diff --git a/test_runner/regress/test_sharding.py b/test_runner/regress/test_sharding.py
index 545ba05b17..390cbd242a 100644
--- a/test_runner/regress/test_sharding.py
+++ b/test_runner/regress/test_sharding.py
@@ -50,8 +50,6 @@ def test_sharding_smoke(
     neon_env_builder.enable_pageserver_remote_storage(s3_storage())
     neon_env_builder.enable_scrub_on_exit()
 
-    neon_env_builder.preserve_database_files = True
-
     env = neon_env_builder.init_start(
         initial_tenant_shard_count=shard_count, initial_tenant_shard_stripe_size=stripe_size
     )
@@ -366,8 +364,6 @@ def test_sharding_split_smoke(
     neon_env_builder.enable_pageserver_remote_storage(s3_storage())
     neon_env_builder.enable_scrub_on_exit()
 
-    neon_env_builder.preserve_database_files = True
-
     non_default_tenant_config = {"gc_horizon": 77 * 1024 * 1024}
 
     env = neon_env_builder.init_configs(True)