Action on Wednesday was interrupted when a drain cover broke loose, halting proceedings for more than an hour.
The following day, a repeat incident occurred and saw the morning session stopped for 80 minutes. To claw back some of that time, the one-hour lunch break was cancelled, meaning teams effectively only lost 20 minutes.
Without the interruptions, teams were scheduled to have a total of 24 hours of track time across the three days, split between two drivers.
“I think if it’s a silky-smooth test, about one and a half days each is just the absolute minimum,” said Mercedes’ George Russell.
“Drivers who lost out [due to the red flags] it is a big disadvantage, every single lap you get is hugely valuable.
“The car’s more complex than ever, the tyres are extremely challenging. The cars are more sophisticated.
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“It’s not like jump in a Formula 2 car, which is still a very fast car but they don’t have any other kids of gadgets that Formula 1 does.
“So I’d like to see probably an extra day of testing, or a second car.”
Russell’s comments echoed remarks of two-time champion Fernando Alonso ahead of the test when he suggested the lack of time during pre-season testing was “unfair”.
The Spaniard maintained that opinion in Bahrain and supported Russell’s call for changes.
“Being here, I think we have our full crew here, or the mechanics are here racing next week,” Alonso noted.
“So I don’t know the extra cost of having both cars here.
“We race here in five days’ time, it’s not that we need to go back to Europe and then send the cars back again to Bahrain.
“I think having two cars, even three days or four days, I think should be the minimum for professional sport, for professional athletes.”
Mercedes had a straightforward test and was one of five teams to log more than 2000km of running, Aston Martin managing 2051km.
Williams, however, struck trouble on multiple occasions. Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant combined to log just 61 laps on the opening day, less than half of what most teams managed.
Thursday offered more laps, with 117 for Sargeant despite a brake-by-wire problem losing the team crucial track time, while Albon added 121 laps on Friday.
That resulted in a total testing mileage of 1618km of pre-season running.
Following the conclusion of running last Friday, F1 has remained in Bahrain ahead of the opening round of the season getting underway on Thursday.
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