F1 Returns to Life at Barcelona Shakedown

Formula 1 held its first five-day test, sorry, “shakedown,” at an unrepresentatively cold and sometimes wet Barcelona, at which teams were permitted to run on three of the days. Of course, you can already check off the bingo list of “it’s too early to say,” or “we’re not yet focused on performance,” but what’s the lay of the embryonic land as Formula 1 teams and drivers start to get a handle on new cars?

Ferrari sets the fastest time

Ferrari flew under the radar for most of the three days of running, but late on it wound up topping the timesheets, with Lewis Hamilton’s effort on Friday narrowly eclipsing George Russell’s previous Thursday benchmark. Compared to the miserable final few months of 2025 both drivers, particularly Hamilton, cut a significantly more upbeat figure.

“It was good, we went through our program, did everything we wanted to do, we pushed a little bit more as well, which was nice to feel a bit the limit of this car and understand a bit more of it as well, I’m happy, we’ve done everything we wanted,” said Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton described the shakedown as “really enjoyable” and praised Ferrari’s efforts.

“It’s been a huge amount of work over the winter, on my side, and what the team has done over the winter to make changes going into the test,” he said. “To see the mileage we’ve been able to get, due to the great work, I’m really grateful for, having consistency, not having problems, of course there’s always small things but we didn’t have any downtime moments—they could potentially come—but just solid days.

“The car generation is a little bit more fun to drive, it’s oversteery and snappy and sliding, but it’s a little bit easier to catch and I’d say more enjoyable, but we definitely have work to do to improve, like everyone does, but I really feel the winning mentality in every single person in the team more than ever, so that’s a positive. We know we’ve got work to do, Mercedes have done great running as well, Red Bull and Haas too, we don’t know where we are, but it’s a solid first week and we can really build from here.”

Mercedes makes a mark with miles

If one team made a statement in Barcelona it was Mercedes. The Silver Arrows have long been tipped to re-emerge as a contender under new regulations and, having run its W17 to the full permitted mileage in its own shakedown, the new car ran well and racked up the miles in Barcelona.

Mercedes comfortably fronted the mileage charts, running 151 laps on its first day, 183 on the second, and 168 on its third, equivalent to seven-and-a-half race distances at the venue. For a first test under new regulations it was hugely impressive. There was also the gamesmanship of being first out on track when the lights turned green on Monday morning.

“We did a lot of laps, really good mileage for the team, I’m happy because I’ve been learning quite a lot about the car,” said sophomore Kimi Antonelli, who added that Mercedes can head to the Bahrain test with “high confidence and high hopes” on account of the positive nature of the shakedown.

George Russell explained that “it’s been a very positive test, lots of mileage, the car’s feeling nice to drive, no major issues,” and that “we can be pleased with this initial foundation we have put in place.”

Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin echoed the positivity emanating from Antonelli and Russell.

“It’s been really impressive from a reliability point of view, it’s worked brilliantly, the car’s allowed us to run the program day by day as we planned it,” Shovlin said. “We were focused on just understanding the new systems, there’s always going to be a lot of challenges, all of the areas that weren’t great on day one we’ve made good progress, and that progress is making us quicker day by day, but the reliability has just been amazing.”

Norris still getting used to #1 status

There was an almost embarrassed smile from Lando Norris when he was addressed as the reigning World Champion, and the Briton conceded he is still getting used to the accolade. Norris rolled out of the garage for the first time on Wednesday with the #1 on the front of his MCL40, following his 2025 title triumph, and beamed with pride.

“It’s nice to see the number one on my car, pretty cool, pretty surreal still,” said Norris. “I saw it actually on the timing screen and still find it just unbelievable, it’s still a crazy thing to see, especially when you see it, it’s the first time I see it on my suit, on my car, on the timing screens, still a surreal feeling, the whole situation of being champion. But it doesn’t change anything other than being top of the timing screen before we go out as I’m the lowest number now!”

The short nature of the off-season—with only seven weeks between the end of 2025 and opening running of 2026—means there has been less time for Norris to digest his achievement.

“I think even now I’m still trying to accept it and realize it happened, but at the same time it’s back to work and now we’ve got to try and do it all again,” he said. “It makes me happy, and it gives me good confidence, but it’s such a big challenge with the regulation changes, but I feel good, I’ve accomplished something huge in my life.”

It wasn’t the smoothest test for McLaren, with a fuel systems issue costing them half a day, but overall the team was encouraged.

“I’m starting to feel what the car is really like, and we’ve already tried a variety of configurations and settings to understand how it behaves for a race weekend,” said Oscar Piastri. “Overall, the priority this week has been clear: understand the car and improve it.”

Delayed Aston catches the eye

Adrian Newey’s first Aston Martin was always going to be heavily scrutinized, but it took a bit of time for the AMR26 to appear. The car only made it to Barcelona late on Wednesday and wasn’t ready in time until the closing moments of Thursday, effectively giving Aston Martin just one day and one hour from its allotted three days.

When the car did appear, in an all-black livery ahead of its official unveiling, it certainly did capture the attention. The AMR26 has a wider nose than its contemporaries, the sidepods are extremely slender and aggressively undercut, and in typical Newey fashion, the packaging is tight. The suspension mounting points have also been noted, “horns” next to the airbox and, well, probably lots of other tiny details that have yet to be spotted or analyzed. The late arrival leaves Aston Martin slightly on the back foot in terms of mileage and understanding, but the team remains upbeat.

“It was positive, the car is responding well, it’s the first day and more to come,” said Fernando Alonso. “Obviously it’s the first car made by Adrian and together with Honda, the new rules, especially the last two weeks has been very intense to have the car ready and we just made it to Barcelona, so a tremendous effort from everyone.”

No repeat of 2014

There were fears in some quarters that the opening day of testing could resemble the difficult first day of the 2014 test at Jerez, when the V6 turbo hybrid power units were trialed for the first time. On that day only a handful of teams were able to string together a few reasonable laps, and across the board there weren’t even 100 laps in total. There were stoppages and glitches—to be expected—but on the first day of running over three teams managed 100 laps, and Haas racked up a mammoth 154 laps.

“It’s not quite 2014 vibes of half the grid is breaking down and having loads of issues—I think Formula 1’s evolved so much since then and the level’s just so high,” said Mercedes’ George Russell. “From every single aspect, it was pretty impressive to see all the teams on the whole having a lot of laps under their belt on day one.”

Red Bull’s power unit runs well

Red Bull hierarchy cut a cautious tone at its launch in Detroit last month, pointing out that it would be foolish to have overly high expectations early doors. It is, after all, a new power unit manufacturer going up against long-standing engine producers. But the Red Bull Ford Powertrains DM01, in the back of both Red Bull teams, racked up the mileage in the opening days.

“I have to say, in terms of what we were expecting from the power unit on these first couple of days, I can only repeat how proud we are from everybody back at base to have managed to give us something that we can actually run with,” said Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies. “Of course it’s very early days and of course nothing is perfect, but we could run, we could start to learn, work as one team, so that was a huge satisfaction. It doesn’t change the size of the journey in front of us, but certainly it’s a first moment that everybody in MK should be proud of.”

Rival drivers and team bosses also lauded Red Bull Ford Powertrains’ early running, highlighting the challenge of delivering such a product straight out of the box. Racing Bulls were also buoyed.

“A new power unit, new power unit manufacturer, RBPT with Ford have done an incredible job,” Racing Bulls’ Team Principal Alan Permane said. “The whole power unit has run very, very reliably and I don’t say [we] were expecting problems, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised with how things have gone.”

The main setback for Red Bull was Isack Hadjar backing the car into the wall in damp conditions on Tuesday, though spare parts were readied in order for the RB22 to return to action for its third permitted day of running on Friday.

Absent Williams bullish over approach

Williams has been on the up in recent years and has long targeted 2026 as an opportunity to make the next step. But its year has started badly as the FW48 was not ready in time for the Barcelona shakedown and it was absent from running. Team Principal James Vowles explained the situation, pointing to Williams’ long-running task of overhauling infrastructure, procedures, and production at its factory.

“It clearly wasn’t our plan, and it’s incredibly painful,” Vowles said. “I do want it to be acknowledged that it’s the result of our determination to push the limits of performance under new regulations. We are transforming here [at Grove], and fast, and one of my tasks has been to transform this business at the absolute maximum rate possible, and in my experience the only way you achieve that is pushing the limits hard and aggressively and finding the limitations.”

Vowles explained that the FW48 is “about three times more complicated than anything we’ve put through our business beforehand,” consequently pointing out that “it means the amount of load going through our system is three times what it used to be.”

Vowles affirmed that the FW48, which has been undergoing VTT [Virtual Track Testing], will be ready for a filming day ahead of its presence at the Bahrain test on February 11. The car could, he said, have been rushed in time for Barcelona, but at the expense of Williams’ medium-term prospects. He was nonetheless non-committal on whether the FW48 will be overweight on account of the production setbacks.

“You need to find the pain points and put them right quickly, which is what we’re doing,” Vowles said on finding weaknesses within its processes and infrastructure. “I’m confident our decision to miss Barcelona is the right one to prepare for Bahrain and Melbourne.”

But with other teams learning huge amounts with every run of their cars in Barcelona there’s no doubt Williams is currently on the back foot.

Cadillac is a real thing

Cadillac has been preparing for its Formula 1 entry behind-the-scenes officially for almost a year, and unofficially for much longer, but Barcelona was the first proof of it being a fully functioning and operational Formula 1 team.

There was a motorhome, a garage, a fully staffed group of mechanics, engineers and hospitality personnel, two drivers, and a working Formula 1 car. It may sound churlish or blindingly obvious to say, but it is no longer merely a construct or a concept. Cadillac was one of the first teams to actually run its car, at a shakedown at a wet Silverstone in mid-January, and it was working through heaps of checklists in Barcelona.

There was no focus on performance, partly explaining its near five-second deficit, just on accruing mileage and gaining understanding, while also getting the trackside team to gel and apply their knowhow from various backgrounds.

“A lot of people in the team have come from other teams and are no strangers to the paddock, and I think people can see Cadillac F1 is here with serious intent to contribute to the championship,” Team Principal Graeme Lowdon said. “It’s an enormous challenge, this is the pinnacle of motorsport, you can’t just kind of wander in and perform, it’s a real challenge, we calculated in the senior level we have something like 2,500 years of F1 experience, but 11 months of working together, so it does take time, but I’m really proud of the people we’ve got, the team spirit is fantastic, and this is a team game, everyone’s pulling together and working through the development of an F1 car.”

Given the experience and knowhow of its 10 rivals, not being last remains a realistic ambition for Cadillac, and it is gradually going through processes and understandings after its first group running. The final livery of the as-yet-unnamed car will be revealed Sunday February 8 during Super Bowl LX.