The first F1 pre-season test in Bahrain highlighted a clear focus for teams: gathering data and understanding their new cars. While McLaren, Williams, and Ferrari topped the lap charts, Aston Martin struggled with both mileage and pace, leaving several teams plenty of work ahead of the season opener in Melbourne.
Follow PaddockLines on social media: Facebook and Instagram
The first pre-season test in Bahrain has concluded, and the main story is fairly clear. For most teams, the priority was not lap time, but to collect as much data as possible. Everyone focused on understanding the new car and finding the setup and operating window where the car works well.
In Bahrain alone, three teams were clearly at the top in terms of laps completed. McLaren and Williams both finished the test with 422 laps. Ferrari was just one lap behind with 421. This shows that these teams had very productive three days and completed mileage equivalent to multiple race distances.
Behind them, Haas also had a strong test with close to 400 laps. Red Bull completed running in the mid-300s, while Mercedes stayed below 300 laps in Bahrain. Even if the totals were lower, top teams focused mainly on long runs, setup work and tire understanding instead of chasing headline lap times.
Aston Martin had a more difficult test. They were among the teams with the lowest mileage. In addition, their pace did not look competitive compared to the front runners. Both in terms of reliability and performance, it was not an easy start for them.
The leading teams mainly spoke about positive days and useful data, but they also say there is still work to do to find the right balance and tire operating range before the first race in Melbourne.
Lando Norris:
“I think today was our first bit of understanding on where we stand in terms of pace.”
“It’s still just testing and we’ve got plenty of things we know we can already improve on and work on, so nothing to be worried by, but a productive day for the teams and for myself, and that’s the most important thing.”
“The Red Bulls seem to have done a very good job, and the Ford powertrain seems to be very strong. Fair play to them. But, at the minute, they’re a good step ahead of us.”
Max Verstappen:
“It’s still of course a lot to learn, but I think we’re heading in the right direction. Of course there’s still things we want to do better, for sure. I think we’ll never be satisfied but, like I said, at least we’re not breaking down. I think that no-one really expected that from the start, that we would go out of the garage without exploding! That has been very positive.”
Lewis Hamilton:
“It’s been a positive week overall. We completed a lot of laps and went through the full programme, which allowed us to gather plenty of useful data.”
“The SF-26 has felt generally good, but this generation of car is quite complex and finding the right operating window, especially with the tyres, is key.”
George Russell:
“We’ve struggled with reliability this week and our performance hasn’t been where we want it to be.”
“(On the last day) the car felt better balanced than previous days and our pace was reasonable. That said, it is clear that our competitors have looked much stronger than they did in Barcelona and that we have work to do to catch them up.”
Kimi Antonelli:
“It’s been a difficult test for us as a team, particularly on my side.”
“I only managed just over 30 laps across the first two days.”
“We were able to complete a good amount of single lap work and then came close to finishing a race simulation.”