F1 Bahrain pre-season testing live commentary and updates - day 1

Good morning, and welcome to Autosport and Motorsport to follow Formula 1's 2026 Bahrain pre-season test!

After Barcelona's five-day shakedown (a test in all but name), during which teams were allowed to run on three days each, this is a three-day test from Wednesday to Friday, with all squads (presumably) running every day.

Cars will be on track from 10am to 2pm and from 3pm to 7pm local time.

Now, where can we watch the test, you might ask?

We can't! Only the last hour of testing will be broadcast, which means that for most of the day we'll rely on our reporters on site, Filip Cleeren, Jake Boxall-Legge and Ronald Vording.

At least, unlike Barcelona, this test is not taking place behind closed doors.

Eight cars have taken to the track. We're still waiting for the Ferrari, the Mercedes and the Alpine.

In other words, Williams is out on track. The team missed the Barcelona test altogether but completed two filming days in the last week.

Team boss James Vowles spoke to the media this morning in Bahrain, so you'll hear about the team's prospects very soon on Autosport and Motorsport!

Ten cars have been seen on track, most of them with areo rakes, barbecue grills that measure aerodynamic data.

The Cadillac is fitted with flow-vis paint that helps engineers see airflows on the car in real life.

We're yet to see the Alpine, but we're barely 20 mins into the day.

In his first run, Carlos Sainz conducted some basic aero correlation work, driving the Williams at a fixed speed of around 200km/h on the straight between Turns 3 and 4.

Lindblad is now going very slowly, and got in the way of Piastri at Turn 8 as the McLaren driver just emerged from the pitlane.

As a reference, last year's pole time was Oscar Piastri's 1m29.841s, so we're still a long way off – which is nothing surprising at this stage.

Racing Bulls is the first team to reach a 10-lap tally today.

Mercedes was the most impressive team at Barcelona in terms of pace and reliability, let's see if that's still the case here.

Colapinto takes to the track in the Alpine after what seemed like a 45-minute delay.

Meanwhile, Racing Bulls is on 20 laps with its Red Bull Ford power unit.

No other car has done more than 10 laps. Alpine-Mercedes props up that table with just four laps for the blue-and-pink car.

By the way, feel free to send any questions our way there – we'll do our best to answer them.

Meanwhile, a happy birthday to Liam Lawson, who turns 24. He's not driving today, so he'll have lots of time to celebrate (perhaps).

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images

Fun fact: no fewer than eight current F1 drivers were born in the 21st century.

The only other one is Jack Doohan, now a Haas reserve driver.