Bahrain Test, day-1: who turned the most? Williams, Ferrari and Red Bull at the top. Aston Martin already in trouble

Williams is reborn, Ferrari confirms itself Lando Norris was the fastest driver on this first day of testing in Bahrain, trailing Max Verstappen by just over a tenth and Charles Leclerc by about half a second. However, it is always said that in tests it is not the times that count, but rather the number of laps completed. So let’s take a look at this ranking of the teams that have lapped the most today on the Sakhir track: in first position, with 145 laps divided almost equally between Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, is Williams. Good and important news for the Grove team, which came from the failure to participate in the collective shakedowns in Barcelona. The FW48 project has created quite a few headaches for team principal James Vowles, but the impression after this day-1 is that the historic British team is managing to get back on track. Behind Williams, Red Bull and Ferrari smile. In addition to showing good speed on the flying lap, the Milton Keynes and Maranello teams confirmed the excellent reliability of their single-seaters. At Red Bull this is perhaps even unexpected news considering that the Austrian team is making its debut with a power unit made entirely in-house. As for Maranello, however, the encouraging signs that had already emerged in Spain are confirmed, where the SF-26 was the second car to complete the most kilometers behind the Mercedes. Today, however, the silver arrows showed some youthful defects and in the afternoon session Andrea Kimi Antonelli had to spend some time stopped in the pit lane. TeamLaps completedWilliams145Red Bull133Ferrari130Audi119Haas114McLaren109Cadillac104Mercedes85Alpine75Racing Bulls75Aston Martin36 Aston, we have a problem Instead, they seem ready to ring the first alarm bells at Aston Martin: the AMR26 – which only took to the track in the last day and a half in Barcelona – today completed just 36 laps with Lance Stroll, before having to wave the white flag due to problems encountered with the Honda power unit. Anomalous data have suggested the team directed by Adrian Newey to stop today’s work early. La Verdona really seems – as Newey himself admitted in some recent interviews – one of the most backward teams at the moment. There is certainly time to recover, but the others certainly don’t wait.