Mercedes engine loophole, meeting over regulations, McLaren and Ferrari updates, Red Bull Racing’s first engine

Just three days of testing remain before the first practice session at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Three days to iron out the final bugs from the cars. Three days to understand the new engines. Three days — in the case of at least one team — to turn around a listing ship.

These three days will also give us our first good look at relative performance. By Friday night teams will likely have conducted one real low-fuel, high-performance run to gauge where they’re really at, giving us the first entry in the 2026 form guide.

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By the end of the week we’ll have had our first glimpse of the state of the new Formula 1.

McLAREN

Total mileage: 3634.4 kilometres (4th)

Fastest Bahrain time: 1m 34.549s (Oscar Piastri, day 3) (3rd)

Objective: Get a handle on energy management

The reigning constructors champion has been somewhat understated during testing so far, completing solid kilometres in Bahrain and looking decently quick — albeit the lap times are of limited illustrative value.

But trackside observers suggest the MCL40 not quite at the level of refinement of Mercedes, Red Bull Racing and Ferrari — that the car doesn’t look quite as comfortable in the new energy-harvesting regime.

That’s not that surprising. McLaren is the only frontrunning team without its own power unit.

The other three leaders are works constructors that have developed a deep understanding of how their motors work over years of development and have thus started the season with a better grasp on what it takes to regenerate electrical power most efficiently. By comparison, McLaren is coming in fresh.

Given the charging and discharging of the battery is fundamental to performance, it’s imperative McLaren closes that knowledge gap as soon as possible.

MERCEDES

Total mileage: 3864.0 kilometres (2nd)

Fastest Bahrain time: 1m 33.669s (Andrea Kimi Antonelli, day 3) (1st)

Objective: Win the political engine battle

Mercedes has all but confirmed it’s exploiting a loophole to increase the compression ratio of its internal combustion engine beyond the 16:1 in the regulations. Though the team says the horsepower gain is in the low single digits, both the Mercedes team itself and its engine customers have spent the last few weeks praising how fast — even how far ahead — the Red Bull Powertrains motor is, which some consider to be pre-emptive politicking.

The politics didn’t really matter until it became clear Red Bull, which had been thought to have been exploiting the same loophole, switched camps to join Ferrari, Audi and Honda in demanding the FIA act against Mercedes.

A meeting on Wednesday is the crunch moment. With engines frozen from 1 March — just 11 days from now — it’s now or never to convince the FIA to close the loophole.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said the Mercedes teams would be “screwed” if the FIA backflipped on the engine rules. While on track the team has looked comfortable even amid reliability niggles, it’s crucial that the team win this off-track battle to have any hope of being competitive this year.

RED BULL RACING

Total mileage: 3272.0 kilometres (6th)

Fastest Bahrain time: 1m 34.798s (Max Verstappen, day 1) (4th)

Objective: Ensure Isack Hadjar is up to speed

Red Bull Racing strong start to testing is at least partly down to Max Verstappen — despite his vocal distaste for these rules — being a master at driving the car in a way that maximises energy recovery.

Verstappen was a trendsetter in what looks likely to become the new normal of bashing down to first gear at several corners in Bahrain — the Monaco hairpin is usually the only first-gear corner on the calendar — and so far he appears to be the only driver truly comfortable with that approach.

That’s perhaps because an F1 car typically gets skittish, with its rear axle getting loose, when it’s forced into first gear at speed. Verstappen’s magic is in controlling a flighty car. It’s also what had him destroy so many of his previous teammates.

That could be grim news for Isack Hadjar. While the car itself might have had all the flaws of previous years worked out of it, the engine might be effectively inserting them back in.

You can’t directly compare teammate laps during testing given they’re never on track at the same time, but Hadjar was more than 0.8 seconds slower than Verstappen last week.

You’d think it would be heartening to see that gap close.

FERRARI

Total mileage: 4322.1 kilometres (1st)

Fastest Bahrain time: 1m 34.209s (Lewis Hamilton, day 3) (2nd)

Objective: Validate its first big upgrade — and defend its engine design

Ferrari’s approach to the start of the season was to bring a basic version of its SF-26 to Barcelona and the first Bahrain test. It had two aims: to allow the team to focus on the power unit, and to verify the basic aerodynamic concept while a more mature, race-ready aero pack continued development in Maranello.

That A-spec car will be replaced by a B-spec model this week, with the team set to bring a major upgrade to the final Bahrain test. The car that breaks cover this week will be the one that appears in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix.

The team will also install a new power unit. Reports suggest the team has used only one power unit during both tests so far this season. That means it completed effectively 14 grand prix distances — and reports also suggest that the team noticed no significant performance degradation.

It’s been hard to get a good read on Ferrari. It’s been solid and workmanlike without looking outstanding. But the trajectory has been positive, and if this week’s upgrade continues that trend, the Italian team will start the season optimistic.

Off the track, Ferrari is battling to avoid changes to the rules governing start procedures. McLaren describes it as a matter of safety, but Ferrari says it raised the issues months ago and was shut down, and it subsequently designed its engine to suit the rules. Given that design — believed to be a smaller turbocharger — will have come with performance trade-offs elsewhere, the team will be determined to retain its advantage in a meeting later today.

WILLIAMS

Total mileage: 2283.9 kilometres (10th)

Fastest Bahrain time: 1m 36.665s (Alex Albon, day 3) (8th)

Objective: Complete some performance running

Williams got exactly what it needed from the first test in Bahrain: a lot of kilometres — the equal most, in fact, with McLaren.

It was enough to banish the embarrassment of missing Barcelona, though not enough to get the team’s pre-season program back on track.

There’s no substitute for mileage and time, and Williams is three days of mileage behind and two weeks of analysis adrift.

It means the workload for the final week of testing is immense.

Reliability has been validated, but trackside observers suggest the car isn’t looking as hooked up as its other presumed upper midfield rivals. That’s likely at least partly because Williams has simply had less time to play with set-up.

It must complete that work this week as well as doing some proper low-fuel performance running to understand where the car is ahead of Melbourne.

RACING BULLS

Total mileage: 3249.9 kilometres (7th)

Fastest Bahrain time: 1m 36.808s (Liam Lawson, day 3) (9th)

Objective: Understand the Red Bull power unit

Racing Bulls’s middling form during testing is perhaps the strongest argument against the idea that the Red Bull engine has a second in hand over the field. The car doesn’t look rough enough on track to be that slow.

Of course Racing Bulls isn’t in the same ballpark as the senior Red Bull Racing team. That comes with the territory. But its best lap was more than two seconds slower, and the car appeared to have none of the strengths that we assume are at least partly derived from the engine.

Given the assumption that this season, or at least the early parts of it, will be defined by power unit performance and how the car and driver can maximise its hybrid components, that leaves a significant gap in terms of what should be almost ‘free’ lap time — that is, performance that doesn’t require new development.

Racing Bulls is an interesting control car for the Red Bull Powertrains motor. This week will tell us more.

ASTON MARTIN

Total mileage: 1422.2 kilometres (11th)

Fastest Bahrain time: 1m 38.165s (Lance Stroll, day 3) (11th)

Objective: Generate some hope

Aston Martin appeared braced for a tough first Bahrain test after arriving late to Barcelona, but the team doesn’t appear to have thought things would be quite this bad.

Slowest on track, including behind Cadillac. Fewest kilometres completed, putting it behind Williams, which turned up more than a day later to the pre-season.

Lance Stroll reckons the car could be four seconds — an epoch — off the pace. Fernando Alonso has already suggested that the Honda motor is the weak link in the package — and it wouldn’t be the first time he’s been there.

Aston Martin was always less likely to get away with a late arrival to testing than Williams. The Williams team has been stable year on year, but there’s significant change at Aston Martin, with a new power unit supplier, new in-house components and a new internal structure.

It would be surprising if there wasn’t a significant improvement in the situation this week, even if it doesn’t revolutionise the outlook. But if things look just as bad as they did last week, Aston Martin will be in for a long few months at a minimum.

HAAS

Total mileage: 3931.6 kilometres (3rd)

Fastest Bahrain time: 1m 35.394s (Oliver Bearman, day 2) (5th)

Objective: Consolidate top-of-the-midfield expectations

Haas under team boss Ayao Komatsu has taken a consistently low-key approach to testing, racking up the kilometres without worrying much about ultimate performance. An engineer by trade, Komatsu figures the deeper the team’s understanding of its car, the more responsive it’ll be able to be during the season.

On track the car has looked dependable, with several trackside observers suggesting it leads the midfield. After finishing eighth but in a tight battle for sixth in last year’s championship, that would be a satisfying consolidation.

But it’s worth remembering that Haas was in pretty much exactly this situation this time last year and struggled badly at the first race.

The team was just one lap short of equalling the mileage record in last year’s pre-season but suffered a painfully slow double Q1 knockout in Melbourne — although the team rebounded strongly in the subsequent rounds.

Haas looks good so far, but avoiding that same pitfall will be the real marker of success.

AUDI

Total mileage: 3042.1 kilometres (8th)

Fastest Bahrain time: 1m 36.291s (Nico Hülkenberg, day 3) (7th)

Objective: Find consistency with its new car-engine package

Although we shouldn’t forget that the Sauber team is a long-time F1 minnow, the newness of the Audi team is really in the power unit.

After a predictably patchy start in Barcelona, the team easily surpassed 100 laps a day in Bahrain and generally looked better put together — important especially given it brought a dramatically different aerodynamic package to the test.

But running still hasn’t been completely smooth, and the success of the Red Bull Powertrains maiden engine has raised the bar for first-time power unit manufacturers. The fact Red Bull built its engine division from the ground up for Formula 1 could be considered an advantage, but it looks like an early defeat considering Audi’s status as an automotive and motorsport giant.

The team’s baseline is good enough to expect Audi to be able to move forwards, but it needs to make some steps forward this week.

ALPINE

Total mileage: 3286.8 kilometres (5th)

Fastest Bahrain time: 1m 35.806s (Franco Colapinto, day 3) (6th)

Objective: Run reliably to catch Haas

Alpine appears to have made a considerable step forward from last year’s abysmal last-place championship finish, but team boss Flavio Briatore set the season objective to be in a position to snipe for occasional podiums, which at the moment seems a step beyond the French-owned squad’s standing.

After two tests, Alpine would be sixth in line at most, behind the frontrunning teams and Haas, for a spot on the rostrum.

But it’s unclear how much that perception is being coloured by a relatively unreliable Bahrain test. In Barcelona the Mercedes-powered car looked rock-solid; in Barcelona it failed to crack 100 laps on two of the three days.

Given we’ve come to expect the midfield to be extremely tight, it would be disappointing to see the French team start the year on the back foot after starting the pre-season so well. A good final test can get things back on track.

CADILLAC

Total mileage: 2495.6 kilometres (9th)

Fastest Bahrain time: 1m 36.824s (Valtteri Bottas, day 2) (10th)

Objective: Continue building confidence

Cadillac has been one of the pleasant surprises of the pre-season. Some expected the new American-owned squad to really struggle to the point that it might not qualify for some races, but from what we’ve seen so far, the General Motors team looks like a very competent lower midfield operation.

That sounds like a backhanded compliment, but it really isn’t — it shouldn’t be underestimated how difficult it is to start a Formula 1 team from scratch, especially in what might be the sport’s most complex regulatory era.

On track the car looks unspectacular, but it also doesn’t appear to have any fatal flaws. Reliability has also been reasonably good, even if it’s racked up the fewest laps of any team to have completed all six testing days so far.

The team feels like its first car is a good foundation on which to build performance this year. Better understating the Ferrari motor, ironing out the final kinks and bracing for Melbourne is the team’s goal this week.