F1 Test: Red Bull and Mercedes get off to a strong start as 2026 new rule era begins with shakedown in Barcelona | F1 News

F1’s new rules era officially began in Barcelona on Monday, with seven of the 11 teams on the grid arriving on track for the first day of Spain’s 2026 closed shakedown week.

Teams that chose to run on the first day behind closed doors at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit with no media in attendance were Mercedes, Red Bull, Racing Bulls, Haas, Alpine, the rebranded Audi and the all-new Cadillac.

Teams will be allowed to run three days of the five-day test, with the emphasis on reliable running rather than performance given the all-new nature of the 2026 cars and engines.

McLaren and Ferrari have already announced they will not practice on Monday, while Williams will not take part in any testing due to delays with its 2026 car.

Meanwhile, Aston Martin confirmed on Monday that it intends to run on Thursday and Friday, the final two days of testing, as the world awaits the first look at Adrian Newey’s team debut design.

Isaac Hajjar is understood to have set the pace on Monday in the new Red Bull RB22, as there will be no live timing during testing and the “official” pre-season test will not take place until the first of two tests in Bahrain from February 11. This car is the first to be equipped with the team’s unique Ford-assisted power unit.

The Frenchman set the pace in the morning and, although he was usurped by Mercedes’ George Russell midway through the afternoon, he ended up faster than the Briton with a best time of the day of 1:18.159.

“Surprisingly, it’s been pretty productive,” said Hajar, who stepped up from Racing Bulls to become Max Verstappen’s teammate this year.

“I was able to complete a lot more laps than I expected.

“Everything went pretty smoothly. We only had minor issues, so that’s pretty impressive considering it’s our first day with our own engine. It was definitely smooth.”

Russell completed 95 laps in the new Mercedes W17 during afternoon practice in the car that many had long thought would lead the grid in the new season, and was second by half a second.

“We’re happy with our day today, but we were also impressed with some of the other teams,” Russell said.

“The Red Bull power unit completed a lot of laps, which means they obviously did a good job considering this is the first engine they’ve made.”

Teammate Kimi Antonelli drove the W17 in the morning and was the first driver on the wet track at the green light at 9am local time. The Italians completed 56 laps, giving Mercedes a total of 151 laps.

“This is a big learning experience,” Antonelli said of the nature of F1’s new-look cars.

“We’ve been trying to tune the power unit and the car and obviously this afternoon the car has improved a lot and it’s a continuous learning experience.”

“The most important thing is to try to do as many laps as possible to tune the power unit and car in the best possible way.”

Regarding Mercedes’ 2026 power unit, which many have suggested will prove to be an early class in its field, Antonelli added: “The team has done a really good job and drivability, which was a big question mark, looks good so far.”

“Obviously it’s still in the early stages, so we’ll discover more about the car and the PU through the running and see where it’s lacking and where it’s actually better, but so far the package feels good.”

Alpine replaced Aston Martin as a Mercedes engine customer and, along with Franco Colapinto, finished third on the first day’s timesheets. The Argentine completed 60 laps throughout the day on the A526 and brought out one of three red flags in the morning for what appeared to be a problem with the car’s sensors.

Haas marked the debut of a full test of Ferrari’s new power unit, with Esteban Ocon completing 154 laps throughout the day in the new VF-26, the most laps of any team. This is the equivalent of two Barcelona F1 race distances.

Cadillac enters F1 battle after new Audi hits early setbacks

The first day marked a milestone for the new Cadillac team, which was placed 11th on the grid and was on track for the first time alongside the 10 existing F1 teams.

Valtteri Bottas made his debut in the morning, marking his return to the sport after a year, but teammate Sergio Perez – who gave the challenger his debut at the Silverstone shakedown earlier this month – replaced him after lunch, as the Mexican geared up for his own F1 return.

“I’m happy to be back!” said Bottas. “Also, this is a really unique situation for this brand new team in this sport.

“It was really fun to be back on track. It was my first time driving this car, so it was really nice to be out on track.

“Obviously I can’t say much about the performance yet, but the important thing is that we completed some runs and even a bit of a long run at the end.

“So these are the first steps to debug and make everything work better.”

Although not a completely new team, Audi completely rebranded the Sauber brand under its own name over the winter, and on Monday the German manufacturer’s first F1 car and engine made its full on-track debut.

However, Gabriel Bortleto was limited to 28 laps and his titanium and red R26 suffered some problems in the early stages.

Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley said: “There was a technical problem with the car, which we discovered and we decided to switch off the car on track.”

“We have had a lot of tests this year and we have been analyzing them carefully because we really wanted to understand the questions.

“We’re getting the car ready. We’ll look at the weather conditions tomorrow and decide whether it’s a good day to drive.”

Light rain is expected at the circuit over the next three days, and teams will be closely monitoring weather radar to decide when to run next.

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