Formula 1’s second pre-season test of 2026 gets underway in Bahrain on 11 February, but if you’re hoping to spend three straight days glued to live timing and onboard feeds, you’re going to be left wanting.
Broadcast access for this first Bahrain running remains restricted. Local rights-holders will only be able to show the final hour of track action on each of the three days, with a highlights programme scheduled after running finishes. In other words: fans will get a late-day glimpse of the cars, but not the long, revealing middle stints where the real mileage is banked and the meaningful work gets done.
That limitation matters more than it usually would, because this is the first proper, public look at the 2026 machinery in representative conditions. Yes, the cars have already turned wheels in the Barcelona shakedown, but that was behind closed doors. Bahrain is the first time the wider audience gets any kind of window into how teams are interpreting the sport’s big reset — and it’s coming through a keyhole.
On track, the schedule is straightforward: running is set for 10:00 to 19:00 local time in Bahrain, which means a 07:00 start for viewers in the UK. You won’t see the opening phases live, but the last hour should at least give you a flavour of how each day ends — and whether anyone is leaning into late-session performance runs, as teams sometimes do to wrap up a programme.
All 10 teams are expected to be present for Bahrain after Williams missed the first days of the Barcelona test. That alone adds a layer of curiosity, because while pre-season headlines often chase lap times, the more telling stories tend to be the boring ones: whether a new car gets through its plan, whether a team can run long without interruption, and whether drivers are spending their time driving or waiting in the garage.
As ever, it’s worth keeping perspective on what you can (and can’t) read from testing even when you can actually watch it — and with only an hour of live pictures per day, that caution goes double. Bahrain’s 15 corners and abrasive nature are a useful workout for new packages, but teams are still in programme mode: fuel loads vary wildly, engine modes are masked, and run plans are driven by checks and correlation rather than any urge to “show” pace. Sometimes the fastest thing you’ll see all day is simply a team completing a clean sequence while others lose time to stops and starts.
There’s also the Pirelli factor. Teams have been supplied with three sets for the Bahrain test, and with fresh regulations in play this season, tyre understanding is going to be a central pillar of early competitiveness. Even without full live coverage, late-session stints can still be informative if teams choose to finish the day with consistent, repeatable work — the kind that hints at balance and degradation rather than outright speed.
The good news is that the limited access won’t last through the entire pre-season. The third and final test, scheduled for 18–20 February, is set to be shown in full by local broadcasters. UK viewers will be able to follow comprehensive coverage on Sky Sports, with broadcasts beginning at 06:50 UK time, a short break around lunch, and then track action running through to 16:00, followed by an evening wrap show at 20:00.
That creates an odd rhythm to the pre-season for fans: three days where you’re basically piecing together the story from the last hour and end-of-day clips, followed by three days where the sport suddenly opens the doors and lets you see how the week-long jigsaw actually fits together. By the time full coverage arrives, the early surprises — the weird aero solutions, the first reliability gremlins, the initial “that looks quick” whispers — may already have been absorbed by the paddock, leaving the audience to play catch-up.
Still, Bahrain testing is Bahrain testing. Even in a season of change, the real business is rarely visible in a single headline lap. It’s in the quiet competence of a team that rolls out on time, executes the plan, and racks up mileage without drama — and in a year like 2026, that sort of competence might be a performance differentiator all on its own.
