Mercedes used the Bahrain pre-season test to probe the W17’s pace and tire behavior, finishing with George Russell posting the fastest lap of the week — a 1:33.918 on the soft C3 tire — while Lewis Hamilton sat second in the morning order. Russell completed 78 laps in the final morning and handed the car to Kimi Antonelli for afternoon running; the quick one-lap pace, including the only sub-1:34 lap of the session, contrasted with the longer-run work Mercedes prioritized during the test.

That long-run work included a 58-lap full race simulation by Russell that provided the clearest look at the W17’s tire degradation. On the soft C3s Russell’s first representative lap in the race run was 1:40.4, but lap times drifted into the 1:42s by lap 15 with an in-lap of 1:43.5 on lap 18 — roughly a two-second drop across that stint. The medium C2 stint began with a 1:38.6 and produced consistent 1:39.0–1:39.9 laps for more than a dozen laps, showing only about a 1.3-second drop over that window. The hard C1s produced an opening 1:38.2 and then hovered between 1:39 and 1:40 with the flattest degradation of the day, leading Mercedes to judge the medium and hard compounds more promising for race distance than the softs.

Mercedes also used the test to recover and collect mileage after earlier reliability and setup issues; the team logged heavy running across the week and the morning programs suggested greater stability and consistency after initial problems. Russell had warned after the opening day that “there’s work for us to do to get the W17 into a happier place,” and the session’s combination of short-run speed and detailed long-run tire data will form the basis of further setup changes and updates ahead of the next test phase.

Mercedes closed out the final day of the opening 2026 Bahrain pre-season test with a one-two, Kimi Antonelli setting the fastest lap of the day and the test. Antonelli took over from George Russell in the afternoon and posted a 1:33.669, eclipsing Russell’s morning benchmark of 1:33.918 by 0.249 seconds; Russell finished second after a 78-lap morning run.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was the highest-placed runner behind the Mercedes pair, finishing third after heavy mileage during the day. Hamilton completed roughly 150 laps but stopped on track with just over 10 minutes remaining in the final session, bringing running to an early halt. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri logged in excess of 150 laps and finished fourth, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and team-mate Isack Hadjar lining up behind him.

The final day — and the three-day test overall — produced strong single-lap showings for Mercedes but a confused pecking order, as teams ran differing programs and on-track disruptions (including earlier Cadillac stoppages and the late Hamilton stoppage) curtailed some running. The closing sessions delivered mileage and reliability data across the grid while underlining Mercedes’ apparent one-lap pace advantage heading into the season.

McLaren urged urgent safety changes to 2026 Formula 1 race-start procedures after testing showed the new, high-electric-output power units have complicated starts and increased collision risk. Team principal Andrea Stella called the refinements “imperative,” warning that the near-50% electric output of the 2026 power units, combined with the removal of the MGU-H and DRS, has created conditions that can leave power units unprepared on the grid, foster widespread lift-and-coast behavior and produce large closing-speed differentials. Stella proposed straightforward fixes — allowing more time on the grid and adjusting battery power allocation — and said those measures should be adopted before the season opener in Melbourne; he expects the issues to be tabled urgently at the next F1 Commission meeting. Stella also referenced the severity of past high-closing-speed incidents, citing Mark Webber’s 2010 Valencia accident and Riccardo Patrese’s 1992 Estoril crash to underline the stakes.

The technical problem is that, with the MGU-H removed and much greater electric output, teams must keep the V6 turbo spooled for around 10 seconds to avoid lag and battery overcharging. Drivers were observed holding the throttle for more than 10 seconds during shakedowns and testing, and mistiming the spooling can trigger anti-stall interventions or slow getaways. The final day of Bahrain pre-season testing ended chaotically: a scheduled FIA practice start went badly wrong, Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari stalled with under 10 minutes remaining, only three of seven cars launched cleanly on a second attempt (Isack Hadjar, Kimi Antonelli and Sergio Perez), Oscar Piastri hesitated, and Franco Colapinto nearly crashed after an anti-stall issue. Teams attributed the instability to the new technical package; paddock analysis suggested roughly one in 20 starts are being fumbled, and drivers such as Gabriel Bortoleto described the routine as “complicated,” saying he sometimes “loses count” and calling it “quite a mess.”

The testing episode has intensified pressure on the FIA, teams and drivers to find mitigations before race starts under the new regulations. McLaren warned that drivers starting at the back may not be guaranteed the full 10 seconds needed to spool the turbo, a concern echoed by Valtteri Bottas, who said a likely penalty putting him at the back for Melbourne made him doubt there would be enough time to spool properly. Any change to the start sequence will have to balance safety, operational practicality and competitive fairness: a comparable proposal was previously rejected after Ferrari, and Ferrari principal Fred Vasseur opposed it on the grounds that Ferrari’s power-unit development favored a shorter start sequence. The start-procedure proposal will be revisited in fresh talks as stakeholders seek urgent agreement before the season begins.

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.