Lewis Hamilton Forced to Abandon Car Mid-Lap in F1 Testing After New Ferrari 'Plan'

Lewis Hamilton stopped his Ferrari mid-lap during the final day of F1 testing in Bahrain after the team decided to run an unusual stint.

The Scuderia have got through three days of testing at the Sakhir International Circuit without significant issue.

Although it is unclear as to what sort of package they have got underneath them - fans may have a better idea of performance during the third test next week - the team have been able to run through all of its planned programmes.

Hamilton was in the Ferrari for the entirety of day three, but caused concern when he stopped his car coming out of turn five.

Given he stopped so early on in the lap, there was concern among fans that Ferrari had encountered an unexpected issue in the final hours of the test.

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur later told French TV outlet Canal+ that the stoppage was actually part of a pre-determined plan by the team, whereby Hamilton would simply keep running the car until it ran close to the limit on fuel in order to test the fuel tank capacity.

The idea behind the plan was to ensure that the team's fuel consumption data figures matched the amount of fuel that the car actually had in its tank, as well as to test the Ferrari power unit's response while running in low fuel mode.

It is unclear, though, as to whether the team had planned for it to grind to a halt so far away from the pits.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton ran around 120 laps on Friday before the stoppage, completing around 2500km as he gains valuable experience of the new 2026 machinery.

He was running in third place before the stoppage, having set a lap time of 1:34.209.

Hamilton's team-mate Charles Leclerc, who ran on day two, told Sky Sport Italia on Thursday that the team had enjoyed a 'positive start' to the test over the first two days owing to the lack of car problems - but warned against judging their potential 2026 performance too early.

"It was a positive start in the sense that we didn't have any problems per se," the Monegasque driver said.

"It's a good thing because, with such different new rules, a big problem at the beginning takes a lot of effort to fix. We didn't have any, which is positive.

"We completed the entire session schedule (on Thursday), we did all the tests we wanted to, so that was also positive.

"On the performance side, it's impossible to know where we are because if, before, there were two or three things we could play with to hide performance, now it's 15.

"It's very difficult to understand where we are compared to the others."