Formula 1’s crucial 2026 pre-season resumes on Wednesday with several key questions set to be answered in Bahrain.

After a test session in Barcelona in late January that allowed the team to run their brand new cars together for the first time, the Bahrain International Circuit will now host two official test events.

Media access to the event is extremely limited, given the potential for Barcelona’s team to struggle amid the challenges of introducing new chassis and power units following major rule changes.

The situation in Bahrain is different. The media can attend and the entire event will be broadcast live. The last hour of the three-day competition will be held in Sky Sports F1.

This will be further intensified with the second Test from February 18 to 20, when all eight hours of athletics each day will be shown live. Sky Sports F1.

Before the action begins, we’ve picked out some key questions that are likely to be answered in the coming days.

Has Mercedes really “raised the bar”?

While on the one hand everyone in the paddock insists that little is known about what happens at the Barcelona circuit, there is also a consensus that most consider Mercedes to be the benchmark at this stage.

They topped the mileage chart with a total of 504 laps in the three days allowed, while George Russell and Kimi Antonelli also showed a very good pace.

But perhaps more important than all that is McLaren team principal Andrea Stella’s public statement in a post-race interview in Barcelona that he believes Mercedes “definitely raised the bar”.

Given that most teams should be able to shake off any early hiccups in Barcelona, ​​a closer focus on Bahrain’s performance may provide more clues about the pecking order, while the predicted warm weather should be more representative of playing conditions throughout the season.

So we can find out if Stella’s comments are entirely true, or actually represent some pre-season gamesmanship from McLaren towards its power unit suppliers.

If predictions that Mercedes have built the best power unit of the five suppliers are accurate, the fact that McLaren has access to it would theoretically make them the most likely challenger to the Silver Arrows.

Is the power plant debate heating up again?

However, the strength of Mercedes’ engines may be affected by the ongoing controversy over the new power unit’s compression ratio.

Ferrari, Honda and Audi are understood to be concerned that Mercedes and Red Bull, which are producing their own power units for the first time, may have built a performance advantage through so-called regulatory “loopholes”.

At issue is compression ratio limits, with rivals suggesting the two manufacturers may have found a way to offer higher limits than are theoretically required under brand-new 2026 regulations.

The most high-profile comment on the situation so far came from FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis on Monday, who insisted the sport’s governing body was keen to resolve the issue before the start of the Australian Grand Prix season on March 6-8.

“We don’t want to be controversial,” Tombazis said. “We want people to compete on the track, not in the courtroom or stewards’ room, and that’s what we try to do.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff may have a tough job given he told those complaining about his team’s engines to “buck you up” and accused them of “making excuses before you even start”.

Adrian Newey tells Aston Martin Racing that their engines will be supplied by Honda sky sports news On Monday, “everyone was unanimous except for one manufacturer, so where it will end up, I think we’ll find out in Melbourne.”

With team principals and drivers speaking to the media throughout the week, the question is sure to remain a hot topic.

Williams debuts in 2026, the other side of Aston Martin

While the performance of the Honda engine will be a major factor in whether Aston Martin becomes a race-win contender this season, the team’s first Newey-designed chassis will undoubtedly attract attention again this week.

After only a brief glimpse of the AMR26 in Barcelona, ​​Aston Martin finally got the car track-ready late on Thursday before a full day of racing on Friday, although they didn’t risk pushing the power unit to its maximum capacity.

It’s difficult to fully analyze what Newey himself described as an “extreme” interpretation of the rules, given that teams have control over the images and footage of racing that are released.

Working with the media, including Sky Sports F1 Ted Kravitz and Craig Slater are in attendance in Bahrain and a more detailed analysis of the car will be conducted trackside.

There was also a car that never appeared at all, with Williams set to compete in pre-season for the first time after missing Barcelona due to a crash test failure.

Williams at least has the benefit of running a Mercedes engine that has been thoroughly tested by Mercedes, McLaren and Alpine in Barcelona, ​​so is reasonably confident of avoiding any major problems in that area.

How costly missing the Barcelona race will be remains to be seen, but the FW48 will come under more scrutiny due to the team’s mistakes.

Want Hamilton and Ferrari?

Second only to Mercedes on Barcelona’s odometer is Ferrari, but there doesn’t seem to be that much excitement around or even within the Italian team.

Lewis Hamilton says his team is performing better than the year before, but that’s not saying much as technical issues cost him crucial track time ahead of his debut in red and a more limited testing schedule.

Ferrari seemed to have strong reliability and some decent pace, with Hamilton setting the fastest time of the week on the final day, but few seemed to expect them to mount a title challenge.

This could be because they’re worried they’re falling behind on the engine amid the compression ratio controversy, or it could be because they lack confidence in the design department after a very disappointing 2025 season.

By contrast, going into 2025 testing most expected Ferrari to be the front-runner with McLaren, but by the end of the week they were clearly falling behind.

As Hamilton continues his pursuit of a record eighth drivers’ title, he hopes what happened 12 months ago can be completely reversed.

Sky Sports F1 Bahrain test schedule

Test 1: Wednesday, February 11, Thursday, February 12, Friday, February 13

• 3 p.m.: Last hour of live track and field events
• 8pm: Test ends
• 8.30pm: Ted’s Test Notebook

Test 2: Wednesday, February 18th, Thursday 19th, Friday, February 20th

• 6.50am-11.05am: Morning live broadcast
• 11.55am-4.10pm: Afternoon live broadcast
• 8pm: Test ends

Stream every race of the 2026 F1 season live on Sky Sports, starting with the Australian Grand Prix on March 6-8. Watch Sky Sports now – no contract, cancel anytime