Lewis Hamilton blitzes rivals in unstoppable Ferrari start

Sheona Mountford Saturday 21 February 2026 19:00

While all eyes on Friday were on Charles Leclerc as he lit up the timing screens for Ferrari, Thursday in Bahrain saw the team excel in a different way, with Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel of the SF-26.

The Ferrari star finished day two of testing fourth fastest, with a best time of 1:33.408, but it wasn't his times that caught everyone's attention in Bahrain.

Hamilton produced a lightning fast start at the Bahrain International Circuit during a practice start to back up rumours that Ferrari have built a power unit that is going to be better than its rivals at blitzing starts in 2026.

While some of his rivals struggled to get off the line, becoming bogged down, the seven-time world champion delighted his fans with a blistering getaway.

Ferrari's start advantage

The race start procedure has been another controversial topic in the build up to the 2026 season, with most of the new cars struggling to get off the start line.

At the first practice start in Bahrain last week, only two cars got off the line as the new power units mean that some cars need to rev up hard for an extended period to jump the line properly.

This was a problem teams were well aware of last year, so much so that Ferrari have designed their power unit to work around this issue and even reportedly blocked a change to the start procedure.

Amid safety concerns, this week the FIA have trialled a longer start procedure where drivers received an additional five seconds between the last car lining up on the grid and the start light sequence.

This helped those at the back of the grid to spool their turbos by revving the engine and has, so far, gone ahead without any major issues. Nevertheless, despite the amended start procedure it is clear Ferrari maintain an advantage on the starts, which could be pretty handy come Melbourne.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari pre-season testing