Bahrain pre-season test 2026 — reading the tea leaves
Three days of testing in Bahrain. Here’s what looked real and what was sandbagging.
Mileage leaders#
| Team | Total laps | Issues |
|---|---|---|
| McLaren | 467 | None |
| Red Bull | 451 | Day 2 morning hydraulic |
| Williams | 442 | None |
| Mercedes | 428 | Day 3 ERS issue |
| Ferrari | 407 | Day 1 power unit reliability |
| Aston Martin | 372 | Multiple software issues |
McLaren’s reliability on a brand-new car is notable. They’ve clearly done their homework on the dyno. Aston Martin had a visibly difficult test — the new chassis kept stopping for software resets.
Lap time analysis#
Lap times in testing are fundamentally meaningless without context. But for what it’s worth:
- Norris’s quickest on day 3, soft tyre, low fuel: 1:30.3
- Verstappen’s quickest on day 3, soft tyre, low fuel: 1:30.5
- Piastri: 1:30.7
- Leclerc: 1:31.0
The 0.7s gap to Ferrari at the front of the grid is surprising. Either Ferrari are sandbagging (they have a history of it) or they have real pace deficit. Race weekend will tell.
Long runs#
This is more useful than single-lap pace. Red Bull’s long-run pace looked competitive but not dominant. McLaren consistently within a tenth per lap. Mercedes about three tenths off.
What I’d watch for in race 1#
- Does Mercedes have race pace they hid in testing?
- Can Ferrari fix whatever was wrong with their PU reliability?
- Is McLaren’s testing pace transferable to a race weekend?
Spoiler: now that we have race 1 in the books, the answer to all three was “not really”. Same teams up front as last year.