Mercedes’ strong start to the new F1 rules era looked set to continue on day three of the shakedown in Barcelona, but world champion Lando Norris finally debuted his new McLaren on track.
Mercedes, many in the sport keen to return to title contention in 2026, are believed to have logged the most laps (183) of the six teams that ran at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit on Wednesday.
Although the time at the closed-door event has not been officially announced, it is believed that Kimi Antonelli set the fastest time in the test so far in the W17 in the afternoon, clocking a time of 1 minute 17.362 seconds.
Teammate George Russell had lowered Isaac Hajjar’s benchmark since Monday’s opening day with a 1:17.580.
However, lap times will be virtually irrelevant throughout the week as the grid focuses on reliability and systems checks on the latest cars following what is said to be the biggest technical rule change in the history of the sport.
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Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said: “We are happy with the distance we achieved today and achieved most of the goals we set during the first two days of running here in Barcelona.”
“The car has been reliable and we were able to put together multiple race distances today, which is encouraging as a first step and I know both drivers are feeling the number of laps they put in today!”
“Drivers have commented positively on the feel these smaller, lighter cars give them compared to the previous generation. But they will only be truly satisfied when they see their relative performance compared to the competition, and that won’t be known until Bahrain at the earliest.”
McLaren’s first appearance with Norris at the wheel
World champions McLaren have belatedly begun their pre-season preparations on track after missing the first two days of practice (Tuesday was rain-hit with only Red Bull and Ferrari running on the second day).
Norris, who displayed the coveted reigning champion number 1 on the nose of his car for the first time, left the pit lane just before the start of the third hour of the day, completing 74 laps in his MCL40 debut. His fastest time was 1:18.307, which is believed to have placed him third on the timesheets.
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Check out the highlights from Day 2 of Shakedown. Each team will run their cars at the Barcelona test.
Alpine split the running between Franco Colapinto in the morning and Pierre Gasly in the afternoon, while Haas gave Oliver Bearman his first full day in the new VF-24.
Haas, which topped 150 laps on Monday, ran into reliability issues that brought out a red flag when Bearman stopped in the morning. However, the British rider was able to get back on track and complete 42 laps.
It was also the second time Audi had stopped on track this week, with Nico Hulkenberg also returning after recuperating in the garage and completing 68 laps.
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Sky Sports F1’s Bernie Collins and Craig Slater give their thoughts on why Aston Martin has been late arriving on track for F1 pre-season testing in Barcelona.
British rookie Arvid Lindblad drove for Racing Bulls and completed more than 100 laps on Red Bull’s new power unit, but the senior team did not compete on Wednesday following the opening two days of practice, and Hajar crashed in wet conditions on Tuesday evening, severely damaging his RB22.
Teams will be able to drive on three days of the five-day shakedown week. Aston Martin is yet to drive, but the first Adrian Newey-designed car is thought to have arrived in Spain ahead of its track debut on Thursday.
More to come…
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