F1 2026 Testing Roundup: Hope for Hamilton and Newey's Aston Martin headache

The final days of F1 2026 pre-season testing have concluded and there are now just two weeks until the first race of the sport's new era.

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff labelled Red Bull the 'benchmark'. Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies implied this was just 'noise'. There is even a glimmer of hope that Lewis Hamilton may be able to enjoy a better season in red than his first.

But this is just testing and though Ferrari topped the timesheets with Charles Leclerc on the final day, the competitive order is likely to remain unclear well into the 2026 championship as each team and driver adapts to the new chassis and power unit rules.

For argument's sake, let's call Ferrari 'the winners' of testing. If the Scuderia's technical ingenuity is what got people the most excited in Bahrain, then the award for garnering the most concern among your rivals after a pre-season nightmare certainly goes to Adrian Newey's Aston Martin.

But how did the rest of the grid fare in Bahrain and what vibes are they giving off on the eve of a brand new season?

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F1 2026 team roundup as pre-season testing concludes

McLaren

Considering the papaya F1 team are back-to-back constructors' champions, they did well to stay away from the drama during pre-season testing ahead of the new regulations cycle.

Aside from reigning champion Lando Norris bearing the No.1 on his back in Bahrain, there wasn't much talk of McLaren having the potential of dominating the new era, and that is exactly the type of prediction they were likely hoping to avoid ahead of the Australian Grand Prix next month.

In total, McLaren completed 1108 laps across the two weeks in Bahrain and the Barcelona shakedown (nine days of testing in total) although they did encounter a small chassis issue on their MCL40 on Friday, preventing Norris from completing the full race simulation. So, still some work to do before Melbourne.

Mercedes

Ah Mercedes, the high flyers of the Barcelona shakedown who relied on team principal Wolff to temper expectations around their new car by pointing the finger at their rivals as the ones to beat.

At this stage of the season there is no way of knowing just how much Mercedes were sandbagging in Bahrain, but their stints in the desert proved they are not immune to experiencing power unit issues despite being a factory team.

Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli began the final day of testing at the wheel of the W17 but was forced to stop on track after experiencing a loss of pneumatic pressure that necessitated a power unit switch. A sign of weakness? Perhaps. But the Silver Arrows still completed the most laps of any team across all of this year's testing (with the caveat that the number of shakedown laps weren't officially confirmed due to the event's private nature) putting in 1214 laps with Antonelli and George Russell.

Red Bull

The energy drink giant's F1 boss once again used his time with the media in Bahrain to insist that he sees Red Bull as the 'fourth-fastest team', certainly not the benchmarkers as Wolff previously suggested.

But Mekies did give kudos to all the staff back in Milton Keynes who worked on getting their first in-house power unit project off the ground. Considering the DM01 is a powertrains project that started from nothing, it's a wonder they didn't have to endure a pre-season testing headache more like Aston Martin's...but more on them later.

Max Verstappen insists Red Bull 'completed the full programme' at testing and with 974 laps under their belt, they seem well-placed to tackle the new regulations come March.

Ferrari

Could this really be it? Is 2026 Ferrari's year? Don't be dramatic, we've not even seen the SF-26 race yet! But even though Hamilton's running was limited this week after the Scuderia encountered a 'technical problem' on Thursday, his stints in the car still made headlines.

Before being sidelined and forced to sit in the garage for hours on Thursday morning in Bahrain, Hamilton debuted an ingenuous rear wing that could rotate 180 degrees on his new Ferrari car.

On top of this,the seven-time champion looked seriously quick straight off the line during this week's practice starts, and the Scuderia's speed was summarised nicely by Leclerc posting their fastest time of 1:31.992 on the final day in Bahrain. 1185 laps between the driver duo in testing, not a bad effort.

Williams

Quite frankly, Williams are probably feeling most thankful for the existence of Aston Martin following this year's pre-season testing.

After James Vowles' squad failed to even produce a car to bring to the January Barcelona shakedown, many fans of the Grove-based outfit were worried they might not even have a car come the first round of 2026.

790 laps and 4275km of running in Bahrain is certainly better than none and Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon should probably just take each day as it comes this season.

Racing Bulls

Similar to Red Bull, Racing Bulls are likely just relieved they managed to get their 2026 machinery out of the garage in Bahrain with a brand new power unit inside it.

Bahrain was also a win for the only rookie on the 2026 grid, Arvid Lindblad, who managed to avoid any crashes. In fact, it was the 18-year-old who achieved the highest daily total of laps after completing 165 on Friday whilst also posting the team's fastest time of the week with a 1:34.149.

In total, Racing Bulls completed around 1053 laps between Lindblad and his first F1 team-mate Liam Lawson.

Aston Martin

Where to even begin with Aston Martin...

Newey's new team persisted through a nightmare six days of testing in Bahrain. Their misery was compounded by the fact they had to limit their running significantly on the final day in the desert after their works partner, Honda, confirmed a shortage of power unit parts and a major battery issue after Fernando Alonso was forced to stop on track on Thursday.

Lance Stroll also brought out a red flag in the second week after experiencing an unknown issue with the AMR26 and the concerns are coming in thick and fast from paddock insiders who have questioned if the team can even make it through a full-length grand prix.

They completed their run plan on the final day of testing after just six laps, bringing their testing total to only 399 laps. This was the lowest lap count out of all 11 teams, even Williams, which is very concerning considering they didn't even turn up to Barcelona.

Haas

Ferrari customer team Haas had a relatively productive couple of weeks of pre-season testing and mileage thanks to Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman.

The American squad also racked up the second-largest lap count behind Mercedes after completing 1185 laps across all of testing.

Who knows whether it was the new Ferrari power unit or Ayao Komatsu's comments that Ocon's maiden season with the team had been disappointing, but the Frenchman certainly looked pretty handy during the practice starts in Bahrain as well.

Audi

Audi have had a rather jam-packed off-season as they completed their transformation from Sauber into the first F1 team to exclusively run under the name of German giants Audi.

But much of the team has remained the same, with their driver duo of Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg returning to the grid with a sleek new look to complete a total of 955 laps.

Audi have once again flown under the radar having been well prepared for the new season after becoming the first team to run a 2026 car on track and show off the new regulations last month. Whether this lead on the rest of the grid will have diminished by the time the Australian GP rolls around however is yet to be seen.

Alpine

Alpine have been tipped to become the most improved constructor in 2026, and if not this season, significant changes are hopefully on the way for the Enstone squad given they finished rock bottom of the team standings in 2025.

But Alpine sacrificed their 2025 campaign to get ahead for the new era, so it would not be a good look if they didn't come away looking at least capable of scoring points as the upcoming season progresses.

Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto completed a total of 1026 laps in Bahrain and Barcelona, but will Alpine be able to make the jump up to the top five in the constructors' standings with a Mercedes engine powering them?

Cadillac

As the only brand new outfit to join the grid in 2026, or actually at all across the last decade, Cadillac had one job to do at pre-season testing. Leave the garage!

Thankfully they managed to do that successfully on most days in Barcelona and Bahrain and are yet another squad who perhaps owe one to Aston Martin and Honda for somehow picking up the wooden spoon of testing instead of them.

The new American F1 team were consistently way off the pace of their rivals and 2026, at least the first half, might be a fight for last place between Aston Martin and Cadillac. But F1's 11th team are just getting started and will be thankful to have put in a total of 750 laps with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez ahead of their first season. Plenty of data to go through before the first race on March 8!

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