Who is driving on Thursday in Bahrain test?

Formula 1’s first official pre-season outing of 2026 begins at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit on Thursday, February 11, and teams have finalised their driver line-ups for the opening day of running. With new technical regulations coming into force this season, the three-hour morning-to-afternoon session will offer the first meaningful glimpse of how the overhauled cars behave in representative desert conditions.

Sky Sports F1 will carry the 3-4pm segment live, ensuring viewers catch the crucial final hour when lap counts rise and representative lap times start to appear. After Thursday’s running, the same timetable will be repeated on Friday and Saturday before the paddock reconvenes for the second and final Bahrain test from February 18-20.

Following January’s low-key Barcelona shakedown, this week marks the first collective gathering where all 10 teams can gather comparative data. Engineers will be monitoring reliability as much as outright pace, mindful that only two weeks separate the end of the second test and the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 6-8. Practice for the Melbourne curtain-raiser begins on Friday 6 March, with Qualifying on Saturday 7 March and the race on Sunday 8 March.

Every session of the 24-race 2026 campaign will be shown live on Sky Sports F1 and streamed via NOW, available without a contract and cancellable at any time.