P1 with Matt and Tommy - F1 Testing 2026 – Second Test, Day 2

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

Whisper it, but Ferrari are COOKING RIGHT NOW. Ridiculously quick off the start - check. Charles Leclerc can’t stop grinning - check. A rear wing that fully flips upside down on the straights - wait, what?Elsewhere, some teams look slow. Others look quite unreliable. Aston Martin manage to look slow AND unreliable. Tough times at Newey HQ…Sign up to our Patreon! You'll get access to every P1 episode ad-free, extended versions of every 2026 race review, early access to tickets & merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans! Click here to sign up now: http://patreon.com/mattp1tommyThis episode is sponsored by The AA, the UK’s No.1 breakdown provider. It’s OK with the AA, they’re the fastest major breakdown provider with more patrols up and down the country, 24/7, 365 days a year. So, if you want that peace of mind and be back on the road in no time - Join today at www.theaa.com/P1 T&Cs apply. Verify claims at theaa.com/bestFollow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P-1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. The penultimate day of F1 testing has been and gone. Lots to talk about. What are very cheeky things going on. Ferrari. Lots of things to talk about, as I say, the excitement is building. And Tommy, where do we even begin? What are your thoughts?

How are you feeling? I'm feeling very excited, actually. for all the complaining about the rules and how maybe it's not what we think of Formula One, you know, I still think they sound terrible and I do agree with the sense that I don't think this is what Formula One should be with battery saving and all that. But one thing I do like is the kind of the unknowns and we're kind of getting a lot of that this season. Even just like practice starts, which we'll get into later, very exciting to see like who can get off the line quicker and stuff.

And yeah, everything's feels very new and unknown. That's a cool thing. That is the beauty of new regulations until we start to learn who is very far clear or not, fingers crossed, and our questions are answered. This is a very exciting time of the year and I really hope this excitement continues through the year

because there should be elements of unpredictability all the way through the season, not just up until Australia. So Antonelli ended day two of the second Bahrain test fastest, marginally quicker than Oscar Piastri than it was Max Verstapp and Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris your top five. Let's get into a question from P1 Patreon member Thimmer Roll.

How cool is that Ferrari rear wing that turns around? Will this be the things teams will try to copy into their own designs? So cool. I was flabbergasted. I could not believe what I was saying. I thought it was a malfunction.

I was like, why on? earth is that rear wings spinning around like that that doesn't look very quick but when you look into it a bit more i think it was a really innovative exciting design from Ferrari and obviously the only team to to go with with that design of course we've had like alpine for example with the flat rear wing when they when they uh when they do the the active aero but for Ferrari to bring out something like that was was truly exciting there there is a part of me. however, that is concerned by the fact that they brought out this rear wing, they used it for a matter of about five laps,

and then Hamilton was not seen for another two and a half hours after that. So whether, it's one of two things. It's either, oh my God, we are so quick with this, get it off the car immediately so they don't see any more of it, or get rid of that. That is the worst innovation we've ever done, because they reverted back to the old one for the rest of the test. They did. It's very interesting when we look back now at the very

start of testing when we only had the final hour. And I remember on the watchalong when they showed, we were watching along together and we, they showed that clip of all the teams and how they'd done it. And obviously the biggest talk was that Alpine, that flat rear wing. But I remember you being, as a profile, being like, their kind of gap in their rear wing looks so thin. And surely they're losing a lot of performance and wow like what a way to try and do it it's very interesting to basically go for something really wild they said something very interesting on the broadcast that you know in it in an era of um cost cap and everything like that they have to like truly believe this is a really really great solution they don't throw these kind of things on for banter um and yeah it's

it's a crazy idea to because you can see how much more open that wing is. Not only that, you're also, as the rear wing comes round, you could argue that it's helping scrub the speed off as well with the fact that it goes flat. My concern, and maybe this is why they ended up in the garage for two hours, is when you have a, if you think about like how much that's going to be buffeting when you've got like a flat piece against the wind at 300 kilometers an hour. They were saying this on the broadcast as well.

That's got to be a very, very, very strong rear wing. Even if other teams can do it, it's a reliability risk, I think, massively as well. Yeah, even just the normal active arrow, I'm concerned about reliability. Seeing the rear wing doing somersaults on the Ferrari does not exactly fill me with too much, yeah, confidence of being able to,

withstand a full race of that but um still really exciting great to see Ferrari thinking of ways to yeah that the clearance in their normal rear wing just didn't seem like it really does the does the business whereas that one certainly did but whether it worked or not Ferrari are the only ones to know found it interesting as well that James Vals was interviewed and he basically said no we didn't think of that so he was very honest in the in the sort of avenue he they were at yeah and it's also interesting to hear them say that, because we always say, don't we, like, oh, people will be copying and stuff. And it was nice to hear team principals actually just be really honest and say, yes, like, when we see stuff on the cars, we will know within a few days whether we can do it or not,

and if it will work. So, so like teams now will probably be going back if they haven't thought of it, trying to either rush it through or going, now, Ferrari, what are you doing? Why is your rear wing doing backflips? And also, you can't just put a part. on a car to a different team and expect it to work. There's plenty of different philosophies, especially this year with the new regs, which means you can't do that. Just because someone's front wing is good

does not mean it'll be good on a Williams or whatever. So fascinating stuff, and I really hope it worked. I really, really do. Next question. Fergie's right ref asks, do Ferrari even need to be good in low fuel quali mode if they can get three positions at the start?

Oh my word So if you guys haven't watched If you're listening to the podcast for the first time And didn't see the practice starts Ferrari are in like rocket fuel You know on Mario Kart when you time a start perfectly And you get a boost Ferrari doing that

Two and the three Yeah yeah Maybe that's what they were doing They just tried it and it worked And yeah they're doing like a little Mario Kart boost at the start This is showing my age But you said it as well You know

It reminds of the Renault's back in 2005 when they would just have amazing launch control and they could just fly off the line and it didn't matter where they qualified, they would make at the very least two positions off the start every single time, even if there's a short run down to term one. And Ferrari of the team, of course, as well,

that basically blocked new changes for the start saying, we don't want this. And we kind of were going, oh. Because they had planned, because initially that was in the plans. And they've created an engine. that is able to do that. Exactly.

And, you know, I was a little bit, maybe got a bit of my head, ahead of myself when I watched the first practice start today because there were only four cars on the track and one of them got off very slowly, which was the McLaren. But Hamilton raced away at the start and I thought, oh, wow, is that legit or of the other cars?

And then we saw another one, and my word, it was even more extreme. And not only that, the fact that Ferrari were absolutely rapid, the other Ferrari-powered team in Hass looked very, very quick off the line as well compared to the other cars. So if they've found something, you know, it could be a massive, massive thing,

particularly if it's hard to overtake, if you find a way that qualifying almost becomes like a little bit irrelevant, you can just fly past everyone into turn one. It's the ultimate hack, isn't it? This may well be the season, and I know a lot of you tune into our watchalongs and really enjoy it.

If you've never tuned in, please do for this year. This might well be the era where I'm knee sliding across my room because Charlotte Claire's qualified ninth. Like, as long as we're in the top 10, there's a chance of P1 into term one. Obviously not as aggressive as that.

But, yeah, you likened to the 2005 Renault, and that was so markedly different and such an advantage compared to the rest of the teams around them. And it does remind me of that at this stage. I think there is, of course, I'm trying to calm myself down here that Ferrari doesn't matter where they qualify. But, you know, there are, of course, a lot of things going on within each team and they're trying to figure out the best launch for their engine. They've

not done many practice starts at all. So there's going to be improvements to be made. I'm sure Max's start that we saw at the end of testing today was not the optimal one that he could have done. But my goodness gracious me, there is some correlation there, especially as you say, with with Ocon also having a decent start, even though the commentary were like, oh, Ocon didn't really. Yeah, weird.

I was like, I couldn't, I was like, what? Did I just watch a different start to you? Another interesting point to that, there's two sides to this. One that Ferrari didn't want things changing. The team that really wanted things changing was McLaren,

and they've had two absolute stinkers of a start today, where the first time Lando Norris, yeah, had a really poor start, poor getaway, didn't get away with the other cars, whether that was them just trying different things. But then we went into the final hour and they did the practice start again at the end. And Oscar Piastri had some kind of issue and had to stop at the side of the track before essentially like seemingly restarting the car and joining the pack again. So yeah, McLaren, maybe there might have the opposite problem of they're getting pole position but not celebrating because they know they might lose three or four positions at the start.

Okay, next question. P1Petri member Oscar Glazer. Will it be a four-way team fight for the championship this year? I am not convinced. I think that the rumors are at the moment, but of course they change every day. Is it McLaren of fourth fastest? And how much you take of that is up to you.

And it really does depend on how much the Mercedes powered. unit teams are holding back when it comes to performance. But the chatter at the moment is that it's Mercedes and its Ferrari with potentially then Red Bull McLaren in behind. I don't mind that because Ferrari are being talked about and we like Ferrari being talked about in positive lights. I would be very surprised if all four teams were of a similar pace. Now, of course, there's a lot of talk about could the pecking order change between races

and because the energy efficiency of teams and all that sort of stuff can vary and perhaps some teams are more efficient on their battery than others and that could be used. Red Bull had been talked to have amazing deployment, right? So if it's a track that's really good for that, they're going to be quicker than one that's not good at that or whatever. Yeah, exactly. So that could definitely shake things up. But I'm still not convinced.

I think there will be a fastest team or potentially two at best. and that will be the fight for this year. That's my feeling right now. It's based on just literally what I've seen. But we would be the luckiest Formula One fans in the world if we got a four-way team fight at the start of a new regulation. I'm just talking from experience here. It doesn't happen.

No, it doesn't happen. I think it's going to be a four-way team fight in the sense that they are going to be so clear. I think there's going to be an absolute chasm between whoever, is that fourth fastest team and then who is the fifth fastest team in that midfield pack and fastest the midfield that's just my kind of opinion of it so far and what we're hearing

I think the fact that it's the same four teams basically going you're quicker, no, maybe we're fourth best I reckon you're fourth best shows that it's going to be those four and I think they are well clear of the others but I think one team will get it

right and look they're at their they're all up there which is good to see and maybe it changes but I mean looking at it Mercedes still do look exceptionally strong they were fastest again we kind of joked on the watcherlon that they've they've put another lap in where they go fastest but only by the tiniest margin whether whether that gap becomes two and a half seconds in australia when they turn the wick up we don't know doesn't matter Ferrari would be leading into term one yeah exactly um because because another thing that was kind of being mentioned

and I personally think of maybe being a little bit overplayed was the fact that they were doing practice pit stops during the kind of the middle of testing and they were kind of going, oh, look, they're so clear that they're just doing pit stops for fun and they don't need to do anything else. Now I know that Mercedes have said

that they are going through their run plans very well indeed and they're kind of, even in the shakedown, they're like, well, we've kind of done everything on day two. but yeah they're looking very very strong i still think they're the favorites yeah i will as well just so that i can do the thing that everybody else is doing and giving anyone but my favorite team the mantle of the fastest team so yet mercedes you are clear don't don't throw it but yeah of course there are there is that feeling that mercedes is very strong um i will sort of caveat what what you

said there and say that they don't have unlimited tires it's not like they have a but an ocean full of tires to pick from and choose from. So, yeah, it doesn't mean they're going to constantly run for eight hours throughout a day. So, and it obviously helps that they've not really had any issues to speak of. They did 156 laps today, did Mercedes. Let's go through the testing laps from the penultimate day. McLaren were the only ones to beat them with 158 laps. Red Bull was third with 139, then Hass with one.

127, Alpine with 120, Williams 117, Cadillac 108, V-Carb, 106, Audi 102, then Ferrari with 78, and Aston Martin with 68. So Ferrari, the second least mileage today, but I'll take it considering Hamilton was in the garage for what felt like the entire day, or at least most of the morning. A question from P1-Pitremember Patrick Roll. Which is Aston Martin's biggest issue? The gearbox, the engine, or the reliability? everything it seems the problem for us in martin is they are slow and unreliable and adrian newie cars in the past have had a tendency to be fast but fragile but the problem is they're not even fast they're incredibly slow and they're breaking down all the time you know it's the second uh day we had a problem for for lance stroll yesterday alonzo's broken down today 68 laps is actually the most have seemingly done maybe in the entire test for a day, I believe.

It's close. Certainly close off the top of my head. But they're slow and they are doing everything themselves. They've put a lot of money and resource into this year doing this kind of, it's not just a case of, oh, we're going to get the Honda engine, which, of course, seems like a dumb decision now about the time, was winning the World Championship with Red Bull comfortably. but with that comes the fact that they're building their own gearboxes for the first time and everything like that.

So it's a massive change for Ashton Martin as a team. And unfortunately for Honda, they know that we've seen it before, that they don't come out the blocks firing in a new regulation a lot of the time. But that being said, it's also, you know, it's not Honda's fault that they're locking up into every single corner. that car looks an absolute handful. And there's a lot of hype around it. I know a lot of Fernando Alonso fans like me will be absolutely gutted. And yeah, I'm the same.

It's absolutely devastating to think that Alonzo is kind of running out of time. This was meant to be his chance to like have his swan song and finally show what he's been able to do after years of having like a midfield car and not being able to win for ages. And instead it looks like he's going to be. a back marker, not even a midfield runner. Yeah, that's tough. That's tough to hear.

I'm probably not the right time to bask in the glory of the fact of that I thought that Aston Martin were going to be really, really slow. I didn't think they were going to be this bad. And I firmly do believe that they will improve across the year. I think it will be something that we see big improvements as they get mileage. The problem is the Honda relationship. It's the fact that Honda have no other. other team that are running their engine, therefore they don't really get much data, and the

Aston Martin is not running well with the current engine. They've not hit 100 laps the entire time that they've gone out for a day of testing. So they've got such limited data compared to Mercedes, Ferrari and so on. So it's just a really difficult relationship to improve on when it's such a massive regulation change. So they just need data. They just need running, but that's not what Fernando Alonzo is after. He's not a young whippersnapper that can just, all right, yeah, we've got two, three years. Don't worry, then we'll be good.

Or even the end of this year, he wants to win championships. That's why he's there. So, yeah, the biggest issue is just lack of data. And I hope for their sake they do pick it up because there was so much hype. And the aura farming was big. And no aura so far seen at testing. Let's go to P1PITR member J Dog Roll.

What's the biggest surprise so far? The surprise for me, and this is funny because we've just come from the back of talking about Aston Martin being unreliable, is the reliability of the cars. I think that is right up there of my picks of surprising moments because so many teams, how many teams today? Eight of, sorry, nine of the 11 teams did more than 100 laps today. this is a formula 26 regulation like we were

we formula one and the FIA were so concerned we had private tests we couldn't see nothing and yet all the teams are circulating like it's been the same regulations

for the last 10 years so that for me is right up there included and also obviously a slight sort of nod to the Ferrari spinny wing yeah I think as a

as a team the biggest surprise for me say FI is is Ferrari. I almost regret my flop prediction as much as I regret saying much this happened, wouldn't win a race all season. Probably more, actually. To both. Because genuinely, I think Ferrari are looking in really, looking really, really nice.

Stop it. I know you don't want to hear it, but I've seen a lot. I do, but I don't. Yeah, you do, but you don't. Exactly. It's the hope that kills you. but Ferrari, there was so little expectation. You were hearing things about,

oh, surely Charlotte Clare's going to move on. And then the fact that they've kind of come out the blocks very strong, they've got this amazing start procedure, looking very quick. They've looked reasonably reliable. You do wonder how much of the reliability is the wing today, hopefully for their sake. And I know this is a dangerous game to look into body language.

But I have seen a lot of journalists tweeting that, like, Charlotte Claire can literally not stop smiling. Like, he's not hiding it very well that they've found something. And I watched some, I watched some interviews. I just, I'm saying a cute selfie this morning, actually. I genuinely think that they've got something special. So we'll find out. But it's looking very good.

Well. Come on. Here we go. Good. Well, so now I can't stop smile. So that's great, but we will see in Australia when I'm screaming the house down at 5 a.m. When Charlotte-Clau goes from 7th to 1st in the first corner, that is going to be something very difficult to keep quiet, if should that actually happen.

Your neighbours will not be happy with you. Because I think basically the first like five races for us are about 4 a.m., aren't they or something? Yeah, it's tough. It's tough. But I'm really looking forward to it, especially now that we're talking about. about Ferrari potentially being in contention. Could this be our year? What else?

Anything else to mention, Tommy, before we go? Colapinto, surprise. Yeah, Holcomburg. I think Audi surprised him being up there. Because you look at, we've said all this stuff about kind of Ashton Martin building their own engine. Of course, you know, Audi have come in. They're a lone wolf, if you like, when it comes to building an engine

and being that only team and that's got to put them on the back foot, but they've looked pretty decent so far and, yeah, decent lap from Hulk. Yeah, for sure. They definitely need to be given their positive messages there because 102 laps today and they've had a bit of unreliability, haven't they? But to see some actual pure pace come out today from Hulk was pretty good. If you think back, I think it was last year was a mid-29 for pole position.

so we're three seconds off in a that's not bad at a that's just arrived. So I'm really... To say they're worried about it being slower than F2 and stuff but it's absolutely fine really, isn't it? I also need to not forget

about the Ferrari diffuser trick as well that they've got going on which apparently could be giving them a couple of tents as well you know, just rock it off the line diffuser this and love it so just going to throw that one in there as well good positive

sort of yeah vibes coming out from a lot of journalism and that usually means they've been talking and have been told certain things. So I'm going to take it as gospel. Right, are we done? I believe so. Okay. Thank you, everybody.

We'll be live tomorrow for the final hour of the final Bahrain test of the year. And then it is Australia, baby. Hell yeah. Tommy, final thoughts. Final thoughts. Perez, five seconds clear, Bottas, I think on aggregate time, he's got to be surely leading. Sorry, when did we introduce Anglicate timings?

This is 1990s Formula One. Absolutely not. No, it's 3-2 to Bottas and don't you dare try and change it any other way. Bottas was clearly doing very heavy, very low power mode runs. Indeed. Seeing how much you could charge.

Yeah, exactly. So there you go. Thanks for your final thought and we'll see you soon. That's love. Bye. Goodbye. Bottas will bounce back in the final test. Part of my words.

Here we go. This is the real fight. It is. It's the battle everybody wants to know about. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST created network.