Only four non-Red Bull powered drivers finished ahead of Verstappen on laps completed throughout the second test week in Bahrain, while the four-time world champion finished in the top three in the timing charts on Days 2 and 3.

Isack Hadjar had a patchy pre-season, more often the victim of reliability issues, but the young Frenchman is settling in well with his new teammate as he prepares to settle some scores at Melbourne for the 2026 season opener.

Hadjar said:"We made the most of the last day of testing. We trialled a lot of set up changes, they all made sense, so I feel good with the direction we took. The pace on long runs and high fuel was also good."

On the other hand, Verstappen, while pleased with Red Bull's early season progress, admitted Red Bull are still not completely where they want to be.

Verstappen said: "This week has been a good start. For my runs in the car, we’ve basically completed the full programme, so that was good as we have plenty of data to go over and analyse. Going into Bahrain testing, I think we prepared as well as we could and the Team have done a great job to get to where we are.

"I think it is quite obvious, of course, that there is still quite a bit of work to do for us to be faster so this is something we will be working on. Let’s see what we get in Melbourne: it will be great to be back racing but we still have to work hard.”

Earlier today, Hadjar told media, including GPblog, how Verstappen has helped him settle in as a senior Red Bull driver, praising the four-time world champion for being "very open" as a teammate.