Pre‑season Formula 1 testing began at the Bahrain International Circuit, giving fans their first public look at the new 2026 cars and power units and replacing the strictly private shakedowns that preceded it. The Sakhir running brought every team on track together for the first time this year; Williams had missed the earlier Barcelona shakedown.

Organizers scheduled three days of running, each made up of two four‑hour sessions, with morning action from 7am GMT and the planned daily program finishing by 4pm. After two days of running, teams concentrated on systems checks, high mileage and data gathering rather than outright lap performance, using short and long programs to validate components, refine setups and check reliability.

Engineers practiced pit stops, collected telemetry and made iterative setup changes while addressing intermittent mechanical glitches, with observers expecting more performance‑focused runs by the afternoon of Day 3. On Day 2 McLaren’s Lando Norris posted the fastest lap among 18 runners; Red Bull showed competitive pace in early running, and Aston Martin planned to put Fernando Alonso into the AMR26 for his first on‑track running during the test.

Media on site provided live reporting and extensive photo coverage, documenting established drivers such as Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and George Russell alongside younger drivers Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Gabriel Bortoleto and Arvid Lindblad. Photographs also showed Sergio Pérez in Cadillac’s entry — Cadillac is the new entrant joining the 11 teams at Sakhir — and coverage framed the tests as a pivotal moment for teams to validate systems and gather baseline data ahead of the season.

Sources