F1 News Today: Lewis Hamilton Ferrari set for huge upgrade as F1 rivals accused of going backwards

Lewis Hamilton had a positive first week of testing in Bahrain, with his Ferrari setting impressive lap times and proving reliable enough to mark the Italian team out as title contenders going into the 2026 season.

Although Ferrari were not considered the outright best team there is still more to come to suggest that Ferrari, and by extension Hamilton, could even have the potential to start the season as favourites.

F1 technical expert Sam Collins has revealed that even after a strong Bahrain, there is still much more to come.

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George Russell claims Mercedes have gone backwards during F1 testing

George Russell has claimed that his Mercedes team may have taken a step back at Bahrain's first official pre-season test.

The Silver Arrows were the headline makers coming out of Barcelona's shakedown test last month, but the Brit warned this week that their car may have taken a step back in terms of both reliability and performance since then.

A number of figures in the paddock will be taking Russell's comments with a huge, boulder-sized grain of salt, with the prevailing sentiment among teams that Mercedes were going to some lengths to hide their true pace this week.

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Mercedes accused of 'hiding' at F1 testing

Ferrari star Charles Leclerc has warned fans and the rest of the F1 paddock alike that he believes Mercedes are hiding their true pace in pre-season testing.

The first three days of official testing took place in Bahrain this week, with teams starting to get a rough handle on their 2026 machinery while looking to suss out their rivals' pace.

Leclerc isn't the only driver to come out and directly say that Mercedes are concealing a sizeable pace advantage this week. Max Verstappen accused the Silver Arrows of hiding something like a 20 horsepower advantage earlier in the week, saying: "Well, I can tell you one thing: just wait until Melbourne and see how much power they suddenly find."

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Lewis Hamilton just provided the funniest ever moment of F1 testing

It's an unspoken (and obvious) truth about anyone who covers sport that we like to be right. It's equally true that we...often aren't.

Everyone's learned to live with that. However, not everyone is proven wrong as quickly, completely and hilariously as F1 technical expert Sam Collins was at pre-season testing in Bahrain this week.

We've got a lot of love for Sam on these pages (and honestly, he should've been right! This isn't his fault!) but there's a clip of him at the end of the pitlane in Bahrain that we just couldn't ignore. Armando Iannucci couldn't have scripted it better.

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Aston Martin insist ultra slow F1 car CAN be fixed

Aston Martin have been the disappointment of F1's preseason testing so far, but the team has insisted that things aren't all doom and gloom.

Lance Stroll claimed in Bahrain this week that his father's team need to find four seconds a lap of pace from somewhere if they're to compete with the likes of McLaren and Mercedes, setting waves of pessimism rippling around the sport.

Fernando Alonso has also cut a frustrated figure, with the team at the foot of the (notoriously unreliable) first test timing sheets with only brand new team Cadillac for company.

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Billionaire builds $200 million race track designed by F1 icon to race wife and kids

Kenzo Watari, a Japanese billionaire, has had a private racetrack built in the mountains of Chiba prefecture—just about an hour from Tokyo—for his family’s exclusive use.

As CEO of the Cornes Group, a major importer of luxury cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis, Watari already enjoyed an impressive collection of supercars. Yet, he lacked a dedicated venue to truly enjoy them.

Determined to remedy that, he invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a personalised track called Magarigawa, where he, his wife, and his two children could race in complete privacy. The renowned iconic Formula 1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke was brought on board to create this unique facility.

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Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continued to study the history of the sport long before that. Being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

View full biography

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