Charles Leclerc serves notice that Ferrari is up for the 2026 title fight, as he completes 132 laps on his way to posting the fastest time of the week.

In recent years, especially when only getting three days of testing, it worked pretty much like a 'twisted' Grand Prix weekend, as the first day was essentially a practice session, the second given over to reliability and the third to qualifying-style glory runs, especially important to those teams courting a special sponsor or those simply laying down a marker. Then again, there were those who chose to keep their powder dry, and wait for the opening race weekend.

This week, we finally got access to the action, finally got to see the cars for real, and while there were no glory runs as such, the final day did give a few glimpses of what might be.

Of course, behind the scenes, despite the cries of 'Don't panic!' from Domenicali, the powers that be are sure to be working to prevent Melbourne becoming an utter sh*t show, and it is likely that there will be changes before then, and then, of course, there is the Sprint weekend in China a week later.

The final day started with the usual aero rakes and flo-vis with most drivers opting for short runs, though Antonelli's opening gambit saw the Italian complete 11 laps.

When the timing screen showed Ocon on Inters we thought the app was up to its usual tricks, but sure enough the Haas was on the green-banded rubber in bright sunshine.

Seemingly it was part of a data test for inclement weather as in wet conditions teams are allowed to flatten the front wing, but not the rear wing, in the same way DRS was disabled in the wet. The Frenchman continued on the tyres until they all but disintegrated, his job done.

Just over an hour into the session, Honda issued a statement: "Our last run with Fernando Alonso yesterday showed a battery-related issue that impacted our test plan with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team," it read.

"Since then, we have been carrying out simulations on the test bench in HRC Sakura. Due to this and a shortage of power unit parts, we have adapted today's run plan to be very limited and consist only of short stints."

Meanwhile, as Leclerc got stuck into a race sim, along with Lindblad, Perez had only completed one lap.

Just over two hours into the session, Antonelli stopped between Turns 10 and 11, thereby bringing out the Red Flag, his problem thought to be a loss of pneumatic pressure.

Meanwhile, Pedro de la Rosa, aka Comical Ali, was telling F1TV: "Yesterday we had some battery issues on Fernando's car, and therefore, you know, Honda is carrying out test simulations in the test bench in Sakura.

"Due to this fact, and also the fact that we have a shortage of parts, we will be doing very limited runs today. They will be short, and they will be separated by a minimum of half an hour, so that will allow us to really look into the data and be able to test some things in these few runs. So, yeah, we won't be doing long runs today, for sure."

Perez had now joined his rivals and was up to 30 laps, and shortly after Stroll finally appeared, the Canadian completing one lap before pitting again. He subsequently came out for another lap just in time for the lunch break, though in his case one wouldn't be surprised if he'd headed for the nearest bar.

For the practice start, only Ocon, Piastri and Hadjar were on track, lining up astern, they all got away smoothly.

For Piastri, Antonelli, Hadjar, Ocon, Hulkenberg and Perez this was their last time in the car before Melbourne.

Stroll was first out after the break, but after completing just a handful more laps, and without posting a time, the Silverstone-based outfit threw in the towel. "We have completed our programme for today," they announced.

Thirty minutes into the afternoon, Russell finally emerged following the issue his teammate suffered earlier, Mercedes having changed engines, as was the case last week you'll remember.

However, while the Mercedes had now joined in the fun, there was still no sign of Bortoleto or Norris.

Along with the usual lock-ups and offs we saw numerous instances of drivers shadowing rivals, some leading to successful overtakes, others not so.

At one point Russell got alongside Gasly on the pit straight, but didn't pass, thereby raising the question of whether he ran out of power and was unable to make the move, whether the Alpine driver was somehow managing his energy in order to resist, or what... and if this was the case how are fans supposed to know when watching.

As Lindblad and Bearman completed their race sims, Norris finally headed out, meanwhile Leclerc had set a new benchmark (33.162)

Quickest in all three sectors the Monegasque subsequently improved by 0.5s to 32.655, while Norris, with PBs in all three sectors responded with a 32.871.

Shortly after Gasly had gone fifth, Leclerc posted a 31.992. He subsequently went quickest in S3 but failed to improve overall. The Ferrari driver was really going for it, having used 3 sets of C4s in his bid to go ever faster, but along the way there had been a few moments.

The final system test got underway with Russell, Leclerc, Gasly, Sainz, Bortoleto, Verstappen, Lindblad, Bearman, Norris and Bottas all on track. For the start, Russell was on pole, with Leclerc tucked in behind. Norris was at the back as Bottas headed into the pitlane.

All got away smoothly, Russell holding off Leclerc, while Verstappen and Norris were are also quick off the mark, as was Bearman, unlike Bortoleto who was somewhat sluggish.

So, none of the glory runs of previous years, other than Leclerc, and still the pecking order remains something of a mystery.

The 17 drivers completed 1,334 laps, Lindblad leading the way with a staggering 165, ahead of Sainz (141) and Leclerc (132), while Bottas completed 38 and Stroll a pathetic 6.

Haas completed 170 laps in total, Racing Bulls 165, Williams 141 and Audi 135.

So, Ferrari has pace - and great starts - though there remains a question mark over reliability, as is the case with Mercedes, and while McLaren and Red Bull are 'up there' they don't look as strong as last week.

Then again, this wasn't your usual pre-season test, teams and drivers are still getting used to the new formula - which may yet change - and as a result, along with potential sandbagging, we have yet to see anyone genuinely show their hand, though Ferrari does appear to have served notice.

Leclerc continued with the planned development programme, completing 135 laps (731 km). Over the three days, the SF-26 completed a total of 336 laps (1818 km), which, added to the previous test, brings the total to almost 6200 km.

In the morning, Leclerc took to the track, focusing initially on a series of set-up checks, while at the same time evaluating car and tyre behaviour. Attention then turned to longer runs on the C3 and C2 compounds, gathering useful data in the very hot conditions. By the end of the morning, the Monegasque had completed 80 laps (433 km). His best time was a 1:33.689.

He was back behind the wheel of the SF-26 after the break, focusing on performance runs, fitting sets of both C3 and C4 tyres, on which he set his best time of 1:31.992.

Overall, it has been an intensive and productive day, rounding off the team's preparation work.

"The test day was very smooth," said Leclerc, "we ran through our programme and tested all the things we planned to.

"In terms of performance, it's still difficult to understand where we really stand because teams are hiding their true form," he continued, "so it's important not to focus too much on lap times and prepare for the first race.

"We will build step by step and try to understand how to extract the maximum from our car, we have a lot of data to analyse before we arrive in Melbourne and we will see how things go once we are there."

"It has been a positive test overall," added Fred Vasseur, "but we have to keep in mind that the priority was to complete a lot of mileage and build a strong foundation for the season. From this point of view, the test was productive and allowed us to gather valuable data and improve our understanding of the car.

"As always in testing, it is very difficult to draw conclusions in terms of performance, as we don't know the programmes of the other teams. Our focus was on ourselves and on making continuous progress."

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