2026 Formula 1 Bahrain preseason test: Audi reveals striking sidepods

McLaren were one day late to join the private shakedown in Barcelona, and Aston Martin arrived on the penultimate day, while Williams did not even show up.

However, all 11 teams were present in Bahrain on Wednesday and ready to start some serious testing of their brand new 2026 machines.

While Williams will have to do some basic checks on the FW48, something they should've done in Barcelona, their rivals will be working on upgrades, adding performance to their cars while preparing the package they will be racing with in the season-opening race in Melbourne on March 8.

In terms of driver lineups, McLaren will have Lando Norris kicking off the test while Oscar Piastri takes over in the afternoon.

Mercedes also split the driving duties with George Russell (AM) and Kimi Antonelli (PM), as Max Verstappen will handle the driving all day.

Lewis Hamilton will drive in the morning for Ferrari before handing over to Charles Leclerc in the afternoon, while Arvid Lindblad will drive all day for Racing Bulls.

Williams will have Carlos Sainz driving before lunch while Alex Albon takes over after that, with Lance Stroll handling Aston Martin's driving duties solo.

Audi put Gabriel Bortoleto in the car in the morning with Nico Hulkenberg set to take over afterwards, while Franco Colapinto starts Wednesday's running for Alpine with Pierre Gasly concluding it.

Valtteri Bottas will be the first Cadillac driver in the cockpit as Sergio Perez takes over while Haas have Esteban Ocon driving their VF-26 all day.

While Audi turned heads with the unique design of their R26's sidepods, Verstappen ended the session fastest of all with a lap time of 1:35.433, which is almost six second slower that pole at the same venue in 2025 which shows how much the times are currently irrelevant.

The Dutchman managed an impressive 65 laps in the RB22 while Piastri posted the second fastest lap time with 54 laps under his belt.

Russell was third fastest in the Mercedes W17 while accumulating 56 laps with Hamilton fourth fastest in his SF-26 and putting in 52 laps.

Ocon drove 64 laps in the Haas posting the fifth fastest time while Lindblad was sixth fastest but driving an whopping 75 laps in the VCARB03.

Williams, despite their early woes, had an encouraging start with Sainz putting in the biggest number of laps, 77, and ending the morning session sebenth fastest.

Bortoleto, was eighth fastest in the Audi and racked up 49 laps with Bottas ninth fastest in the Cadillac after driving 49 laps as well.

Stroll was tenth fastest in the Aston Martin having managed only 33 laps while Colapinto was last in the Alpine with only 28 laps on the board.

The Argentine and his A526 caused the only Red Flag in the session after stopping on track and managed to rejoin the action after one hour.