The first Formula One pre-season test got underway at the Bahrain International Circuit on Monday, 11 February. We usually wait until the final day of testing to file a report because testing—no matter the decade or era—is often an unreliable indicator of true form. That’s how it has always been, and how it always will be.

As usual, the media obsesses over who sets the fastest lap time… on day one. It doesn’t matter. You don’t set your fastest lap on the first day; that usually happens on the last day, in the final hour of testing.

The team or driver who sets the fastest lap is usually done for the sponsors, who can brag about it at a dull business conference to people pretending to be interested. It’s impossible to know fuel levels or which teams are running their engine maps in low-performance mode.

But Audi made the headlines on day one by revealing an updated car with a dramatic new sidepod design. And yes, it does look dramatic—almost mirroring Mercedes’ zero sidepod concept from a few years ago.

Mercedes eventually abandoned the zero-sidepod quest, but Audi seems to think it may have found a solution by adopting it… or have they? It’s difficult to say. Audi’s designers, engineers, and aerodynamists have modeled the flow dynamics and certainly have the data to hand.

It’s all about channeling the air to the rear diffuser, often referred to as controlling the downwash effect and managing low- and high-pressure airflow.

But most of that information was gathered in virtual sim-testing, and, as many F1 teams know, sim-testing often doesn’t translate directly to the real world. Sim-testing is simply a guide—a way to gauge how a particular concept might work.

For Audi, the real work lies in engine reliability. We already know that during the Barcelona shakedown test, Audi suffered some kind of engine issue, related to the hydraulics, which limited their time on track. I expect Audi to encounter similar issues throughout the 2026 season.

Building a new F1 engine from scratch is a monumental challenge—the ultimate challenge in any motorsport formula—and many casualties have been left in the wake, embracing pain along the way.