Second winter tests: Antonelli continues Mercedes’ strong form

We have been surprised by the steady increase in reliability issues with each passing day of testing. Last week, teams confidently completed race-distance runs, suggesting that durability was under control. However, once the focus shifted to outright performance and the cars began operating under heavier loads, problems started to increase.

This week, only McLaren, Mercedes and Williams have avoided obvious reliability setbacks. Other teams, despite covering significant mileage at times, have faced unavoidable repair stops. Three outfits — Aston Martin, Audi and Cadillac — are currently lagging behind. While no miracles were expected from the new team, expectations were particularly high for Aston Martin given the arrival of Adrian Newey and the substantial investments made in recent years.

For Aston Martin, the day ended much like the previous one — with red flags and the car returning to the garage on a recovery truck. The AMR26 is trailing both in performance and reliability and has completed the fewest laps across the five test days in Bahrain. Openly admitting that they cannot resolve the issues quickly, the team faces the risk of falling further behind as rivals continue to progress.

Ferrari also endured a difficult day. After losing time yesterday, Lewis Hamilton missed the entire morning session as the car was fully stripped down to address a fault. He only returned to the track in the afternoon.

Throughout the day, the FIA asked drivers to test the updated start procedure at the end of each session. The revised process includes a blue signal on the light panels and a five-second pause to allow the turbo to spool up. Minor glitches were observed in both elements, and further refinements to the procedure may be required.

Kimi Antonelli topped the timesheets with a 1:32.803, currently the fastest lap of the test.

Winter tests have now concluded for Hamilton, Albon, Lawson, Alonso, and Colapinto. The remaining drivers will wrap up their programs tomorrow.