F1 Bahrain day 1: who ran the most laps? Williams at the top, Ferrari reliable. Day 1 of Bahrain F1 testing sees Williams leading in laps completed.

Newey’s team seems to be struggling, also paying the price for some issues with the new Honda power unit.

Williams reborn, Ferrari confirmed

Lando Norris was the fastest driver on the opening day of testing in Bahrain, edging out Max Verstappen by just over a tenth of a second and Charles Leclerc by around half a second. However, it is often said that in testing, lap times are less important than the total number of laps completed. So let’s take a look at the team standings for laps completed today at the Sakhir circuit:

In first place, with 145 laps almost equally divided between Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, is Williams. This is significant and encouraging news for the Grove-based team, which had missed the collective shakedowns in Barcelona. The FW48 project has caused some headaches for team principal James Vowles, but the impression after day 1 is that the historic British outfit is successfully getting back on track.

Behind Williams, Red Bull and Ferrari are smiling. Beyond showing strong one-lap pace, the Milton Keynes and Maranello teams confirmed excellent reliability from their cars. For Red Bull, this is perhaps even unexpected, considering the Austrian team is debuting a power unit developed entirely in-house. As for Maranello, the encouraging signs seen in Spain were confirmed, where the SF-26 was the second car in terms of distance covered behind Mercedes. Today, however, the Silver Arrows showed a few teething issues, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli having to spend a significant amount of time stationary in the pit lane during the afternoon session.

Aston Martin, we have a problem

Warning signs are appearing for Aston Martin. The AMR26—having only run on the track during the last day and a half in Barcelona—completed just 36 laps today with Lance Stroll before having to raise the white flag due to issues with the Honda power unit. Anomalous data led Adrian Newey’s team to halt today’s work early. As Newey himself has admitted in recent interviews, the green team currently seems to be one of the furthest behind. There is plenty of time to catch up, but the competition certainly won’t wait.