(Motorsport-Total.com) – Charles Leclerc was the fastest man at the winter test in Bahrain before the 2026 Formula 1 season. However, long-time Haas team principal Günther Steiner emphasizes that Ferrari is therefore not automatically the top favorite for the world championship title this year.
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“Ferrari is just Ferrari, I would say. You never know exactly where they stand,” Steiner told sport.de. He emphasizes: “They are up there, but are they right at the front? That is always the problem with Ferrari. You can see that the car is good.”
“They are among the Top 4,” says Steiner, who does not see the Scuderia at the very front of this group. “The winner is Mercedes. They are very strong,” believes the 60-year-old, although Mercedes only took second place behind Ferrari in the timesheets in Bahrain.
However, Andrea Kimi Antonelli already set his personal best time on the penultimate day of testing and on a harder tire compound than Leclerc. Thus, the Italian was 0,811 seconds slower in the end, while teammate George Russell refrained from a real time attack on the final day.
Russell thus only landed in sixth place in the timesheets, but Steiner emphasizes: “For me, Mercedes and George Russell as a driver are the favorites in Australia.” Russell also has “the talent to become world champion if he has the vehicle.”
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“And with the Mercedes, he has the vehicle at the moment. And that’s why for me, George is the title candidate this year,” says Steiner, who generally assumes that the title will again be decided between the four top teams Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren.
Behind them in the midfield, Audi, among others, convinced him. “I was actually positively surprised by Audi,” he says and explains: “They drive consistently, and the times are also respectable. […] They cannot compete for victories, […] but if they are in the midfield, that is already very positive.”
The biggest disappointment of the test drives for him, on the other hand, is unsurprisingly Aston Martin. The team is “not stable” and “slow,” says Steiner. The team around Fernando Alonso and Adrian Newey finished last in both the timesheets and the lap charts.
Read more Despite fastest test time: Ferrari not top favorite for Günther Steiner