F1 Testing 2026 – First Test, Day 3
episodePreviously titled “F1 Testing 2026 – Day 3” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
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What are the key highlights from Day 3 of F1 testing in Bahrain?
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the P1 Podcast with Matt and Tommy. It is the final day of the first week, second week, however you want to say it. The first week in Bahrain is the end of it. Day three, done and dusted. Three more days of testing to go until we look forward to the first race of the season. So much beefing, Tommy. The teams are going at each other. The drivers are going at each other. It is. We haven't even turned a singular competitive lap yet. And this feels like it's bubbling along. Drive to Survive already got three episodes written, I've heard, because there's been so much going on already and lots to recap once again on this third day.
Absolutely. I was thinking the very same thing, that there's going to have to be about eight pre-season Drivers of the Live episodes because, my word, they are just going absolutely crazy. There's quotes flying around. They're all throwing shade at the rules, the regulations, each other. It's wild.
It is absolutely wild. But for this podcast, we are going to talk about a Mercedes 1-2 because that is what happened. Antonelli, Tommy's champion prediction, topping the times with the fastest lap we have seen, I believe, the entire week. Ahead of George Russell and then Lewis Hamilton in third, then Piastri and Verstappen rounding out the top five. Let's get into the questions. Patreon member Justin asks, On a scale from 1 to 10, how heavily is Mercedes downplaying their true pace? I can't keep up with this. I can't.
How are teams reacting to the new regulations in F1?
Because it is... There's so many rumours flying around. There are teams talking to media about other teams and trying to give away either just complete and utter fabricated lies to put pressure on other teams, or maybe it's the truth. We don't know. The thing is, Mercedes may well not be having any sandbags at all. And it could well be Verstappen and what we were speaking at the start of the week about the efficiency of the Red Bull engine and this, that and the other. You've got Lando Norris saying yesterday that Ferrari are quicker than them. You've got Red Bull and Pierre Wache saying that Red Bull are fourth fastest. You have Mercedes saying that Red Bull are clear... I can't keep up with it. And if you're expecting answers, you're not going to get them in this podcast because nobody has the answers, not even the teams, because they don't know how fast the other teams are.
They don't. The only thing we maybe do know is that Aston are really slow. That's really slow. I would be absolutely unbelievably amazed if the top four is not in some order. Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull. That seems quite sure. Maybe Haas are going to be best of the rest. I think that's a given though, right? That's a given. Yeah, true. But in a new rule, you think that maybe that might have been unusual. There was also... maybe my fears more than others but i know a lot of people were saying it that when we went to 2014 and it was an engine regulation it was literally like just based on what engine you had so the fact that you've got yes they are the four kind of powerhouses of formula one but they've kind of got different engines between them you know like there's a mercedes there's a ferrari there there's the red bull powertrain ford uh thing so
there's difference there and it looks like it's very hopefully close like we're going to go into a lot of negatives about the new rules in terms of a positive I think it's great that we're still trying to guess and no team is ever going to say yeah we're miles clear we're the best And you're exactly right. Every single quote from these top four teams is just throwing kind of the tag of favorites to someone else. It's literally like hot potato, like pass it on to the next person. One day it's McLaren saying, no, it's Ferrari. Then Mercedes is saying, oh, actually, it's Red Bull. Max Verstappen came out and said, oh, we'll see when Mercedes turn the power up. I mean, if they turn the power up, they'll want to today.
They're going to be very nice indeed. But no one wants to admit their favorites.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What are the key highlights from Day 3 of F1 testing in Bahrain?
0:05–1:51
2
How are teams reacting to the new regulations in F1?
1:51–5:44
3
What insights can we gather from Mercedes' performance during testing?
5:44–7:35
4
What are the implications of drivers' comments on the new regulations?
7:35–38:25