Haas F1 star astonished by Lewis Hamilton trick

Lewis Hamilton made the most of limited track time on Thursday morning, showcasing a fresh innovation on Ferrari’s SF-26 during pre-season testing in Bahrain.

The seven-time world champion was scheduled to handle driving duties for the entirety of day two in the final week of running at the Bahrain International Circuit. However, much of his morning was spent in the garage, with the car concealed behind privacy screens as the team worked behind closed doors.

After nearly three hours on the sidelines, the 41-year-old finally returned to the track. But by the lunch break of the penultimate day of testing, Hamilton had managed just five laps — leaving rivals intrigued by what Ferrari may have been hiding.

But despite the unknown issue hampering the Scuderia's track running, the Italian squad still managed to get the whole paddock talking after Hamilton's car demonstrated a rather radical rear wing early on in the day.

Ferrari's rotating rear wing leaves rivals in shock

The Scuderia appear to have found a clever loophole in the F1 regulations which don't explicitly state that the wing has to be mounted the right way up when the active aero is deployed.

This allowed them to debut the upside down rear wing as Hamilton drove down the straight at the Bahrain International Circuit, before coming back out for the afternoon session without the new device on show.

Ferrari's interpretation of the rules has left their rivals in shock, with British F1 star Ollie Bearman admitting he initially thought the wing was broken when he first saw it complete it's 180-degree rotation on Hamilton's car.

Bearman, who drives for Ferrari's customer team Haas, was quoted by The Race as saying on Thursday: "'I was behind Lewis and I saw it and I was like, f*** what happened?

"I thought it was broken, but honestly, it's super innovative."

Despite their rear wing quickly becoming the talk of the paddock in Bahrain, Ferrari aren't necessarily adopting it for the 2026 campaign, and may continue to assess its performance across the final day of testing when Charles Leclerc gets back behind the wheel.

When does the 2026 F1 season start?

The final day of pre-season testing takes place in Bahrain on Friday, February 20.

All 11 teams will then be back in action when the 2026 season starts in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix. The first race of the year takes place on March 8 at 3pm local time (AEDT), 4am GMT, and 11pm ET.

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