F1 Bahrain Test 1 best times and mileage: The key numbers and stats

F1 is already halfway through its pre-season testing schedule for the upcoming 2026 campaign 

The 11 teams continued their learnings of the 2026 regulations and ramped up their preparations for F1’s bold new era over three days of running at the Bahrain International Circuit last week.

A second three-day test will be held later this week between 18-20 February, before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on 8 March.

Below is a rundown of how many laps each team and driver completed, as well as best lap times from Bahrain.

FASTEST LAP TIMES

Mercedes ended the opening test fastest with a 1-2 finish on the third and final day.

Kimi Antonelli was the fastest driver across the three days, producing a 1m33.669s on Friday to end up 0.249 seconds quicker than teammate George Russell.

Lewis Hamilton, who set the pace in the Barcelona shakedown, finished third-fastest in his Ferrari.

As ever in F1 pre-season testing, outright lap times should be taken with a rather large pinch of salt. For what it’s worth, lap times were some way off last year’s pole time at the Bahrain GP (1m29.841s set by Oscar Piastri).

Will we see faster times in the second week of testing in Bahrain?

MOST LAPS COMPLETED BY TEAM

McLaren and Williams racked up the most mileage by team across the three teams, with both remarkably ending level on 422.

This was especially important for Williams given they were the only team to miss the entirety of their three-day test allocation in Barcelona at the end of January.

Ferrari were just one lap behind in third-place, with Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc managing 421 laps of Bahrain between them in a strong showing for the Scuderia.

At the other end of the table, Aston Martin only managed 206 laps, while Mercedes were 10th in the mileage chart due to reliability issues that largely curtailed Antonelli’s time in the W17.

MOST LAPS COMPLETED BY ENGINE MANUFACTURER

Unsurprisingly, Mercedes led the way here, thanks to having the most customer teams. The works team, along with McLaren, Williams and new customer Alpine racked up a total of 1444 laps in Bahrain.

It was another strong test in terms of mileage for Red Bull’s new power unit, while Audi also racked up solid mileage given they only supply one team.

Honda are playing catch up after the first test, clocking 148 fewer than Audi managed.

MOST LAPS COMPLETED BY DRIVER

Leclerc takes the honours for most laps completed by a driver with 219, four more than McLaren’s Piastri.

Aforementioned technical troubles restricted Antonelli to just 94 laps - the fewest of any driver across the three days.

MOST RED FLAGS CAUSED

This is the section no one wants to feature in.

Alpine caused the first red flag of the opening Bahrain test, with Franco Colapinto breaking down inside the first hour of the first day.

The French squad caused two in total as Pierre Gasly also suffered a stoppage on the penultimate day.

Cadillac also brought out two red flags within the first hour of running on consecutive mornings on Thursday and Friday, with Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas both sidelined for spells.

Audi and Ferrari were to blame for one red flag each, with Hamilton running out of fuel in the final 10 minutes on the last day bringing out the sixth and final stoppage of the first test.