Formula 1 has officially confirmed the start time for pre-season testing in Bahrain next month.

The new cars for the 2026 season will hit the track for the first time in just over a week during closed testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. The teams will hold their first training here before moving to Bahrain, where official pre-season tests will be held.

The first block of testing in Bahrain will take place between February 11-13. Races will start every day at 09:00 Kiev time and last until 18:00. Thus, each test day will consist of nine hours of track work.

The final pre-season tests before the start of the championship will be held between 18 and 20 February. The race schedule will remain the same as in the first test week.

Schedule of Formula 1 tests in Bahrain (Kyiv time)

• Day 1: 09:00 – 18:00
• Day 2: 09:00 – 18:00
• Day 3: 09:00 – 18:00

Reigning Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris has been warned by his championship mate about the expectations his new status at McLaren will bring.

After his 2025 championship, Norris will start the 2026 season as world champion. The British driver will be the first McLaren driver to try to defend his title since Lewis Hamilton.

Damon Hill, who won the 1996 championship, recalled the mounting pressure. According to him, champion authority does not always mean a real advantage within the team.

“I think the team has confidence in both drivers (Norris and Piastri). But when you become world champion, you are automatically treated differently; there is additional authority,” Hill explained.

“When I moved from Williams to Arrows, the team said: ‘We have a world champion.’ They thought I knew something special. But that authority is sometimes exaggerated. I didn’t know everything and I certainly didn’t know how to design cars.”

Hill emphasized that the true power of a champion lies not in technical knowledge but in leadership and team interaction.

“I worked with experts like Patrick Head and Adrian Newey; they were the ones who knew where to go. And the driver’s role is to be a leader and inspire the team,” Hill concluded.

​On January 18, at 12:20, the last third race of the first stage of the Formula 4 Middle East (UAE4) season will be held at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, in which Ukrainian pilot Alexander Bondarev will participate.

Bondarev became the first Ukrainian representative to receive support from the youth program of the Williams Formula 1 team. This is his second full season of open wheel racing.

The previous day, Alexander won the first race of the stage, starting from pole position. He started the race from 12th place according to reverse grid rules and finished the second race in sixth place.

In the final race of the stage, the Ukrainian starts from third place – according to the results of the second qualifying, he lost pole position by only 0.025 seconds.

The standings before the third race are as follows:

Bondarev in the Formula 4 BAE4 race. Watch LIVE online