2026 Bahrain Pre-Season Testing – Week 2 – Day 2 Recap

The British racer logged 69 laps in the morning session at the Bahrain International Circuit (10:00 – 14:00 local). Having put the VF-26 through its paces, continuing the team’s understanding of its latest challenger – Bearman ended his run program having set a best lap of 1:35.279 running solely on the Pirelli C3 tire throughout the morning.

Esteban Ocon was back in the VF-26 for the afternoon session (15:00 – 19:00 local) taking the action from daytime to the full glare of the lights in the evening around the 5.412-kilometer (3.363-mile), 15-turn track – home of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Ocon’s run plan included the introduction of the C4 compound for the first time this week in addition to trialing sets of the C2 and C3 tires. The Frenchman delivered a fastest lap of 1:34.201 in the session and completed a total of 58 laps.

Ocon returns in the morning to start Friday’s running – the final day of testing in Bahrain, with Bearman completing TGR Haas F1 Team’s track activities with the VF-26 in the afternoon.

Ayao Komatsu – Team Principal:

“It was another good day of testing with Ollie back in the car in the morning, and Esteban in the afternoon. Splitting the day again today was very useful because we repeated tests in both sessions, and both drivers' feedback was exactly the same. We carried on from yesterday’s test, made some changes overnight, and learned quite a lot today. I feel like today was a very productive day. We only have one day left before Melbourne, so we need to focus on the basics to get all the procedures like race starts signed off as well as the performance items, so we’re just focused on a good day tomorrow.”

Ollie Bearman:

"It was a fun day back on track. We improved a lot of things from yesterday, so I’m really happy with the progress. The team did an excellent job overnight to rectify some issues that we’ve been facing since we started running the car, which we found out about yesterday, so I'm really happy with that. I'm looking forward to continuing the work with Esteban in the afternoon."
 

Esteban Ocon:

“It’s been a very decent day for all of us, really trying to tackle some of the balance issues we’ve been facing since the beginning of the test with the car. I think we’ve found some decent solutions, which, after today, is very positive. Obviously, there’s still more learning that we need to be doing, and hopefully tomorrow we can continue to understand more. I think today’s probably been the most productive day of the whole year.”