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.

Lewis Hamilton sharply criticized the pace, drivability, and technical rules of Formula 1’s 2026 cars after the opening morning of official pre‑season testing in Bahrain. Driving Ferrari’s SF‑26, he called the new package “slower than GP2” and described the engine and energy‑management systems as “ridiculously complex.” He said the car felt “shorter, lighter” and “like rallying,” warned that adaptive algorithms that learn a driver’s style could be disrupted by incidents such as lock‑ups, and cautioned that the added complexity risks confusing fans.

The criticism centered on the radical shift in the 2026 power‑unit formula, roughly a 50/50 split of power between the internal‑combustion engine and electrical systems. The change has left many cars energy‑starved and forced teams to prioritize energy recovery. That has produced unconventional tactics in testing and qualifying, including deliberate backing off on straights, running lower gears to harvest battery, and long lift‑and‑coast stretches reported as roughly 600 meters. Hamilton nonetheless said basic energy management had felt “pretty straightforward” so far, while conceding that race trim could change the picture.

He qualified his remarks by noting Bahrain’s gusty, dusty, and hotter conditions compared with the Barcelona shakedown, contradicting earlier positive comments that the 2026 cars were “more fun” after Barcelona. Early in testing, he ran wide several times, spun in the morning, and finished roughly one second behind session leader Max Verstappen. He stressed it was still too early to judge the package because teams have not yet optimized tires, aero, ride height, or mechanical balance and are “all in the same boat” as they learn the new systems.

Audi brought a B-spec R26 to the Bahrain pre-season tests, carrying a markedly revised aerodynamic approach. The changes centered on a radically narrow, inverted forward-stretched vertical sidepod inlet and an almost two-tier bodywork arrangement that integrates the upper side-impact spar into the main body while allowing its tip to protrude. Surface-shaping changes include a pelican-style G-line (a pronounced surface crease to help guide airflow), a gentler gulley on the upper sidepod, a channel on the top surface, and a ramped undercut that directs flow toward the floor edges. Those elements are intended to shorten the pathway to the diffuser, increase downwash, and deliver cleaner, higher-energy airflow to the underfloor and rear. Observers compared the concept to Mercedes’ 2022 “zeropod” experiment, although Audi retained conventional sidepod bodywork rather than adopting a full zeropod layout.

Audi ran an early-January Barcelona shakedown using a more conventional inwashing sidepod layout, but that outing was limited to 240 laps by a technical issue. The team completed a later closed test in January and arrived in Bahrain with the B-spec R26. Gabriel Bortoleto ran the revamped car on Wednesday morning at Sakhir, and Nico Hülkenberg drove the afternoon session. The R26 carried large Kiel probe rakes (arrays of flow sensors) and wrapped sensors to correlate on-track airflow with CFD and wind-tunnel work. Audi also introduced hardware changes, including a new twin-pod front-wing activation system and a revised rear-wing activation layout designed to exploit the sport’s relaxed deployment rules.

Team management says the updates are part of an iterative aero development path rather than a wholesale concept switch. However, commentators called the package a clear technical wildcard for the start of the season. Audi engineers are using the Bahrain running to evaluate cooling, reliability, and unconventional flow management under full-test conditions. Factory development will continue, with a second three-day shakedown in Bahrain scheduled for February 18–20 and further parts planned ahead of the Australian season opener on March 8.