2026 Bahrain Pre-Season Testing – Week 1 – Day 3 Recap

Bearman was first out behind the wheel of the VF-26 – promptly as pit-lane opened at 10:00 local. The Brit started the session with quali sims on Pirelli’s C3 tire, followed by sustained running on the C1 and C2 compounds. Setting his best lap time, a 1:35.972 on softs, Bearman logged 70 laps to take his first week's total to 200 laps completed.

Ocon was back for the final afternoon, and the Frenchman similarly worked through the tire allocation, first focusing on race simulations, before quali sims. The session finished with full crew pit-stops as track time drew to an end early evening under the lights at the Sakhir circuit, a 1:35.753 and 75 laps closing Ocon’s account for the week.

The second week of official pre-season testing keeps TGR Haas F1 Team at the Bahrain International Circuit, February 18-20, followed by the opening round of the 24-race 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship – the Australian Grand Prix, March 6-8.

Ayao Komatsu – Team Principal:

“We had another productive day, splitting it with Ollie in the morning and Esteban in the afternoon. It was a similar run program, but really a continuation from yesterday, looking at the sensitivity of the chassis set-up items, getting energy deployment more consistent, qualifying practice, high-fuel runs, and we’ve ticked all the boxes. We’ve made another step in understanding the car, which is great, and now we have several days to digest that data and plan for the final test. Thanks to this amazing reliability, we’ve done 145 laps today, that's great. We can keep the car running, and when it’s on track, we can understand more every time. It was also very good to have both drivers in the car on the same day, working together to make progress. I’m very pleased with this whole test, we’ve made good progress.”

Ollie Bearman:

“It was another good day, making progress with the set-up and finding out more about these cars. It’s good to have a couple of days now to dig deeper into the data with the team so we can create a comprehensive list of what we need to work on for next week, but already, we have done a lot of work and found good steps. I’m looking forward to next week already.”

Esteban Ocon:

“We’ve finished the first week, and it’s taken a lot from everyone to be able to complete that amount of laps. We didn’t have any major issues, and we completed programs, which is very positive. I don’t think anyone will understand how much work and effort there has been inside our garage, engineering office and back at our factories to get that many laps in, and climb mountains to be ready every time the track turns green. We’ve made progress, and although there are still things to look at, overall it puts us into a good position for week two, and we know what we’re going to work on.”