Formula 1 pre-season testing is over after the second and final session in Bahrain, and this season’s opening round at Melbourne’s Albert Park is now under a fortnight away.

The debate now is about which team’s engines are best out of Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull after a considerable overhaul of the regulations. Ferrari and Mercedes are emerging as the consensus top two, with McLaren team principal Andrea Stella calling them the “teams to beat”.

George Russell has said that the Red Bull-Ford engines are “pretty scary” and believes they are leading the way. Max Verstappen, however, is having none of that, saying, “any good team with a Mercedes engine will do well,” which also includes McLaren, Alpine, and Williams.

Mercedes have also made the first move since pre-season testing ended, signing Theo Pourchaire as their new development driver. The former F2 champion joins their driver portfolio three years after his success in the FIA feeder series, after failing to land a place on the F1 grid.

Express Sport will keep you up to date with all the latest F1 news before the first Grand Prix weekend of the 2026 season…