F1 Bahrain pre-season testing live commentary and updates - day 1
Follow along for updates from F1's 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain
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We've got a livery question, my favourite kind of question! This time it’s about the Cadillac and its split look for 2026.
Comparisons are being drawn to the BAR from 1999, as the team initially unveiled two liveries for its car but had to combine these into one zipper look – which divided opinion.
Cadillac has, instead, created one livery that flips the colour scheme from one side to the other. One side of the F1 car is predominantly white with black detail, while the other is black with white detail – what do you think of the team’s inaugural look?
Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
Was the 1999 BAR 01 the inspiration behind the Cadillac look? Somehow, I think not.
Jacques Villeneuve, BAR
Photo by: Sutton Images
An alternative inspiration for the Cadillac livery has been raised: Jaguar's asymmetric look that it previously ran in Formula E - what do you think?
Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6
Photo by: Andreas Beil
And the green flag waves once again - the afternoon session is underway!
Here's who's driving for each team this afternoon:
McLaren: Lando Norris
Mercedes: Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Ferrari: Charles Leclerc
Red Bull: Max Verstappn
Williams: Alex Albon
Racing Bulls: Arvid Lindblad
Aston Martin: Lance Stroll
Haas: Esteban Ocon
Alpine: Pierre Gasly
Audi: Niko Hulkenberg
Cadillac: Sergio Perez
We're all caught up in the on-track changes in F1 2026, but McLaren's Oscar Piastri has been making some off-track changes of his own - you can head here to find out more.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
Williams made a good start to testing in Bahrain after missing the Barcelona shakedown. As we wait for cars to hit the track once again, here’s a little more from team boss James Vowles about how far behind his team is.
“There's no doubt we're behind, just simply because others have done three days on track – but not to the extent, in mixed conditions in Barcelona, where I don't feel we can catch up across these six days,” Vowles told reporters this morning.
“We have to remember that in most seasons now, we do three days of testing, we've doubled that this year and the power units are, for the most part, performing very well. Again, yesterday it ran flawlessly [on a filming day], so that's why across these six days you can do some quite high mileage numbers that get you back to where you want to be.”
And the track action is go! Lando Norris and Max Verstappen are the first drivers to hit the track this afternoon.
Charles Leclerc is the next driver to head out on track, he's looking to add to the running that team-mate Lewis Hamilton competed in the morning for Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
On the topic of Ferrari, the SF-26 has a novel design on its shark fin over the engine cover. It features a stepped, or serrated, design, which is only seen on the SF-26 and McLaren's MCL40.
We've got more video!
Williams is still in the garage as Alex Albon prepares to make his 2026 testing debut, and it appears as though the FW48 has just woken up.
While Williams wakes up its racer, two other drivers have headed out on track! Kimi Antonelli is in the hot seat for Mercedes, while Pierre Gasly is on driving duties at Alpine.
Aston Martin has been flying under the radar so far, with it completing just 33 laps this morning with Lance Stroll at the wheel - and his best time was more than four seconds off the pace set by Max Verstappen.
The team clearly has an eye-catching car this year, but what do you think of its prospects?
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
ICYMI: Audi takes radical approach with 2026 sidepods in Bahrain F1 test
Audi's R26 has been augmented with a very different sidepod design for the start of Bahrain's Formula 1 testing ahead of the 2026 season, following the team's conventional approach to the Barcelona running.
First seen with an inlet with a minor overbite in the Barcelona shakedown, the sidepods used there took more of an inwashing approach - the rear edge of the sidepods had been tucked in, with a smoother upper surface.
The Swiss-German outfit has introduced something far more complex in terms of topography for Bahrain...
The return of Max Verstappen dominance?
The general consensus leaving Barcelona was that Mercedes was the team to beat, but its boss Toto Wolff has another team in mind...
"Look at the energy deployment today," he said of Red Bull after Verstappen went quickest this morning.
"They are able to deploy far more energy on the straights than everybody else. I mean, over consecutive laps.
"On a single lap we have seen it before, but now we have seen it on 10 consecutive laps with the same kind of straightline deployment.
"I would say that as per today, on the first official day of testing, which is always with a caveat, they have set the benchmark today."
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
Speaking of Verstappen, how are we liking the look of the number three on his Red Bull?
While talking of Verstappen was happening, a red flag occurred at the track. It's a result of Hulkenberg stopping at T14 with his wing mirror lights blinking.
I've spent the afternoon so far meandering down the pitlane, and it's great to see these cars in the flesh. But the little design details add to the intrigue here; even though the bounding boxes for car designs are very narrow, there's so many different little solutions across the board.
For example, let's take the detail around the front wing. You've got lots of little flicks on the vortex tunnel for outwash, the outboard winglets mounted to the endplate, and different tunnel approaches altogether.
Ferrari has apparently put all of its stock in the tunnel design, as it's chosen not to endow its front wing with too many flicks and tricks.
Wolff: Mercedes "screwed" if FIA and F1 side with rivals in engine row
The Mercedes engine is at the centre of attention at the start of Formula 1 testing in Bahrain. Although Toto Wolff emphasised that Red Bull is the benchmark in his view, that does not change the fact that rivals are working on plans to get the compression ratio checks adjusted before the start of the season.
Rivals are urging the FIA to change the procedures, as Mercedes complies with the 16:1 ratio during static tests at ambient temperature, but can achieve a higher ratio while running on track. Like Williams team principal James Vowles, Wolff stresses that all Mercedes engines are fully legal, although he no longer categorically rules out the possibility of intervention.
Verstappen hits a century
Green flag running has returned and the four-time world champion became the first driver today to clock 100 laps. So now would be a good time to have a look at the mileage for today:
- Verstappen - Red Bull (RBPT) — 101 laps
- Ocon - Haas (Ferrari) — 81 laps
- Sainz - Williams (Mercedes) — 77 laps
- Lindblad - Racing Bulls (RBPT) — 75 laps
- Russell - Mercedes (Mercedes) — 56 laps
- Piastri - McLaren (Mercedes) — 54 laps
- Hamilton - Ferrari (Ferrari) — 52 laps
- Bortoleto - Audi (Audi) — 49 laps
- Bottas - Cadillac (Ferrari) — 49 laps
- Stroll - Aston Martin (Honda) — 36 laps
- Albon - Williams (Mercedes) — 34 laps
- Leclerc - Ferrari (Ferrari) — 33 laps
- Perez - Cadillac (Ferrari) — 29 laps
- Colapinto - Alpine (Mercedes) — 28 laps
- Hulkenberg - Audi (Audi) — 27 laps
- Gasly - Alpine (Mercedes) — 21 laps
- Norris - McLaren (Mercedes) — 18 laps
- Antonelli - Mercedes (Mercedes) — 1 lap
You'll probably notice Antonelli at the bottom of that list with just one lap. It turns out that Mercedes found an issue when making set-up changes, but the Silver Arrows should still return to the track with plenty of time remaining.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
Early bath for Lindblad
The F1 rookie has produced an impressive day with 75 laps in the Racing Bulls. But his day is now done after a fluid leak on the VCARB 03.
Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images
Hamilton's new race engineer
Lewis Hamilton has a new race engineer for F1 2026 after the decision to split with Riccardo Adami, who worked with the world champion during his debut year at Ferrari.
The Briton was asked about the topic in Bahrain, saying: “It was obviously a very difficult decision to make. I'm really grateful for all the effort he put in last year, and his patience, and, you know, it was a difficult year for us all.”
Serving him from Bahrain will be Carlos Santi, previously Raikkonen's race engineer at the Scuderia, but whether he completes the season is still undecided.
“Early on into the season, it's going to be switching up again, working with someone new, that's what you need to look forward to," Hamilton said.
"It would be ideal to start the season with people with whom you have done multiple seasons and that have been through thick and thin. But at the moment this is the situation we have.
“It is a situation that affects me as well, trying to do the best I can – we are trying to do the best we can.”
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Ayman Yaqoob - Anadolu - Getty Images
What to look forward to in F1 2026
Not a great deal is currently happening on track with only six drivers in their cars - Verstappen, Leclerc, Ocon, Albon, Hulkenberg and Gasly - so how about we use this opportunity to discuss what we're looking forward to in F1 this year?
For me, there's a lot to pick from, but analysing the progress down at Williams to see if skipping Barcelona really wasn't the end of the world is certainly up there...
Alexander Albon, Williams
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images
Speaking of things we're looking forward to, how about Verstappen's potential conquest of the Nurburgring 24 Hours?
Norris fastest
We've a new driver at the top of the leaderboard, as Norris knocks off his foe Verstappen with a 1m34.669s for the reigning world champion.
How much does that mean for the season ahead? Very little.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
For those in the UK, turn on Sky Sports and you can finally watch F1 cars on track for the first time in 2026!
Let's have a look at the lap counts per engine supplier shall we?
1. Mercedes (four teams) - 328 laps
2. Ferrari (three teams) - 295 laps
3. Red Bull Powertrains (two teams) - 191 laps
4. Audi (one team) - 99 laps
5. Honda (one team) - 36 laps
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
One of the reasons behind a lack of running for the Honda power unit in the Aston Martin can be explained through the following team statement:
"Our power unit test plan today with Lance went as planned in the morning, however, we detected a data anomaly this afternoon," said the Silverstone squad.
"We are now proceeding with precautionary checks on the PU to understand the exact root cause before we can resume testing."
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images
The 2026 cars are more reliant on electric energy with the power units now featuring a near 50-50 split between that and the internal combustion energy.
That means energy deployment will play a bigger role in the racing and Cadillac's Valtteri Bottas reckons getting used to that is a reason for so many drivers going off at Turn 10 in Bahrain.
"Today the wind direction has been tailwind, so that explains many of the things. But one point to note is everyone is still getting grips on their deployment," he said.
"We're trying different things in different laps and that brings quite a bit of variability on the braking points. So actually what had me over there was I had quite a lot more deployment on that lap into the corner, so I arrived there much faster, which is not something we had before.
"We would always arrive more or less with the same speed. But now it can vary like 10 to 20 kph, which makes a difference in the braking points.
"So these are the things that we're now learning with these new cars and power units."
Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing
Photo by: Marcel van Dorst / EYE4images / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Agree with Lewis?
Two drivers on a century of laps
- Verstappen - Red Bull (RBPT) — 128 laps
- Ocon - Haas (Ferrari) — 106 laps
- Sainz - Williams (Mercedes) — 77 laps
- Lindblad - Racing Bulls (RBPT) — 75 laps
- Leclerc - Ferrari (Ferrari) — 64 laps
- Albon - Williams (Mercedes) — 64 laps
- Hulkenberg - Audi (Audi) — 59 laps
- Russell - Mercedes (Mercedes) — 56 laps
- Piastri - McLaren (Mercedes) — 54 laps
- Hamilton - Ferrari (Ferrari) — 52 laps
- Perez - Cadillac (Ferrari) — 52 laps
- Bortoleto - Audi (Audi) — 49 laps
- Bottas - Cadillac (Ferrari) — 49 laps
- Norris - McLaren (Mercedes) — 41 laps
- Gasly - Alpine (Mercedes) — 40 laps
- Stroll - Aston Martin (Honda) — 36 laps
- Colapinto - Alpine (Mercedes) — 28 laps
- Antonelli - Mercedes (Mercedes) — 16 laps
Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images
We're now in the final 10 minutes of day one - how time has flown!
In terms of winners from the session, Verstappen is who comes straight to mind after clocking the most mileage while being second fastest on the leaderboard. Toto Wolff even labelled Red Bull as the "benchmark".
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Marcel van Dorst / EYE4images / NurPhoto via Getty Images
The chequered flag is now waving in Bahrain to mark an end to day one of testing!
Norris went fastest, but it was Verstappen in second who clocked the most mileage with 135 laps.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images
While the 2026 campaign is all about a new, exciting era for F1, that doesn't mean we should just forget about everything which came before it.
So as part of our new Autosport Retro series, chief editor Kevin Turner has listed his 10 greatest F1 teams of all time!
Watch: Top 10 F1 Teams | Autosport Retro
A more in-depth look from F1 on the fastest laps. Verstappen went quickest in sector one, Piastri in two and Norris three.
By: Autosport Staff
