Bahrain tests muddle F1 pecking order despite Ferrari pace

Uncertainty remains over the true F1 pecking order after the three-day Bahrain pre-season test. Ferrari showed impressive long-run pace, heavy mileage and an organized, reliable program — Charles Leclerc praised the team’s runs — and Alpine’s Steve Nielsen suggested Ferrari could be “the class of the field.” At the same time, paddock figures and rival drivers cautioned that several teams appeared to be masking their true speed: some said Mercedes had been hiding performance, others, including Max Verstappen, accused sandbagging, while Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache warned his team were “not the benchmark for sure.” These reactions meant visible timesheets and runs told conflicting stories rather than a definitive hierarchy.

There were concrete signs on both sides. Mercedes topped parts of running, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli leading day three and the team posting a fastest lap and a 1-2 in week one. McLaren showed strong reliability — Oscar Piastri set a Bahrain test record with 161 laps and Andrea Stella said the team completed sign-off checks. Ferrari logged heavy mileage and posted top times on day two; the SF-26’s reliability and Leclerc’s clean long runs fueled the impression the team may have conserved qualifying performance during testing. Observers also flagged Red Bull’s new power-unit efficiency and suggested some performance might still be held in reserve.

Team principals and technical directors repeatedly warned that a three-day test is a poor one-off gauge of season order because teams can mask pace with differing programs, fuel loads, engine modes, energy deployment, lift-and-coast driving and electrical settings. Stella, Leclerc and Wache emphasized that comparisons of single laps are unreliable. A clearer running order will likely emerge only once cars run in competitive trim under weekend procedures — after the second Bahrain test, scheduled for Feb 18–20, and the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne and its early-March qualifying session.