Charles Leclerc signed off 2026 pre-season testing by doing what the paddock quietly expects Ferrari to do more often under these new rules: look sharp when it matters, and do it late in the day when the track starts resembling a qualifying session rather than a science project.
On the final day in Bahrain, Leclerc kept chiselling away at the benchmark as the light faded and the circuit came to him. His 1:31.992 ended up comfortably clear of the field — and, perhaps more tellingly, it didn’t look like a time achieved by emptying the toolbox and praying. Ferrari’s car appeared increasingly composed as conditions stabilised, which is usually a better omen than a single headline lap banged in at lunchtime.
Lando Norris finished second for McLaren, 0.879s back, but his day told a different story: only 47 laps, suggesting McLaren’s priorities were less about chasing the clocks and more about getting its programme ticked off with minimal fuss. Max Verstappen slotted into third for Red Bull, 1.117s down, after 65 laps that looked more like a team sticking to its own rhythm than reacting to Ferrari’s late push. George Russell put Mercedes fourth with a hefty 82-lap haul, again reinforcing the sense that mileage — and the quality of it — has been the real currency of this test.
If there was a theme to the final day, it was that the teams who’ll start 2026 on the front foot are likely the ones that managed to blend performance runs with long stints without drama. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly did exactly that: fifth quickest, 118 laps, and no obvious smoke alarms. Haas, too, banked useful work with Ollie Bearman sixth (88 laps) and Esteban Ocon 12th (82), the kind of quietly productive day that can pay you back in March when everyone else is still trying to understand their own tyre behaviour.
Audi’s new line-up kept racking up the steady mileage that teams crave at this stage. Gabriel Bortoleto went seventh with 71 laps, while Nico Hulkenberg logged 73 in 15th. Not a glamorous headline, but for a project still building its baseline, clean running is its own form of momentum.
The other end of the garage spectrum belonged to Aston Martin, where the final day effectively never got going. Honda confirmed early on that the problem which curtailed Fernando Alonso’s Thursday was a battery issue, and the knock-on effect was brutal: a shortage of parts left Lance Stroll with a token six laps and no timed lap. Aston Martin later confirmed that was enough to complete its plan for the day — but it’s hard to dress up what that really means with Melbourne looming. Every team leaves a test with unanswered questions; Aston Martin leaves with questions it didn’t even get to ask.
And then there was the outlier story that will have been noticed up and down the pit lane: Arvid Lindblad’s lap count. Formula 1’s only rookie for 2026 got through 165 laps for Racing Bulls — almost three full Grand Prix distances — and ended the day ninth on the times. It’s difficult to overstate how valuable that sort of uninterrupted track time is for a newcomer in a regulation reset year, when the cars have their own quirks and the engineers need clean feedback rather than guesswork.
Williams also went big on mileage, with Carlos Sainz completing 141 laps en route to 10th. That number is the sort teams cling to when the first race is coming quickly: it’s data, it’s correlation, it’s the ability to walk into the opening weekend without feeling like you’re still shaking down the car.
The full top 10 from the final day read like this: Leclerc from Norris and Verstappen, Russell fourth, Gasly fifth, Bearman sixth, Bortoleto seventh, Kimi Antonelli eighth, Lindblad ninth, and Sainz 10th. Oscar Piastri was 11th, Ocon 12th, Isack Hadjar 13th, Valtteri Bottas 14th, Hulkenberg 15th, Sergio Perez 16th, and Stroll a lap-time-less 17th after those six laps.
What it all means is, as ever, slippery. Fuel loads, run plans, tyre choices and engine modes remain the private language of every team. But there are still tells, and this final day offered a few. Ferrari’s speed arrived when the track was at its most representative. Mercedes looked organised and industrious. McLaren and Red Bull didn’t appear remotely panicked by anyone else’s number. Aston Martin, meanwhile, will be arriving in Australia with a lot of work to compress into a very short space of time — and in a year of fresh regulations, lost laps have a habit of showing up later as lost weekends.
Now the transporters head for Albert Park, and testing — the controlled environment where everyone can choose their own reality — gives way to the one thing the pit lane can’t negotiate with: the stopwatch when it counts.
