F1 2026: What is the pecking order after testing? And which team are title favourites ahead of new season?
Just two weeks out from the F1 season-opener in Australia, Kieran Jackson ranks all 11 teams after the final pre-season test in Bahrain
After 11 days, 22 sessions and 88 hours of pre-season testing, the next time we’ll see these new Formula 1 cars on track will be the season-opening race in Australia in a fortnight.
Who’s the lead team? Well, every frontrunner will give you a different answer, deflecting away from their own strength and promise to put pressure on other outfits. Whether there’s been any ‘sandbagging’ – a term which means hiding true performance – over the testing period remains to be seen.
At this stage, Mercedes and Red Bull look to be top dogs. Red Bull’s new power unit partnership with Ford has impressed, while Mercedes’s pre-season tag as favourite, given their engine supremacy, has proved somewhat correct. If, perhaps, not by the margin some envisaged.
But what about further down? Where are teams who’ve long had 2026 in their sights – Ferrari, Williams and Aston Martin – all positioned? And what about new teams in Audi and Cadillac?
Just two weeks out from the season starting, The Independent ranks the teams’ current positions from worst to best.
11th – Cadillac
The first thing to note: nobody expected F1’s newest team to be anywhere else.
There’s a reason why there hasn’t been a new F1 team for 10 years; the foundations and infrastructure required to build a modern-day outfit are astronomical. But Cadillac should be praised for attending every testing day from the start and, tellingly, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas seem satisfied with the progress so far, speaking of good balance in the car.
That being said, they have consistently been at the bottom of the timing charts and, inevitably, have encountered issues. Perez spoke in detail about the need for more downforce, in particular. Still, their addition to the grid is exciting, even if it is with one eye firmly on the future.
10th – Aston Martin
What a shocker of a testing window it’s been for Adrian Newey’s team. Photos of team owner Lawrence Stroll in the Bahrain paddock, with a forlorn expression hard to eradicate, tell the story. Frankly, they are lucky not to be dead last in this table.
A testing period which started with a delayed entrance in Barcelona ended with just six laps on the final day in Bahrain before shutting up shop, with two hours to spare. It has, for a team who’ve long targeted 2026 as a year they can power Fernando Alonso to a championship charge, a chastening few weeks.
The issues are all-encompassing: the unique aerodynamics have resulted in difficult drivability, there’s been gearbox and transmission issues, but the Honda power unit takes the biscuit for the biggest problem of the lot. Their statement on Friday, detailing their inability to support “long runs” on the final day, was startling.
For the billions of investment put in over the last few years, no team has more work to do over the next two weeks before Melbourne.
9th – Audi
Overall, a relatively solid few weeks for the team formerly known as Sauber, using their own in-house power unit for the first time.
It’s to their credit, also, that they’ve made every test without delay, though racking up consistent laps has been difficult. Nico Hulkenberg believes the German team are “somewhere in the midfield” and all the data matches that, at this stage.
8th – Williams
Similarities to Aston, given 2026 has long been in their sights, but the progress since missing the initial Barcelona shakedown has been steady.
James Vowles justified the call to miss Barcelona by stating he is looking to “push the maximum” of what the team can produce. Still, time on track is precious.
Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz bounced back well last week, regularly clocking three figures over a single day, but the car is clearly overweight at this stage. They’ll want to be at the front of the midfield as soon as possible.
7th – Alpine
From fifth to seventh, there’s virtually no difference – but Alpine have been a smidge short of their rivals, both on the timesheet and lap count tally.
Unsurprisingly, Pierre Gasly has outperformed Franco Colapinto, who is under pressure after a point-less 2025 campaign. The Enstone-based team seem there or thereabouts.
6th – Racing Bulls
The reliability of the Red Bull-Ford power unit has been impressive and the junior team have benefited from that.
Nothing highlights that more than Arvid Lindblad’s final day lap count: an astonishing 165 laps in total and brilliant mileage for the British rookie.
In the battle for points, RB will be right on the cusp of the top-10 in Australia.
5th – Haas
With teams usually keen to downplay optimism in testing, Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu readily admitted his satisfaction at where his team are positioned now.
Ollie Bearman finished sixth-fastest on Friday, on a medium tyre, and their Ferrari power unit has come alive in the last three days, particularly in light of the new starting procedure (more on that later).
4th – Red Bull
It’s probably been the toughest of the three tests this time around for Red Bull, who shone last week with their straight-line speed and engine reliability.
This week has been less straightforward. Isack Hadjar missed a host of time on day one, while Max Verstappen was third on the timesheet despite a full day in the cockpit on Thursday.
However, the margins between the top four seem extraordinarily tight. Second on the list last week, fourth now. On the Melbourne street circuit? We shall see.
3rd – McLaren
The world champions do not have the dominance they held throughout most of the last two years. But they’re in the fight.
Of course, the papaya are using the Mercedes power unit, deemed to be the strongest on the grid. The mileage racked up by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – who interestingly split all three days this week – was also strong and both were consistently in the top-three throughout their sessions.
McLaren proved how strong their development window was over the last few years and that’ll be a crucial element through the early months of the season.
2nd – Ferrari
This week was Ferrari’s week. And that’s something we’ve not said about the Scuderia for a long time.
They brought new parts to Bahrain, including a radical flip rear wing that rotates itself upside down on Lewis Hamilton’s car on Thursday.
Charles Leclerc set the fastest time of the whole testing period on Friday, the only man in the 1:31s, while Hamilton’s practice race starts on Thursday, surging to the front from a midfield spot, were eye-catching. Optimism is slowly building.
1st – Mercedes
The favourites at the start of testing, Mercedes remain the team to beat.
Consistently at the top of the timesheet, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli have completed a host of laps – 157 in total on Thursday – and while murmurs off track about their engine and fuel-use continue to rumble, they look the best all-round package at the moment.
“The gaps between those at the front are already incredibly small,” Antonelli said. “And down to a matter of hundredths.” If that remains, we’re in for a hell of a season.
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