Formula 1 test: Barcelona ‘shakedown’ offers first hints of Formula 1 2026

Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc said: “There is a lot of excitement, not only at Ferrari but all around the track.”

“We have to adapt as drivers and teams to try to find ways to get the most out of our new package, especially now with energy management being much more than it was in the past,” he added.

Teams were allowed to play a maximum of three days of their choosing from the five days. Not only had Mercedes finished all of its races by Thursday, but it had even finished before the end of the day.

Russell was generally positive about the new model cars.

“It’s very different, but when you wrap your head around it, it feels completely intuitive,” he said.

“From a fan perspective, there is an opportunity to see more exciting racing, and I don’t think you will see some of the negatives that we will feel from the car in terms of recharging, but that will develop a lot over time.

“Overall, I’m really happy that the cars are smaller now. I was a fan of the bigger cars when they came out in 2017, visually, but after driving them, they were too big, and now they look great.”

Ferrari also ran reliably, which both Red Bull teams did admirably.

Red Bull begins this new era of Formula 1 with its first in-house engine, developed in collaboration with its new partner Ford. Russell went on record to say how impressed he was that the car was trouble-free.

It seems that the biggest problem Red Bull faced in testing was with the driver. The team made the somewhat strange decision to run in the rain on Tuesday, something only Ferrari has also done.

New driver Izak Hajjar crashed in the afternoon at the fast final corner, having just switched from full wets to medium tyres. The Frenchman caused enough damage that the team needed to ship new parts, and Red Bull couldn’t run again until Friday even if they wanted to.

However, most teams encountered problems of one kind or another.

The world champion McLaren team started testing late because the car was not ready until Wednesday.

They said it was a deliberate decision to ensure they had as much time as possible for design and development, and it didn’t seem to affect them when Norris impressed on the car’s first day of running on Wednesday.

But McLaren’s late arrival meant their flexibility was reduced, and when a problem occurred with the fuel system on Thursday, they lost a lot of running time when they decided to strip the car and ensure they fully understood the problem.

For all the emphasis on reliability, teams were of course trying to extract any possible conclusions about relative speed.

“We’re all looking at the lap times, of course, trying to guess how much fuel everyone got,” said Steve Nielsen, Alpine’s managing director.

“You speculate about others and try to convince yourselves that you can compete, but by the end of the Bahrain tests (in February) we will see long rounds, where you do your calculations.”

As is always the case at this time of year, the teams offered nothing, asserting that they didn’t – couldn’t – know where they stood. Nearly every one said “positive” about how they got tested.

But team insiders say the photo has emerged. Not surprisingly, the top teams look good. As far as can be said, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull all seem to be in a similar competitive playing field – or “within the data noise”, as the folks at Formula 1 like to say.

Alpine, which finished last season in 2026, appears to have taken a significant step forward after switching to Mercedes customer engines. Racing Bulls and Haas appear to be the midfield.

The new Audi team, the German manufacturer that took over Sauber and produced its own engine, was stymied by a few reliability issues early in testing.

The all-new Cadillac, as expected, was in the back, the general view.

One of the big things all the teams have learned is that track running means learning and progressing quickly, due to the complexity of the new cars, and the time it takes to build up the knowledge to get the best out of all the systems.

This may be why the factory teams Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull perform so well, as they have the most experience in terms of what their new engines need and how to operate them.

This means that Williams, who did not even attend the test because his car was not ready, will be significantly behind going into the final two tests in Bahrain as they will effectively be two weeks behind everyone else.