When you think of rain in F1, what do you picture? Spray flying up as a Ferrari takes Eau Rouge at nearly 200mph? Rivers running across the track at Interlagos after a storm arrives out of the blue? Umbrellas up in the grandstands at Silverstone as Maggotts and Becketts challenge drivers more than ever?

Naturally, Pirelli are planning a ‘wet weather’ test of their tyres before the start of the 2026 season, for exactly those circumstances. And just like you’d expect, they’re conducting that test…in Bahrain.

That’s Bahrain, the country currently hosting two weeks of winter testing because the weather is so reliably warm and dry. Bahrain, where some teams don’t bother bringing a single set of inters or wets to a three-day test because, well, obviously it’s going to be dry. That same Bahrain.

We haven’t reached out to Pirelli to double check that they didn’t just CTRL+F ‘rain’ in one of their F1 docs and mistakenly click the first thing that came up without asking themselves ‘oh, does the name of the place just have ‘rain’ as part of it and that’s what’s happened here?’ (because we think they’d send us an angry email back), but just know that we’ve thought about it.

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Isola: Bahrain accommodates our weird requests

The Race reported on the test, due to be held the weekend before the season opener in Melbourne, and have confirmed that there is actually a plan for there to be water on the track.

Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola explained: “They have a fantastic idea with sprinklers and some other devices. I have to say that Bahrain people are always very cooperative when we ask for strange requests.

“I gave a call to the guys here [in Bahrain] and I said, ‘what if we plan a wet test in Bahrain?’ They said ‘yes, of course we can’.

“I asked ‘Are you sure? Let us think about it. But we need consistency in the water level because clearly the risk is that inconsistency in water level is more important than the difference in prototypes’. But they were clear. ‘Yeah, understood, we will consider to prepare the track and everything’.”

Isola also claimed that the manufacturer is also looking to make the extreme wet tyres more usable than in previous years, where the real options appeared to be ‘intermediate tyre or red flag for unsafe conditions’. While many will remain skeptical – the same sentiment has been offered in previous years, after all – the possibility remains of some better wet weather racing in 2026.

“What we have tried to do is to reduce the crossover time between the wet and intermediate in order to make the wet tyre more usable,” he said.

“The point is that if you are in a race condition and the expectation is for the track to dry, they will put on an intermediate because they want to minimise the number of pitstops.”

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Max Verstappen has hinted to F1 fans that they might see him enjoying a brat summer sooner rather than later.

That is, a bratwurst summer! The Dutchman is toying once again with the idea of ditching F1, but insisted this week that he’d continue racing even so – just ‘somewhere else’, with a barbecue and a party tent.

Verstappen has made no secret of his dislike of the effect the new 2026 regulations have had on the new batch of cars, complaining at this week’s testing in Bahrain and dropping hints once again that his future may lie outside F1 sooner than many truly expect.

The 28-year-old talking about leaving the sport is nothing new. The four-time world champion has been warning that he could hang up his helmet at the end of his Red Bull contract since the 2022 season. It’s just that most observers have broadly worked under the theory that the many, many millions of Euros and the prestige of F1 will keep him around into his 30s.

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Verstappen retirement watch, 2763th edition

The last 12 months have seen the question of retirement raised at a much higher rate though, with Red Bull finally falling off their pedestal as the sport’s fastest team and Verstappen being forced to get back in the trenches and fight for podiums.

Asked by the media this week whether Dutch fans should be worried about seeing him race in the future, he answered: “No way, I’ll just race somewhere else. We could probably have a barbecue there and set up a nice party tent.”

Some drivers appear to have grown a little weary of being asked about a potential Verstappen retirement – possibly even as much as Verstappen himself is weary of being asked the same question, with the same answer, for the last three and a half years – with Lando Norris giving a particularly flip answer this week in Bahrain.

“[The new car was] a lot of fun; I really enjoyed it,” he said. “So, yeah, if he wants to retire, he can retire. Formula 1 changes all the time. Sometimes it’s a bit better to drive, sometimes it’s not as good to drive.

“We get paid a stupid amount of money to drive, so you can’t really complain at the end of the day. Any driver can go and find something else to do. It’s not like he has to be here, or any driver has to be here.

“It’s a challenge, but it’s a good, fun challenge for the engineers, for the drivers. You have to drive it in a different way, understand and manage things differently, but I still get to drive cars and travel the world and have a lot of fun. So, nothing to complain about.”

READ MORE: Lando Norris claps back at Max Verstappen in F1 regulations row: ‘He can retire’

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Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton‘s criticism of the new regulations continued with the admission of a new 20-year low.

Hamilton is driving his new SF-26 in the official pre-season testing event at Bahrain this week, as the 41-year-old hopes for more from his second season with the Ferrari team.

New regulation changes have led to some optimism that Ferrari and Hamilton can challenge higher up the grid in 2026, following a 2025 season in which Hamilton didn’t even claim a single grand prix podium.

But Hamilton was very critical of the new regulations during the first day of testing in Bahrain, stating that a ‘degree’ was needed in order to fully understand the rules.

And following on from that, he also suggested that his new SF-26 was suffering from a lack of grip, claiming that it was the ‘lowest grip’ he’s ever had around the Bahrain International Circuit.

“Obviously, no cars have been running, so track’s dirty, sandy, and very windy, so you’re just kind of sliding around,” Hamilton told F1TV. “It was just kind of brushing off the cobwebs, I guess. Over the next couple days, the track will get better.”

He was then asked whether his Ferrari car felt better than during 2025 pre-season testing, to which he said: “Too early to say. I mean, today didn’t I don’t think today felt good for anybody because it’s so windy.

“It’s the lowest amount. I mean, it’s the lowest grip I’ve ever felt here in my 20 years.”

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Hamilton hoping for 2026 bounce

Of course, while Ferrari having a faster car than in 2025 would be an exciting prospect for Hamilton, he also needs to sort his own performance out too before he can start dreaming of a 106th race victory and maybe even another shot at a record eighth world title.

The Brit struggled in qualifying in 2025, and didn’t fare too much better in races either, finishing a whopping 86 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ championship.

Leclerc achieved seven podiums in the same car and inflicted Hamilton’s biggest ever team-mate defeat during the 2025 season.

Hamilton will hope that the new generation of cars are better suited to his supreme talents, with new regulation changes seeing the old ground effect rules binned.

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