Kimi and George Conclude Final Day of Pre-Season Testing at Bahrain

• Pre-season testing came to a close on Friday in Bahrain with the W17 next running on track for FP1 in Melbourne.

• Kimi began the day in the car, but his morning was cut short by a loss of pneumatic pressure. That brought him to a halt on track and necessitated a Power Unit switch.

• Before the stoppage, he had managed to complete 49 laps focused mainly on set-up work.

• Once the car was ready, George took over for the afternoon and added 82 laps to the team’s total.

• He ended the day P4 on the timing screens with his team-mate P8.

• The team now heads back to Brackley and Brixworth to assess all the data and learnings from pre-season before heading to Australia for the opening round of the 2026 season.

Kimi Antonelli

We had a disappointing end to our pre-season testing with a Power Unit issue stopping us running prematurely this morning. We’ve had several reliability issues here in Bahrain and that has limited the mileage I’ve managed in the W17. It’s frustrating for everyone in the team but that is what testing is for. Before our stoppage today, we still managed 49 laps and that is useful learning.

We now have a short turnaround before we head to Melbourne. We’ve got a solid platform to build from, but we know we need to continue to improve if we are to be in the fight at the front there. We have several areas of particular focus, alongside bringing general performance to the car, and everyone at Brackley and Brixworth is already working on that.

George Russell

It was unfortunate that we, as a team, lost some more running due to reliability issues today. Kimi has borne the brunt of those issues during testing in Bahrain which is a shame. The most important thing though is that we were able to recover a good amount of the programme in the afternoon.

The competitive picture has remained similar to previous days. We have looked in the mix with several of our rivals near the front but it’s clear, with Ferrari topping the times and McLaren and Red Bull Racing being right on their tails, that we need to continue working hard to bring more performance. It’s looking like it will be a close fight in Melbourne and we hope to be a part of that.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

Unfortunately, our final day of pre-season testing wasn’t a perfect one. We suffered an issue on the Power Unit side which curtailed Kimi’s running at 49 laps. Despite that though, we did a good job of getting the car out relatively early in the afternoon and overall, we were able to complete a lot of useful work with both drivers. We kept the focus on set-up items and long run consistency today, which allowed us to cover quite a bit of ground.

The competitive picture still isn’t truly clear, but we know that we have plenty of work ahead as we finalise our preparations for Melbourne. We’ve put together a solid foundation to build from, are looking forward to the challenge ahead, and excited to see how the W17 performs when racing.