The number of technical issues has continued to grow with each day of testing. Only a week ago, teams were demonstrating solid reliability, comfortably covering race distances, but once the focus shifted to performance runs, the increased loads led to a rise in failures.
Only McLaren, Mercedes and Williams completed the day without notable reliability concerns. Other teams were forced to interrupt their programs for repairs. The most evident laggards at this stage are Aston Martin, Audi and Cadillac. Aston Martin has been especially disappointing: expectations for the new car, developed with input from Newey, were considerably higher. As on the previous day, the team’s running ended prematurely red flags and a recovery truck once again. The AMR26 currently lacks both speed and reliability, having completed the fewest laps in Bahrain.
It was also a difficult day for Ferrari: due to a complex issue, Lewis Hamilton missed the entire morning session while the engineers carried out a full teardown of the car. Additional complications arose during the testing of the updated starting procedure introduced by the FIA minor malfunctions occurred on both attempts.
The fastest time of the day and of the test overall was set by Kimi Antonelli with a 1:32.803 lap.
Winter testing has already concluded for Hamilton, Alex Albon, Liam Lawson, Fernando Alonso and Franco Colapinto. The remaining drivers will complete their programmes tomorrow.
