F1 Bahrain pre-season testing live commentary and updates - day 3
Follow along for updates on the final day of F1's first 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain
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Hello, hi, good morning!
It's Friday and we're back for the final day of the first 2026 Bahrain F1 test. Owen here again to keep you company for the first few hours, with the on-track action set to kick off shortly.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
It's going to be another busy day on track at the Bahrain International Circuit, here's who's in action in the morning session for each team:
Mclaren: Oscar Piastri
Mercedes: George Russell
Red Bull: Max Verstappen
Ferrari: Lewis Hamilton
Williams: Carlos Sainz
Racing Bulls: Liam Lawson
Aston Martin: Lance Stroll
Haas: Oliver Bearman
Audi: Gabriel Bortoleto
Alpine: Franco Colapinto
Cadillac: Valtteri Bottas
For a more in depth look at who's driving when over the test, head here.
And the track goes live in Bahrain!
Reports from the track are that conditions are nice so far, with the air temperature at 25C and the track a little warmer at 29.5C - lovely stuff.
The wind that was catching a few drivers out yesterday has also dropped today, with the track currently experiencing a balmy 7mph north westerly breeze.
But while we wait for cars to head out on track, let's check in with reigning champions McLaren.
The papaya team has led the lap count and posted some fast times, but it doesn't seem to have a spring in its step just yet. In fact, driver Lando Norris thinks his team is still lacking in some areas.
Specifically, it seems to come down to the energy recover and re-deployment, which he has explained here:
And we have a car on track! It's the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll that heads out first, here he is scooting along the pit lane in the AMR26.
Aston Martin has had a tough few days of testing after it was hit with power unit issues on Wednesday - following its delayed arrival to Barcelona last month.
Yesterday was stronger, with Fernando Alonso managing 98 laps in the AMR26 - but this still put the team in the bottom four in terms of mileage. And while lap times don't mean much in testing, the Spaniard's best of 1m38.248s was almost four seconds off the pace of leader Charles Leclerc.
And it turns out to be a short-lived tour for Stroll as he's back in the garage now, according to our reporters on the ground
While we wait for the timing screens to spark into life, here's an update on what the drivers have been up to in the first 40 minutes of day three.
| P |
Driver |
Team |
Best Lap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russell | Mercedes | 1:34.075 | 12 |
| 2 | Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:35.341 | 7 |
| 3 | Lawson | Racing Bulls | 1:37.238 | 12 |
| 4 | Sainz | Williams | 1:37.322 | 12 |
| 5 | Bearman | Haas | 1:37.764 | 6 |
| 6 | Hamilton | Ferrari | 1:37.963 | 8 |
| 7 | Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:42.639 | 6 |
| 8 | Colapinto | Alpine | 3 | |
| 9 | Bortoleto | Audi | 8 | |
| 10 | Piastri | McLaren | 5 | |
| 11 | Bottas | Cadillac | 2 |
We've been hearing from Alpine's Steve Nielsen in Bahrain about the engine performance on display at the test.
When asked about how the manufacturers stack up, he said: "If you had asked me in Barcelona, Mercedes were a step ahead. If you had asked me on Wednesday, Red Bull were a step ahead. If you'd ask me yesterday, Ferrari look really strong. It changes day by day."
Will it fluctuate race by race depending on the circuit's energy demands? "Massively," he added.
Red Flag! Valtteri Bottas has stopped his Cadillac out on track and is out of the car.
While the red flag waves, Alain Michel has asked if teams are already using their sustainable fuels while testing in Bahrain.
Yes, they are! And a fun titbit from the track is that this is giving each team a unique smell. While strolling the track yesterday, tech expert Jake Boxall-Legge had this to say on the matter:
"It's occurred to me that with the new fuels, all manufacturers will have their own distinct scent. The Audi stinks, to the point that you can be facing away the circuit and smell it coming."
Our first snippet of video for the day comes from Mercedes, here's George Russell hitting the track in the W17
Straight out on track on day three 🙌 pic.twitter.com/cZMjkCJbqO
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) February 13, 2026
On the topic of Mercedes, Max Verstappen has waded into the debate surrounding its engine and the controversial compression ratio trick that it's been accused of using.
He doesn't buy the claims that it only adds 2/3HP to the cars, and instead says that Toto Wolff should 'definitely add a zero to that!'
Whether that's the case or not, Mercedes has come out the blocks flying today. George Russell just set the fastest lap of the test so far with his 1m33.918s tour of the Bahrain circuit.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
Russell is closely followed by the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton, who is is less than three tenths off with the second quickest lap of the day so far.
The pair are also close on lap count, with Russell on a tally of 16 and Hamilton on 15 so far.
Both are eclipsed in this regard by Liam Lawson in the Racing Bulls, who is sitting pretty on 21 laps for the first 80 minutes of testing.
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
Let's take a closer look at some of the variety on display with the 2026 machinery.
Here's the SF-26 for Ferrari and McLaren's MCL40 side-by-side, clearly showing off the differences in sidepod design, variety on the front wing and a whole raft of other tweaks and changes.
Even between engine customers the differences are stark - just look at Cadillac's first F1 racer compared with the Haas VF-26, which both use Ferrari power units under all that bodywork.
Then there's the AMR26 and Audi's R26, which both take elements of the new rules to varying extremes.
Right, enough pretty pictures - here's a lap count update.
After two hours of running, Carlos Sainz is leading the way with Williams, having completed 40 laps of the Bahrain Circuit with his Mercedes-powered FW48. He's followed by Liam Lawson on 37 and Lewis Hamilton is further back on 30 laps.
At the bottom of the table is Valtteri Bottas, who managed just eight laps before his Cadillac stopped to bring out the red flag.
Carlos Sainz, Williams (Mercedes) – 40 laps
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls (RBPT) – 37 laps
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari (Ferrari) – 30 laps
Franco Colapinto, Alpine (Mercedes) – 30 laps
George Russell, Mercedes (Mercedes) – 29 laps
Max Verstappen, Red Bull (RBPT) – 26 laps
Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi (Audi) – 26 laps
Oscar Piastri, McLaren (Mercedes) – 25 laps
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin (Honda) – 24 laps
Oliver Bearman, Haas (Ferrari) – 20 laps
Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac (Ferrari) – 8 laps
This lap count has sparked questions about our own lap tally at the top of the page.
In our live timing, the lap count listed is just the number of laps completed on the set of tyres that a driver is currently using. Next to that is the number of times a driver has passed through the pits so far in the session.
So in George Russell's case at the time of writing, he's on soft tyres that have run five laps, and he's boxed six times in the last two hours - giving us 5L 6PIT.
And just like that, the Mercedes driver switches to a new set of medium tyres.
Teams have access to Pirelli's C1 (hard), C2 (medium) and C3 (soft) compounds out in Bahrain, which are the three hardest tyres in the Italian manufacturer's F1 range.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images
While not quite on the same level as the drones that are chasing competitors around the bobsleigh track in the Winter Olympics, this footage from Williams of the FW48 on track in Bahrain is mighty cool.
One more day. One last push 💪 pic.twitter.com/8FheWrvuVi
— Atlassian Williams F1 Team (@WilliamsF1) February 13, 2026
At the track, Jake Boxall-Legge has headed out to find out more about how the drivers are adapting to the new regulations. He says:
“I'm down at Turn 10, aiming to watch how the drivers cope with the downshifts into first gear. Because the revs spike, the car wants to push on - and that makes it very easy to understeer into the corner. I've seen a Red Bull and a McLaren waver at the front end, but the two cars generally look stable. Colapinto has been a bit scared of the apex here, while the VCARB's rear end is sliding quite a lot here as the balance shifts.”
While JBL is out on track, Ronald Vording is meandering through the pit lane to see what he can find, and he's stumbled upon the Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas.
The American team caused the only red flag of the session so far when Bottas stopped on track earlier.
He's also confirmed that Gabriel Bortoleto isn't on intermediate tyres, as the timings currently show - that would be a rogue test plan for the new team!
One final nugget from Ronald for now, lots of drivers are reportedly doing practice starts in this morning's session, which he says "do indeed look and sound a lot more complex than ever before, including that much longer build-up."
And with that, my stint on the live blog comes to an end for today and I'll leave you in the capable hands of Ed Hardy - thanks for joining on the early shift!
The most interesting part of this week has perhaps been the media sessions, rather than the on-track action. Because there has been some corkers, from Verstappen's fiery rant on the 2026 regs to Stroll's downbeat assessment of the situation at Aston Martin.
My favourite of all, however, was Hadjar's sarcastic response when asked about his crash in the Barcelona shakedown and how Gasly endured something similar in 2019.
“When I crashed, I thought about it directly, I thought about Pierre. So I went on Twitter and I read everything, and I was like, ‘I'm screwed for the whole season’ and that's how I moved on, honestly," said Hadjar.
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
It also got your scribe thinking, what is your favourite driver press conference moment from over the years? Sebastian Vettel has a few good ones...
'ReneKapp' says Russell must be very close to a full race distance. Well, the Mercedes driver has now completed 78 laps so he's actually surpassed that, given the Bahrain GP is 'only' 57 tours.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
Our roaming reporter Ronald is still in the pitlane, so here is a picture of Hamilton for your enjoyment. If it wasn't for that HP logo, I feel as though the Ferrari would be one of the nicest liveries on the grid!
There were some funny scenes down at Mercedes earlier, as the team struggled to get the nose off the car after George Russell returned to the garage. It went on for more than five minutes and in the end, pretty much the entire crew was trying to pull it off.
Thanks Ronald, so in other words:
*"Breaking: F1 nose offers the most competition Mercedes will face all season!"
*a joke
'jjbhogal' asking about which cars are on track and who is in the pitlane. Currently, Russell and Sainz are in their respective garages, while the rest are out.
It's probably worth noting that Russell is the first driver of the week to complete a lap that's sub 1m34s, so the times are getting quicker by the day!
We're now into the final 10 minutes of the session and Russell has completed the most mileage with 78 laps, but Lawson isn't far behind on 77 and it looks as though he's about to surpass him with the VCARB 03 still out of its garage.
1. Russell - 78
2. Lawson - 77
3. Piastri - 69
4. Hamilton - 65
5. Sainz - 65
6. Colapinto - 64
7. Bearman - 62
8. Verstappen - 61
9. Bortoleto - 58
10. Stroll - 53
11. Bottas - 32
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images
By: Autosport staff
