Formula 1’s first official pre-season test is complete after three days of running in Bahrain, with what feels like a highly uncertain true 2026 pecking order right now. 

But from what we’ve seen, there have been some winners and losers emerging from the first of two Bahrain tests… 

Loser: Aston Martin

Is Aston Martin’s much-anticipated Adrian Newey-led F1 era about to begin with a complete dud of a car?

We were so excited when Newey’s extreme-looking Aston Martin AMR26 broke cover at the Barcelona shakedown, but early indications from Bahrain testing suggest this is going to be another long season for a team that’s become all too familiar with those over the past couple of years.

The team placed so much stock in this grand rules reset of 2026, hoping to utilise Newey’s genius and Honda’s expertise to make a giant leap out of midfield mediocrity.

Yet first impressions of the AMR26 are that it is too slow and very difficult to drive - and that’s not just us saying that! That’s also the downbeat verdict of the drivers after three days of running in Bahrain - with Lance Stroll saying Aston Martin is already facing a deficit of four and a half seconds to F1’s leading teams, a figure team representative Pedro de la Rosa didn’t dispute.

Fernando Alonso pointed to Aston Martin being late to the Barcelona shakedown as one of the main reasons for its current struggles, effectively missing out on hundreds of laps where basic problem-solving could have been done in advance of the Bahrain test rather than during it.

Aston Martin’s main problem at this stage seems to be a combination of 2026 car development falling four months behind schedule while the team waited for Newey to finish his gardening leave after leaving Red Bull, plus new engine partner Honda being significantly behind the curve on power unit development.

Aston Martin probably isn’t going to be F1’s slowest team when the season starts for real in Melbourne (sorry Cadillac!), but as things stand, with one pre-season test to go, it’s certainly a contender to be the biggest disappointment. - Ben Anderson

Winner (for now): Mercedes

The original 2026 pre-season favourite hasn't done that much this week to shed its tag.

Yes, there were some reliability issues that weren't there at Barcelona - Kimi Antonelli lost most of Thursday to them and had his running limited by them on Wednesday too - but Mercedes showed strong pace once more.

And while George Russell claims Mercedes "took a step back" in Bahrain, many of its rivals think Mercedes is sandbagging, holding back the pure performance of its engine.

Which, as Max Verstappen hinted, could be seen as a deliberate ploy just before the potentially crucial F1 Commission meeting next week, the topics of which include the engine compression ratio saga.

So Mercedes is a winner, but only for now. But its own admission it's "screwed" if the FIA decides it wants to change the compression ratio testing rules. And that certainly looks more likely than it did when the controversy first emerged last December. - Josh Suttill

Winner: Cadillac

F1's brand-new team might have caused a few red flags this week - including for a gone walkabout wing mirror - but that shouldn't detract from what was actually a really strong three days for Cadillac.

After all those stoppages didn't actually result in meaningful amounts of downtime, so Cadillac ended up in the middle of the mileage totals for the week.

And pace-wise, it wasn't even the slowest car, with Sergio Perez's day three lap, a respectable +3.696 seconds off Kimi Antonelli's test benchmark. Turn up to Melbourne with anywhere near that deficit and Cadillac can be pleased, given the mountain it has climbed to get here.

And its long runs, while not troubling the midfield, were at least complete and respectably slow rather than embarrassingly slow. - JS

Winner: Ferrari

When it emerged Ferrari had missed the engine compression ratio trick this past winter, you'd be forgiven for wondering whether it was in for more pain in 2026.

And it still might be, but you can't help but be impressed by what it has shown in Bahrain so far, especially when you delve deeper into the long-run data.

Lewis Hamilton completed a long run on the final day that was quicker than Oscar Piastri's McLaren run while they were both on-track, and Charles Leclerc had compared favourably to Lando Norris on Thursday, too. That led to McLaren team boss Andrea Stella's belief that Mercedes and Ferrari are the two teams to beat right now.

Now, of course, those wouldn't be the first impressive long runs to be explained away via varying fuel loads or power unit modes, but you can't generate that kind of long-run pace without something resembling a strongly performing car.

Plus Ferrari appears most on top of the chaotic 2026 start procedures right now, as its engine seems able to minimise turbo lag better than its rivals.

So, coupled with a strong sleeper hit arc at Barcelona, Ferrari can tentatively head into the final test with some optimism for at least starting 2026 on the right foot. - JS

Loser: F1's 2026 engine formula

Following the behind-closed-doors Barcelona test, the public Bahrain test was always going to be our first proper chance to know what the drivers really think about the new cars.

And while there was plenty of split opinion - the likes of Lando Norris “enjoyed” driving the cars - the most headline-grabbing take was that of Verstappen’s extraordinary verdict on the “Formula E on steroids” cars. 

He called them “anti-racing”, “not fun”, and “not like F1”, with Red Bull’s livery and the proportions of the cars the only redeeming features for Verstappen. 

That was the strongest view, but he isn’t alone in his criticism, many of the older guard, in particular, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso for example, have criticised the management side of these new cars and power units. 

Their criticism is of the fundamentals of the 2026 regulations, so it’s not as if their concerns can be eased by any quick changes.

Instead, F1’s probably going to have to grit its teeth and expect more fire on its shiny new product from some of its biggest stars. - JS

Winner: Red Bull's engines

Verstappen might hate these 2026 F1 cars, but he might be driving one of the most competitive cars in Melbourne if the evidence of testing is anything to go by.

Red Bull's first-ever power unit continues to impress. At Barcelona, it was the solid reliability, but in Bahrain, it was the data traces that started catching the eye of Red Bull Powertrains' superior deployment versus its rivals.

This was the proof Mercedes boss Toto Wolff had to declare Red Bull the new "benchmark" and say it was a second a lap quicker on the straights.

Regardless of whether you agree with that claim, in the words of Red Bull's technical director, Pierre Wache, the new Red Bull F1 engine certainly isn't looking "stupid on track".

And that is a monumental achievement, especially when you look at how far ahead Red Bull is of Aston Martin - with former engine partner Honda - and Audi, the other first-time engine builder.

No wonder Isack Hadjar couldn't hide his delight at how well the engine's debut has gone. - JS

Loser: The Brawn GP dream

The beauty of a regulations reset is all the possibilities it offers of turning things upside down - which would be quite neat for F1 given things have felt very 'locked in', really, all through the hybrid era. Yes, Red Bull usurped Mercedes, McLaren rose up, Aston Martin had its brief flirtation with frontrunning - but by and large every year the winners kept being drawn from the same pool.

But in a full revamp, those built-in institutional advantages can be at least briefly negated by a stroke of genius or even a stroke of luck. So it's heartening to see that as it currently stands the favourites to be doing all the winning early on are... uhhh, Mercedes and Red Bull? And maybe Ferrari? And maybe McLaren? The same teams that locked out the top four in the constructors' last year, and also the year before that, and also the year before that? 

On the evidence of testing so far, the F1 of haves and have-nots lives on, with not much in the way of social mobility. Whether that's good or bad is for everyone to decide individually - but for now, kudos to F1's 'ruling class', which seems to have averted any glimmers of a midfield-led revolution. - Valentin Khorounzhiy

Winner: Haas

The smallest team on the grid has much to be happy about after the first test in Bahrain - partly by virtue of other teams struggling conspicuously. 

There does appear to be a Premier League appearing in the F1 constructors’ standings, but Haas, at least after the first week’s showing and some solid mileage numbers in Barcelona, appears to be towards the top of the next tier. 

Ollie Bearman set the eighth-fastest time of the test and Esteban Ocon the ninth-fastest, but more impressive is Haas’s place in fourth in the mileage charts - just shy of 400 overall. 

Team boss Ayao Komatsu was elated with the team’s start to 2026 - understandably so - as it really hasn’t had a major hitch in Bahrain, and only one on Wednesday in Spain. 

Unremarkable? Maybe. Maybe it’s remarkable just how decent Haas looks right now. - Samarth Kanal