Teams were doing simple long runs on day one but by day three many were doing what appeared to be proper race simulations - which were made trickier to take stock of given F1's timing system suffered persistent outages.

But around those outages enough of a picture did form, with race simulations by expected frontrunners Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari captured either fully or at least substantially.

Here's what we've gathered from teams' race-like running so far in Bahrain.

For the purposes of clarity, only flying laps are tallied here - meaning several of the 57 race laps that make up the Bahrain Grand Prix are discounted even for those who logged a 'full' race sim. Time spent in the pitlane here isn't really relevant, nor are individual laps lost to traffic or driver error (even though this can of course be informative of what the car is like to drive) or what-have-you.

Race runs
Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Start: Friday 5.37pm

Stint 1: Soft, 16 laps (1m40.128s avg)
Stint 2: Hard, 12 laps* (1m38.547s avg)
Stint 3: No data

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Start: Friday 5.14pm

Stint 1: Soft, 17 laps (1m40.280s avg)
Stint 2: Hard, 17 laps (1m38.929s avg)
Stint 3: Medium, 6 laps* (1m37.461s avg)

Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Start: Friday 4.57pm

Stint 1: Soft, 11 laps (1m40.947s avg)
Stint 2: Medium, 20 laps (1m39.604s avg)
Stint 3: Hard, 18 laps* (1m38.472s avg)

Sergio Perez, Cadillac
Start: Friday 4.02pm

Stint 1: Soft, 15 laps** (1m43.432s avg)
Stint 2: Medium, 15 laps (1m41.577s avg)
Stint 3: Hard, 21 laps (1m41.275s avg)

Esteban Ocon, Haas
Start: Friday 4.00pm

Stint 1: Soft, 8 laps (1m41.772s avg)
Stint 2: Medium, 12 laps (1m40.510s avg)
Stint 3: Hard, 16 laps (1m39.869s avg)

Alex Albon, Williams
Start: Friday 3.57pm

Stint 1: Hard, 17 laps (1m43.074s avg)
Stint 2: Hard, 17 laps (1m41.754s avg)
Stint 3: Medium, 18 laps (1m40.241s avg)

Franco Colapinto, Alpine
Start: Friday 3.41pm

Stint 1: Hard, 18 laps*** (1m42.285s avg)
Stint 2: Soft, 11 laps (1m40.640s avg)
Stint 3: Medium, 13 laps (1m39.565s avg)

George Russell, Mercedes
Start: Friday 11.47am

Stint 1: Soft, 16 laps (1m40.752s avg)
Stint 2: Medium, 17 laps (1m39.729s avg)
Stint 3: Hard, 19 laps (1m39.247s avg)

Isack Hadjar, Red Bull
Start: Thursday, 3.57pm

Stint 1: Medium, 15 laps (1m40.941s avg)
Stint 2: Medium, 13 laps (1m39.994s avg)
Stint 3: Soft, 12 laps* (1m38.628s avg)

Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls
Start: Thursday, 4.14pm

Stint 1: Hard, 13 laps (1m42.526s avg)
Stint 2: Medium, 14 laps (1m41.666s avg)
Stint 3: Soft, 5 laps (1m40.318s avg)

* denotes stints with laps lost to timing issues
** a very substantial break between first and second stint, but laptimes suggest continuity
*** car remained in pits for a handful of minutes

Test laptime analysis is precarious at the best of times, much less when a healthy chunk of the timing data is missing.

But there are things that can be deduced at this point in time.

The race run executed by Oscar Piastri around the same time as Lewis Hamilton was running in the Ferrari (and Kimi Antonelli soon joining them in the Mercedes) did indeed seem a considerable step behind those two, as corroborated by McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.

While the race runs executed by team-mates Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris on the day prior are currently almost wholly unavailable, it was suggested by Stella that those too fitted this pattern, and that Leclerc's was particularly competitive.

As for Hamilton versus his Mercedes replacement Antonelli, they are close in their respective first stint (on the same C3 compound), with Hamilton starting faster but his pace dipping enough for Antonelli to make up the difference at the end of the stint.

Antonelli is then quicker initially in the second stint, and notably so, but because of the timing crash we do not know what the pay-off is.

However, cutting off the available Friday race runs at the Antonelli mark of around 28 relevant laps in (but only those that only used two sets up to that point) does paint a good picture for Mercedes.

Antonelli 46m24.611s
Hamilton +7.484s
Piastri +18.038s
Russell +21.406s (morning)
Colapinto +1m02.548s
Albon +1m25.047s
Perez +1m26.208s

Ocon time excluded due to too-short first two stints

The Haas currently does appear best of the rest, but there's every sign right now of a considerable gap between the top teams and the midfield teams, albeit with much more of a midfield spread than we're used to.

Of the two teams whose race runs were conspicuously absent on Friday, the Red Bull had a handful of shorter stints generally in the 1m38s margin that not much can be gleaned from besides from the car being generally in the ballpark, and the Aston Martin only did a couple of true long runs, both just not particularly fast at all.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-weve-gleaned-from-f1-testing-race-sims-so-far/

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Bahrain F1 test one winners and losers

Formula 1's first official pre-season test is complete after three days of running in Bahrain, with what feels like a highly uncertain true 2026 pecking order right now.

But from what we've seen, there have been some winners and losers emerging from the first of two Bahrain tests...

Loser: Aston Martin

Is Aston Martin's much-anticipated Adrian Newey-led F1 era about to begin with a complete dud of a car?

We were so excited when Newey's extreme-looking Aston Martin AMR26 broke cover at the Barcelona shakedown, but early indications from Bahrain testing suggest this is going to be another long season for a team that's become all too familiar with those over the past couple of years.

The team placed so much stock in this grand rules reset of 2026, hoping to utilise Newey's genius and Honda's expertise to make a giant leap out of midfield mediocrity.

Yet first impressions of the AMR26 are that it is too slow and very difficult to drive - and that's not just us saying that! That's also the downbeat verdict of the drivers after three days of running in Bahrain - with Lance Stroll saying Aston Martin is already facing a deficit of four and a half seconds to F1's leading teams, a figure team representative Pedro de la Rosa didn't dispute.

Fernando Alonso pointed to Aston Martin being late to the Barcelona shakedown as one of the main reasons for its current struggles, effectively missing out on hundreds of laps where basic problem-solving could have been done in advance of the Bahrain test rather than during it.

Aston Martin's main problem at this stage seems to be a combination of 2026 car development falling four months behind schedule while the team waited for Newey to finish his gardening leave after leaving Red Bull, plus new engine partner Honda being significantly behind the curve on power unit development.

Aston Martin probably isn't going to be F1's slowest team when the season starts for real in Melbourne (sorry Cadillac!), but as things stand, with one pre-season test to go, it's certainly a contender to be the biggest disappointment. - Ben Anderson

Winner (for now): Mercedes

The original 2026 pre-season favourite hasn't done that much this week to shed its tag.

Yes, there were some reliability issues that weren't there at Barcelona - Kimi Antonelli lost most of Thursday to them and had his running limited by them on Wednesday too - but Mercedes showed strong pace once more.

And while George Russell claims Mercedes "took a step back" in Bahrain, many of its rivals think Mercedes is sandbagging, holding back the pure performance of its engine.

Which, as Max Verstappen hinted, could be seen as a deliberate ploy just before the potentially crucial F1 Commission meeting next week, the topics of which include the engine compression ratio saga.

So Mercedes is a winner, but only for now. But its own admission it's "screwed" if the FIA decides it wants to change the compression ratio testing rules. And that certainly looks more likely than it did when the controversy first emerged last December. - Josh Suttill

Winner: Cadillac

F1's brand-new team might have caused a few red flags this week - including for a gone walkabout wing mirror - but that shouldn't detract from what was actually a really strong three days for Cadillac.

After all those stoppages didn't actually result in meaningful amounts of downtime, so Cadillac ended up in the middle of the mileage totals for the week.

And pace-wise, it wasn't even the slowest car, with Sergio Perez's day three lap, a respectable +3.696 seconds off Kimi Antonelli's test benchmark. Turn up to Melbourne with anywhere near that deficit and Cadillac can be pleased, given the mountain it has climbed to get here.

And its long runs, while not troubling the midfield, were at least complete and respectably slow rather than embarrassingly slow. - JS

Winner: Ferrari

When it emerged Ferrari had missed the engine compression ratio trick this past winter, you'd be forgiven for wondering whether it was in for more pain in 2026.

And it still might be, but you can't help but be impressed by what it has shown in Bahrain so far, especially when you delve deeper into the long-run data.

Lewis Hamilton completed a long run on the final day that was quicker than Oscar Piastri's McLaren run while they were both on-track, and Charles Leclerc had compared favourably to Lando Norris on Thursday, too. That led to McLaren team boss Andrea Stella's belief that Mercedes and Ferrari are the two teams to beat right now.

Now, of course, those wouldn't be the first impressive long runs to be explained away via varying fuel loads or power unit modes, but you can't generate that kind of long-run pace without something resembling a strongly performing car.

Plus Ferrari appears most on top of the chaotic 2026 start procedures right now, as its engine seems able to minimise turbo lag better than its rivals.

So, coupled with a strong sleeper hit arc at Barcelona, Ferrari can tentatively head into the final test with some optimism for at least starting 2026 on the right foot. - JS

Loser: F1's 2026 engine formula

Following the behind-closed-doors Barcelona test, the public Bahrain test was always going to be our first proper chance to know what the drivers really think about the new cars.

And while there was plenty of split opinion - the likes of Lando Norris "enjoyed" driving the cars - the most headline-grabbing take was that of Verstappen's extraordinary verdict on the "Formula E on steroids" cars.

He called them "anti-racing", "not fun", and "not like F1", with Red Bull's livery and the proportions of the cars the only redeeming features for Verstappen.

That was the strongest view, but he isn't alone in his criticism, many of the older guard, in particular, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso for example, have criticised the management side of these new cars and power units.

Their criticism is of the fundamentals of the 2026 regulations, so it's not as if their concerns can be eased by any quick changes.

Instead, F1's probably going to have to grit its teeth and expect more fire on its shiny new product from some of its biggest stars. - JS

Winner: Red Bull's engines

Verstappen might hate these 2026 F1 cars, but he might be driving one of the most competitive cars in Melbourne if the evidence of testing is anything to go by.

Red Bull's first-ever power unit continues to impress. At Barcelona, it was the solid reliability, but in Bahrain, it was the data traces that started catching the eye of Red Bull Powertrains' superior deployment versus its rivals.

This was the proof Mercedes boss Toto Wolff had to declare Red Bull the new "benchmark" and say it was a second a lap quicker on the straights.

Regardless of whether you agree with that claim, in the words of Red Bull's technical director, Pierre Wache, the new Red Bull F1 engine certainly isn't looking "stupid on track".

And that is a monumental achievement, especially when you look at how far ahead Red Bull is of Aston Martin - with former engine partner Honda - and Audi, the other first-time engine builder.

No wonder Isack Hadjar couldn't hide his delight at how well the engine's debut has gone. - JS

Loser: The Brawn GP dream

The beauty of a regulations reset is all the possibilities it offers of turning things upside down - which would be quite neat for F1 given things have felt very 'locked in', really, all through the hybrid era. Yes, Red Bull usurped Mercedes, McLaren rose up, Aston Martin had its brief flirtation with frontrunning - but by and large every year the winners kept being drawn from the same pool.

But in a full revamp, those built-in institutional advantages can be at least briefly negated by a stroke of genius or even a stroke of luck. So it's heartening to see that as it currently stands the favourites to be doing all the winning early on are... uhhh, Mercedes and Red Bull? And maybe Ferrari? And maybe McLaren? The same teams that locked out the top four in the constructors' last year, and also the year before that, and also the year before that?

On the evidence of testing so far, the F1 of haves and have-nots lives on, with not much in the way of social mobility. Whether that's good or bad is for everyone to decide individually - but for now, kudos to F1's 'ruling class', which seems to have averted any glimmers of a midfield-led revolution. - Valentin Khorounzhiy

Winner: Haas

The smallest team on the grid has much to be happy about after the first test in Bahrain - partly by virtue of other teams struggling conspicuously.

There does appear to be a Premier League appearing in the F1 constructors' standings, but Haas, at least after the first week's showing and some solid mileage numbers in Barcelona, appears to be towards the top of the next tier.

Ollie Bearman set the eighth-fastest time of the test and Esteban Ocon the ninth-fastest, but more impressive is Haas's place in fourth in the mileage charts - just shy of 400 overall.

Team boss Ayao Komatsu was elated with the team's start to 2026 - understandably so - as it really hasn't had a major hitch in Bahrain, and only one on Wednesday in Spain.

Unremarkable? Maybe. Maybe it's remarkable just how decent Haas looks right now. - Samarth Kanal

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/winners-losers-from-first-f1-2026-bahrain-test/

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10 things we learned from the first Bahrain F1 2026 test

From big pecking order clues to political games, from 2026 rule problems to a clear team in trouble, Formula 1's first official week of testing at the Bahrain Grand Prix venue in Sakhir properly delivered in terms of big storylines.

Here are nine major takeaways.

Teams are desperate not to be favourite

Mercedes left Barcelona as the champion of pre-season. Red Bull took that mantle on Wednesday in Bahrain. Ferrari was turning heads on Thursday. By Friday it was Mercedes again.

And all the while everybody tried to shift the spotlight onto someone else, because all the top teams are desperate not to be labelled fastest.

Ferrari thinks Mercedes is deliberately hiding its pace, the unspoken implication being that it was doing so to downplay a perceived engine advantage and reduce the likelihood of a late compression ratio rule change. Something Max Verstappen was more explicit about, insinuating that Mercedes would suddenly be a lot quicker on the straights in Melbourne.

Mercedes and its customers, for their part, have waxed lyrical about Red Bull all week, praising the preparation and subsequently the performance of its brand new in-house engine.

Red Bull has batted that away emphatically, as it also believes Mercedes has plenty more to show, and thinks it is only fourth-fastest itself.

But Mercedes customer McLaren seems to be keen to claim that fourth position for itself too, as it argues this ruleset favours works teams given the intense energy demands and the benefits of having your car and engine perfectly designed for each other and getting access to key engine information at the earliest opportunity.

What the laptimes tell us

Persistent timing system crashes and Red Bull not doing a race simulation on the final day mean the race sim picture is incomplete - but at least there is a picture.

The McLaren of Oscar Piastri, the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli all did race simulations on Friday afternoon - Antonelli going about half an hour later than the other two.

There was not a ton here between Mercedes and Ferrari, at least not conclusively. In stint one, which both cars ran on the C3 soft, Hamilton was faster to start with, but Antonelli kept the pace better. In stint two on C1 hards the Mercedes did appear to have a decisive advantage - but data is missing after 12 laps.

RACE SIMULATIONS (MORE IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS HERE)

STINT 1

Antonelli - Soft, 16 laps (1m40.128s avg)
Hamilton - Soft, 17 laps (1m40.280s avg)
Piastri - Soft, 11 laps (1m40.947s avg)

Stint 2

Antonelli - Hard, 12 laps* (1m38.547s avg)
Hamilton - Hard, 17 laps (1m38.929s avg)
Piastri - Medium, 20 laps (1m39.604s avg)

Stint 3

Hamilton - Medium, 6 laps* (1m37.461s avg)
Piastri - Hard, 18 laps* (1m38.472s avg)

* timing cut off when Antonelli was in second stint, and Hamilton and Piastri in third

What is clear enough is that the McLaren was a step back, across all stints, maybe by as much as half a second.

Red Bull engine a 'reality check'

Red Bull has been winning praise for the work done on its first F1 engine since the Barcelona test, but that was mainly because it was surprisingly reliable straight away.

In Bahrain, that surprise and respect has turned into low-level fear. Mercedes asserted the Red Bull is a second quicker on the straights because it has unmatchable charging capabilities, so is deploying electric power more around the lap.

The work done on the gearbox, too, has clearly facilitated a great package in terms of making first gear quite pleasantly usable for its drivers, a rarity in modern motorsport. This means Red Bull can maximise battery charging potential with aggressive downshifts without terribly destabilising the car.

Mercedes driver George Russell thus described this test as a "bit of a reality check for us" because after a winter of speculation that his team was in the best place, in Russell's own words Red Bull has now "knocked it out the park".

Russell's adamant "they're very much the team to beat" even though Mercedes hit the top of the times on the final day. He says making improvements across testing at the same circuit is more straightforward, but it's Red Bull's pace at the starts of these tests that's caught his eye.

Come Australia, Russell is already convinced Red Bull will be ahead.

Starts are a 'recipe for disaster'

What first emerged in early testing as a bit of intrigue about the high-revving nature of F1 2026's race starts has turned into a full-on safety issue.

With a good start demanding drivers rev engines for around 10 seconds to spool the turbo up, while at the same time not overcharging the battery, finding consistency is proving very difficult.

And if repeated mistakes are happening in low-stress conditions of pitlane exit practice getaways, it is only going to get worse amid the stress of a real start at a grand prix.

But what has alarmed drivers – and now several team bosses – is that when things go wrong with the starts, they go badly wrong. And that means there is a risk of drivers being left stranded.

Throw into the mix cars on cold tyres being in straight mode, with minimal downforce, and it is little wonder that Piastri has labelled it all a "recipe for disaster".

Calls for changes to the start procedure have grown very loud – with the FIA set to come under pressure over the matter at next week's F1 Commission meeting.

Williams recovery has a pace question mark

Having failed to make the Barcelona test, Williams achieved its primary objective for Bahrain by completing more laps than anyone else.

DISTANCE COVERED (km)

1 Williams 2245
2 McLaren 2240
3 Ferrari 2213
4 Haas 2072
5 Audi 1867
6 Red Bull 1823
7 Racing Bulls 1769
8 Cadillac 1704
9 Alpine 1683
10 Mercedes 1461
11 Aston Martin 1098

This, combined with the fact it had completed two filming days before this test started, has proved the Williams is reliable and allowed some serious work to be done.

However, there are bigger question marks over the performance of the car. Yes, it looks comfortably in the midfield - but not at the head of it. And as this is a team that sees fifth place as its new baseline, that means not everything is all right yet.

The car doesn't look as comfortable on track as the Haas and Alpine. There's a hint of perhaps running a little bit stiffer than ideal, and the grip suffering as a result. The race simulation on Friday afternoon was notably slower than that of the aforementioned teams, too.

But Williams is behind on running, so the key for the next Bahrain test is to understand the data, improve the car set-up and unlock the performance that could take it to the head of the midfield.

The team in the most trouble

Brand new car and engine rules meant there was a good chance a 'crisis team' emerged in testing this year.

Aston Martin might not go quite that far, but it is the team most in trouble. After the bold AMR26 turned heads when it appeared in Spain, its only headlines have been for negative reasons here.

Starting the test unreliably, looking awkward on track all week, and seemingly being seconds off the pace, is a nightmare beginning for a partnership that promises so much.

This is far well short of the standards expected for a team led by Adrian Newey, backed by the financial might of Lawrence Stroll, powered by a works Honda engine, and led on the driving side by Fernando Alonso.

The good news is there's a whole other test still to go to make progress - but as team principal Mike Krack said, the main lesson this week is there's a lot of work to do.

The best midfield team...by default

The smallest team on the grid has much to be happy about after the first test in Bahrain - partly by virtue of other teams struggling conspicuously.

The top four teams from the end of 2025 look a cut above the rest, but Haas, at least after the first week's showing and some solid mileage numbers at Barcelona, appears to be towards the top of the next group.

Ollie Bearman set the eighth-fastest time of the test and Esteban Ocon the ninth-fastest, but more impressive is Haas's place in fourth in the mileage charts - just shy of 400 laps overall.

Team boss Ayao Komatsu was elated with the team's start to 2026 - understandably so - as it really hasn't had a major hitch in Bahrain, and only one at Barcelona.

Unremarkable? Maybe. But maybe it's remarkable just how decent Haas looks right now compared to some others...

Cadillac's had the best start possible

Cadillac logged over 1700 kilometres in Bahrain - more than Alpine, Mercedes and Aston Martin. It also showed respectable pace, ending up 3.7 seconds off on headline laptimes - and 10th-fastest of the 11 teams, ahead of Aston Martin.

As a result, attention has turned to exploiting more of the potential of the car even though no proper performance runs have yet been attempted. All of this means the team has created a firm foundation to build from.

All this points to backmarker respectability. For a start-up team, that is as good as a win given the scale of the challenge.

There were no major problems, it looks the part on and off track and while there is still a huge amount of work to be done, the performance in Bahrain is testament to how rigorously the process of building up the team has been executed.

The real Audi isn't amazing - but isn't bad
Even though Audi ran its 2026 car so early it was always likely to be the one that changed most by Australia, we were surprised by just how different it was this week.

In aerodynamic terms it is close to a B-Spec. The bodywork has been totally revised, with vertical sidepod inlets that somewhat resemble the Mercedes zeropods, little details popped up here and there like slots in the keel floor, and Audi even changed the entire front wing with a different activation system.

The real Audi turned up in both design and function. It's not stunningly good, but it was never expected to be. There's work to do to make the car more compliant and tune the engine better, as it is clearly not as far along as fellow newcomer Red Bull Powertrains.

But it's more reliable, seems reasonable in the midfield, and it now has a sturdier foundation than the one it started building in Spain.

Qualifying prep tactics are odd

While it is too early for Pirelli to know how degradation is going to be with the new 2026 cars and tyres, as nobody is running close to the limit, it is seeing the first evidence of some quirks with its products.

One of these is a potential impact on qualifying – as teams and drivers now have to balance the need for tyres to be in the right operating temperature with having a full battery.

Achieving both those targets is proving to be too difficult for a single lap, as the speed needed to keep the rubber in check ends up burning through too much energy.

Early indications are pointing to teams potentially favouring double preparation laps before qualifying efforts this year – which will give them enough time to get their ducks in a row.

With an extra two cars on the grid this year, if everyone ends up doing extra laps in qualifying it could lead to a few more 'traffic paradise' moments for everyone.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/bahrain-f1-test-nine-things-we-learned/