Red Bull Bahrain F1 test issue on day two complicates new signing’s tough winter

The Red Bull Formula 1 team expects to lose at least two hours of Bahrain test time on day two due to a car issue, putting more pressure on Isack Hadjar.

Red Bull copped praise from its rivals following the Barcelona shakedown last month, as the performance and reliability of its new in-house-developed Ford power unit surprised.

On the opening day of this week’s first official Bahrain test, Max Verstappen was second-fastest overall and completed 136 laps in the new car.

Only Esteban Ocon in the Ferrari-powered Haas breached the 100-lap mark on Wednesday.

New Red Bull signing Isack Hadjar takes over from Verstappen on Thursday for the second day, but has already missed the opening hour due to a car issue.

A spokesperson from the team confirmed to Crash.net that “we just had a routine issue with the car build yesterday and expect a delay for the next two hours.”

Sky Sports is reporting that the issue is related to a hydraulic leak.

Live updates: Follow day two of the 2026 Bahrain F1 test

Hadjar was set to get his first running of this test underway at 9am GMT, but has yet to appear on track well into the third hour of the day's first session.

However, this lost track time comes after Hadjar also compromised his running during the Bahrain shakedown with a heavy crash.

Red Bull was forced to wait a day after this before hitting the track again while spare parts arrived from its Milton Keynes base.

Hadjar steps up to the main Red Bull team this season, after an impressive rookie campaign with Racing Bulls saw him claim a maiden podium at Zandvoort.

Red Bull originally fielded Liam Lawson as Sergio Perez’s team-mate for the start of 2025, before replacing him with Yuki Tsunoda after just two rounds.

Tsunoda failed to impress, however, especially against team-mate Max Verstappen, who missed out a fifth world title by just two points despite a difficult first half of the year.

Hadjar has been brought in to replace Tsunoda at Red Bull, though he faces an immense task in standing up to Verstappen in equal machinery.

Testing continues until 4pm GMT at Bahrain, with the final day running from 11am-4pm GMT on Friday.

A final three-day test at Bahrain takes place next week, before the 2026 campaign begins properly in Australia at the beginning of March.