Ferrari finished the second Formula 1 Bahrain pre-season test with the fastest time, but is the sport’s most famous marque pulling a poker face over its true pace?
Ferrari fans have had precious little to celebrate in recent years. Rather, what little could be celebrated has usually been accompanied by embarrassment equivalent to discovering you forgot your gym clothes at school, arriving in the changing rooms, and being forced to do the class in spare, unwashed kit: avoidable, cringeworthy, and triggering enough to leave lasting negative memories.
From the now infamous “it must be the water” radio exchange with Charles Leclerc, to both cars being disqualified in China for excessive plank wear, the Scuderia has become the butt of many a joke.
This somewhat parodied view goes back to 2022, when Ferrari suffered from a perceived inability to make a logical decision. Anyone questioning this statement should rewatch that year’s Hungarian Grand Prix, where Ferrari pitted Leclerc for hard tyres on a drying track. Hard tyres are a bit like an old heater, they work, and work well, but need time to warm up. But sending Leclerc out in those conditions on hards was like pouring cold water on said heater: it nullified the point.
Fred Vasseur’s leadership has seen new sponsors and the blockbuster signing of Lewis Hamilton, adding additional pressure to an already volatile situation. Hitting a rocky patch in 2025, the new 2026 regulations has provided the opportunity for a reset.
Bahrain testing has seen the continuation of a long standing trend: the Tifosi has hope that the curse of ineptitude will end, and this will be the team’s year. Normally, this would be a seen as clutching at straws, but the SF-26 is demonstrating reasons for optimism.
Ferrari appears confident, but is pulling a poker face. Sat in a high stakes game with its rivals in a dimly li room, it is biding its time, hiding its hand from the other teams with a wry smile on its face.
A question of pace
Reading the headlines from the final day, Ferrari set the fastest lap of the test, so it is running to have the fastest car ahead of the first race in Australia. But these were nothing more than glory runs to end the day with a positive headline.
Leclerc set his and the test’s best lap on the C4 tyre, while rivals Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull all chose to end Friday doing longer performance runs and did not bother the Monegasque at the top of the timesheets, warping understanding of the speed of the SF-26.
To understand Ferrari’s true pace in the baking Bahrain sun, we have to go deeper. Any analysis of testing has to be taken with a pinch of salt, but consistent patterns have emerged during both tests in the Middle East.
Short run and qualifying pace look to be behind Mercedes, but comfortably ahead of Red Bull, and having a slight advantage over reigning champions McLaren. While not the best news for the Tifosi, it shows a remarkable improvement compared to the nadir of 2025, when the car dropped off a competitive cliff consistently in Q3.
Ferrarih has made sure to advertise this view, stating it believes it lies third or even fourth in the pecking order. Yet, as is the way with Vasseur, he has reaffirmed this verdict with the same wry smile he wore when asked his long-term plans for Ferrari, answering he had “big names” on the way. That game of poker turned out pretty well, but then suffered from extreme hype, and an overconfidence in its hand at the time.
Where the team has made the biggest leap in Bahrain to prove it has learned its lessons, however, is in race starts and long run pace. In an era of rules where battery management and deployment are critical, the SF-26 looks to to be one of the top cars on the grid. Leclerc was one of the faster cars off the line at the much-maligned first practice start, whilst also demonstrating the same strength during his pit-lane starts. This indicates a level of battery management on par with Mercedes and Red Bull, but the full picture will not become clear until Melbourne. It has shocked the grid regardless.
Long run pace, however, looks to be the core of the SF-26’s strengths. Running multiple race simulations, it ran closely to the supposed pace-setters, Mercedes. It could, in some scenarios, have an edge over the Silver Arrows, providing genuine hope that it could challenge for wins in the early races.
Lewis Hamilton DNA and Ferrari ingenuity
Another factor behind Ferrari’s potential jump towards of the front of the pack is arguably one of its biggest detractors from 2025: Hamilton himself. The seven-time world champion resembled the same dejected figure from last season during the first week of media sessions, but mellowed in the second.
Confirming he enjoys driving this new generation of car is hardly a surprise, considering his struggles to master the ground effect cars, which were in complete contrast to his driving style. But he took this one step further in the second week in Bahrain, revealing he felt “more connected” to the SF-26, as it was a car that contained his DNA, having helped form its direction. This is again in complete contrast to 2025, a car he admitted he “inherited”.
Although Hamilton finished down the order in terms of lap-times during the tests, his confidence in the car despite his downbeat appearance in the first week indicates not all is as it seems. The Hamilton DNA in the SF-26 may have brought the Briton’s competitive edge and chances back to life. His poker face is perhaps the most obvious of the Ferrari camp so far in 2026.
The final piece of Ferrari’s hand comes in the details of the SF-26 itself. The car that launched in Maranello was very much an A-Spec car, Ferrari promising updates being added to the car during the Bahrain tests, and we got far more than we asked for. From the headline grabbing exhaust wing, to the equally ingenious “upside down” rear wing for active aero, the SF-26 is also proving to be innovatively ambitious. Both will no doubt have an impact on pace.
When all tallied together, it is clear Ferrari is hiding in plain sight, ready to pounce. Transforming from a prancing horse to a deadly big cat, the Scuderia has a potential big money hand. We have less than two weeks until it is forced to reveal it. Time will tell if it will fold or produce a royal flush.
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