F1 Bahrain pre-season testing live commentary and updates - day 4

Over the lunch break we had a press conference with four drivers, one of which was Hamilton. Here's what he had to say on the new start procedure for 2026, after McLaren boss Andrea Stella called for "imperative" safety tweaks...

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing, Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team, Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Obviously lap time isn't the priority at this stage, as it is mileage instead. So here's the count for the afternoon so far:

Russell - 18

Hamilton - 18

Piastri - 14

Colapinto - 10

Hadjar - 9

Lawson - 18

Sainz - 14

Stroll - 7

Bortoleto - 6

Bearman - 17

Well, we're getting closer to that Melbourne opener with increased track time by the day. So I'd say this is a good time for you to get your predictions in for the 2026 season - go wild... 

Anthony Davidson on TV commentary suspects a gearbox-related issue, as a slow-mo replay shows that as he went down the gears he lost drive. For the first time ever the team is manufacturing its own gearbox as part of its new collaboration with Honda.

A couple more lock ups to report: Stroll into Turn 1 followed by Hamilton also at Turn 1. They look like classic cases of cold tyres failing to bite under heavy braking.

Meanwhile, Bortoleto is on track for Audi so the only drivers missing from today's action is Verstappen and Bottas.

With the Aston Martin back on the track we've been given a good look at the car and it is running with an eye-catching high rake angle. Newey's cars pre-ground effect era always ran with an aggressive rake, but compared to other cars at this test it looks so different. Is different better?

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

Russell locks up his front-right tyre into Turn 4 with those C1 tyres, as he appears to be on a race stint on high fuel. Just moments before that Sainz locked up at Turn 1 in a similar incident.

Nobody is troubling the top lap times at the moment, as Russell goes 14th for the day with a 1m38.291s set on the C1 hard tyres.

Down at Aston Martin, Stroll is in the car and heads out for the first time today.

Russell has reported a heavier steering feel compared to what he felt in the Mercedes last week.

Hadjar has return to action the Red Bull, rather than Verstappen, so given his lost track time we can presume the team has shuffled its plan for today. The French driver also lost half a day in the last test due to a mechanical issue so he's down on laps vs his team-mate. Elsewhere Colapinto is in at Alpine and Sainz is in at Williams.

In this short lull, we'll pick up a few questions that have come in. 

'Victor N' asks: "Apparently you can identify the Audi (fuel smell) with your face turned away from the track. Any confirmation for this from Autosport trackside?"

That is exactly what Jake Boxall-Legge reported during the first test in Bahrain, saying you can smell the Audi coming with the cars detectable using the new sustainable fuels.

Also no sign of Verstappen in the Red Bull yet either, after the team's pressure problem with one of the coolant circuits in the engine from this morning.

And a quick look to Aston Martin's communications points out Stroll will be in action later today... That's the full set then. Still no sign of the Canadian driver as the team continues to attend to the car after its earlier power unit issue.

Plenty of double driver duty today, with Piastri fresh into action for McLaren and moments later is joined by Russell in the Mercedes. In fact, the only team who didn't 100% confirm both drivers would be running today was Aston Martin, who only stated Alonso in the car for the morning session. So, we could get a full 22 today if Stroll takes over.

Fresh from the FIA press conference, Hamilton has jumped into the Ferrari for the first time in this test to get his first experience of his upgraded SF-26. He is running with a lot of flow-vis paint all over the rear wing and diffuser of the car, just as Leclerc did this morning.

Lawson, who has taken over from Lindblad, has also headed out for his first run down at Racing Bulls, while at Mercedes Russell is race suited and booted waiting to hop into the W17.

Bearman has put an end to the silence by heading out for his first run of the day for Haas having taken over from Ocon.

Nobody is chomping at the bit to get out as soon as the session goes green, so we've got a gentle start to the afternoon.

More on the latest news and views from the press conferences as we get it, but we'll turn our attention back to the on-track action as the afternoon session is about to burst into life.

Verstappen wanting to drop the battery element to F1's power unit entirely will definitely chime well with the V8 gang after that push gained traction just over a year ago. For the record, these rules are set to run until at least 2030 so it might be a while until that proposal regains momentum. But it is an undeniable talking point at the heart of what F1 is and what it wants to be.

During the lunch break there's a bumper pair of official press conferences, the first one with the drivers includes Alonso, Bottas, Hamilton, Verstappen and Bortoleto. The key moments and quotes will follow here shortly.

This is how the morning results ended up:

Yes he can! Albon leads but Norris leaks positions to Perez and Antonelli...

See, it is a good way to test for us too.

The track has returned to green and there will be a pretend rolling restart involving Albon, Norris, Antonelli and Perez. Can Albon keep the 'lead' into Turn 1?

Perez has duly ditched those tyres for a fresh set of white-walled C2 tyres.

Meanwhile, we're going through a race control systems check which started with a yellow flag and then a virtual safety car. So that's your lot in terms of representative laps.