Formula 1 pre-season testing is over, and Ferrari ended its second week in Bahrain by setting the benchmark with a blistering lap time from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
The Maranello-based team has been written off in recent years, but it seems they're legitimate contenders heading into the 2026 F1 season. Yesterday, Leclerc ended the week 0.879s quicker than second-placed Lando Norris, making the Monegasque driver a firm favourite to win his maiden Drivers' Championship this year.
Four-time Champion Max Verstappen was in third place, 1.117 seconds behind Leclerc. While George Russell placed fourth and was 1.205 seconds off the Ferrari pace, Mercedes is still seen by most as being the top contender for this year's most dominant team on the grid.
On the opposite end, things look bleak for Aston Martin, even with a new Team Principal—and technical director—in Adrian Newey (who helped steer Red Bull to multiple Championship wins). They were only able to complete six laps yesterday, and some are questioning whether they'll even be able to race in Melbourne next month.
The clearest picture of the true pecking order during testing often emerges from long-run pace and race simulations, as teams may not push their engines to maximum power or could be carrying extra fuel during a single lap.
While this can still apply to some degree on long runs, Ferrari has shown strong pace over race stints in both Bahrain tests. Notably, Leclerc completed a full race simulation on Friday, and his times were not far off the quickest race simulations seen across the entire week's test.
"The test day was very smooth, we ran through our programme and tested all the things we planned to," Leclerc said yesterday. "In terms of performance, it's still difficult to understand where we really stand because teams are hiding their true form, so it's important not to focus too much on lap times and prepare for the first race."
"We will build step by step and try to understand how to extract the maximum from our car. We have a lot of data to analyse before we arrive in Melbourne, and we will see how things go once we are there," he added.
Clips showing a rocket ship-like start for the Ferrari have also gone viral (see below), suggesting the team has figured out a way to gain a serious advantage during the new start procedure for these overhauled cars.
Ultimately, it looks like we're getting a four-way battle between Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, and McLaren, making this a particularly exciting season for fans of each team.