F1 2026 Barcelona Shakedown: First Look at Teams’ New Cars and Drivers
written by: Robert Nguyen
A detailed look at the 2026 F1 Barcelona shakedown, highlighting team performance, new cars, and which challengers might surprise fans this season.
More than a month after the checkered flag in Abu Dhabi and the crowning of a new World Champion, the Formula One grid descends on Barcelona for the long-awaited shakedown of the 2026 season. New engines, new cars, and a new challenger promise an exciting start to the campaign. Fans and teams alike watched closely to see which teams had adapted best to the latest regulations and which challengers might surprise.
Over the course of five days at Catalunya, we got our first glimpse into the next generation of Formula One as teams began to find out how their 2026 challengers would perform in their first test. While testing times and lap counts don’t indicate where all the teams are in terms of performance, they are still an early indication of where each team is, ahead of the first competitive sessions of the season in Melbourne. So, let’s take a closer look at how each team fared.
Williams
Did Not Run
Just three days before the shakedown in Barcelona, Williams dropped a bombshell by announcing that the team would not be running at the pre-season shakedown. Instead, the Grove team would use a virtual test program for the FW48 before its first track run at the official Bahrain pre-season test on the 18th of February. The news came as a significant setback for Williams, who had ended development of their FW47 early last season to focus on 2026.
While rumors were circulating about the team struggling with the mandatory crash test and being at most 30 kilograms overweight, another factor may explain why Williams missed the first shakedown of the season.
Just a day before the announcement, Williams released a video of the team firing up the FW48 for the first time, which was quite late compared to many other teams that had already run their cars weeks earlier. With Williams a customer of the Mercedes team, it is possible that the Grove-based team took longer than usual to integrate the new Mercedes power unit into its new chassis. This explains why the engine fired up late, and the timeframe to have the team ready to run at Catalunya would have been too tight to be fully prepared for the shakedown.
With the other 10 teams having managed to get their runs in early for the 2026 season, Williams will be on the back foot coming into the official pre-season test at Sakhir. Until then, the FW48 is in no man’s land.
Mercedes
Total Lap Count: 500
Fastest Time: George Russell (1:16.445 on Day Four)
Mercedes ended Barcelona with the highest lap count among the ten teams participating, with George Russell logging the second-fastest reported time overall. The Silver Arrows were the first team out on track during the shakedown on Monday, with further running on a rain-soaked Tuesday and finishing their run a day early on Thursday.
The numbers that Mercedes managed to log showed a test that ticked all the boxes for the Silver Arrows. With the new W17 looking fast and reliable, Mercedes looks right at home with the latest regulations and appears to be the most prepared team at the moment.
Ferrari
Total Lap Count: 444
Fastest Time: Lewis Hamilton (1:16.348 on Day Five)
During the disappointing 2025 season, the team from Maranello indicated that it had halted development of the SF25 early to focus on the new SF26. Contrary to the scare during the first shakedown run at Fiorano when Hamilton stopped right before the garage, Ferrari had a promising shakedown in Barcelona.
Even though the team originally stated that their 2026 challenger would be quite conservative at first, the shakedown may have indicated something different brewing in the red Scuderia camp. Ferrari began their shakedown program on the rain-soaked Tuesday, with back-to-back dry running for the SF26 on Thursday and Friday. While Ferrari’s performance in the shakedown was kept under wraps, the lap count suggests a very reliable new Ferrari power unit. Lewis Hamilton posted the fastest time of the shakedown on the final day. There might be more that Ferrari can bring to the table, but so far, so good.
Will 2026 be Ferrari’s year? We might have to wait and see.
Red Bull
Total Lap Count: 303
Fastest Lap: Max Verstappen (1:17.586 on Day Five)
The new Red Bull era starts here, after the departure of longtime consultant Helmut Marko and team principal Christian Horner midway through the 2025 season, as well as longtime chief designer Adrian Newey. The era of Ford and Laurent Mekies took its first step. In their first attempt to build an in-house engine with Ford, Red Bull logged in a respectable 303 laps with their new RBPT engine. At the same time, their sister Racing Bulls organization also logged in similar mileage across five days in Barcelona.
Red Bull’s running plans consisted of the opening on Monday, the rain-affected Tuesday, and the final on Friday. The new-look Red Bull ran decently through the test, aside from Isack Hadjar crashing the car on the rainy Tuesday, which forced the team to ship in extra parts. Overall, Red Bull is in a much better position than expected. The question of how the RBPT-Ford engines will perform is still a big question mark. Nevertheless, considering this is the first test of the new partnership, the Austria-American effort is underway.
McLaren
Total Lap Count: 291
Fastest Lap: Lando Norris (1:16.594 on Day Five)
The two-time defending World Champion started later than most, with the Woking team opting to stretch their development time. McLaren’s shakedown program was initially supposed to begin on Tuesday, but rain-soaked conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya pushed back the MCL40’s first run by a day. McLaren ran the final three days of the shakedown on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
After the initial shakedown on Wednesday afternoon with Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri took over on Thursday, only for a fuel system issue to ground McLaren’s progress. Apart from the problem on their second running day, the papaya machine looks quick out of the box, with both Piastri and Norris logging a considerable amount of laps on the final day. The defending World Champion also finished with the third-fastest time of the shakedown. While the numbers don’t look as impressive as those of rivals Mercedes and Ferrari, McLaren still shows why it might be the team to beat in 2026.
Racing Bulls
Total Lap Count: 319
Fastest Lap: Arvid Lindblad (1:18.451 on Day Four)
Like their big brother Red Bull outfit, Racing Bulls also logged in just a touch more mileage with their new Red Bull Powertrains Ford engine. VCARB ran on Monday and Wednesday and closed out their shakedown on Thursday.
Even though both Liam Lawson and the incoming rookie Arvid Lindblad didn’t have the smoothest of shakedown sessions, with each driver suffering from a mechanical problem of some sort, the data that the Faenza team received will be an encouraging sign in helping the new RBPT program off to a steady start.
Haas
Total Lap Count: 391
Fastest Lap: Esteban Ocon (1:18.393 on Day Five)
The new Ferrari engine’s reliability continues to impress at Haas, which logged the third-most laps during the Barcelona shakedown, just shy of 400. The American team ran on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with both Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman putting up good mileage throughout their three-day run.
A slight hiccup on Wednesday meant the team missed out on additional running time, as parts had to be flown into Barcelona. However, both Bearman and Ocon more than made up for the issues with an impressive Friday run, as Bearman alone racked up more than a century of laps in the Friday morning session.
Audi
Total Lap Count: 243
Fastest Lap: Nico Hulkenberg (1:19.870 on Day Five)
Even though Audi was the first team to shakedown their car during a private session at Barcelona more than a week before their official run, it has been quite a baptism of fire for the new German outfit. Contrary to the relatively smooth start with Red Bull Powertrains Ford, Audi was dogged by consistent issues during its first two running days, as neither Nico Hulkenberg nor Gabriel Bortoleto broke the century mark until the final day of the shakedown.
The lack of an additional customer team will also hamper the German outfit’s progress in isolating and identifying issues encountered during the shakedown. Still, hopes remain high within the team after the strong showing on Friday. Their time in Bahrain may be less chaotic than what Barcelona has shown.
Alpine
Lap Count: 349
Fastest Lap: Pierre Gasly (1:17.707 on Day Five)
After axing their engine program and a dismal 2025 campaign that left them last in the Constructors’ Championship, Alpine begins its new era powered by Mercedes. The Enstone team impressed, with the fourth-most laps covered during the Barcelona shakedown. While overall performance remains unclear, Alpine looks to be in a better position than last season.
This untroubled start may prove beneficial early in the season, as teams still try to figure out the performance and reliability implications of the new power unit regulations.
Cadillac
Lap Count: 164
Fastest Lap: Valtteri Bottas (1:20.920 on Day Five)
Cadillac begins its Formula One adventures in Barcelona. At the same time, the new American team was rather pedestrian with their mileage; a trouble-free shakedown at least indicates they have a strong base to build on. Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas continue to provide extra feedback on the development of the new machinery. The most important takeaway is that Cadillac at least has its car up and running, while continual developments behind the scenes continue to take shape before the first race in Melbourne.
Aston Martin
Lap Count: 65
Fastest Lap: Fernando Alonso (1:20.795 on Day Five)
One of the most anticipated partnerships of the season is Aston Martin, under the direction of Adrian Newey, and a new Honda engine. Unfortunately, the new partnership didn’t start as all parties hoped. Even before the shakedown in Barcelona, there were doubts about the new Anglo-Japanese camp during the development of the latest Honda power unit. The Honda camp later admitted that the start to the new Formula One era might not be the smoothest.
The Silverstone team arrived late in Barcelona, originally slated to start their running program on Wednesday; Aston Martin elected to run only on the final two days, with the new AMR26 arriving later on Wednesday night. Lance Stroll took the wheel of the new Newey-designed car; however, it ground to a halt just after five laps on Thursday afternoon. Alonso then carried the bulk of the program on Friday.
While the new AMR26 looks aggressive and showcases the best of Adrian Newey, the troubled start to the shakedown may already put Aston Martin in a tricky position early in the season.
Looking Ahead to the 2026 F1 Season
As teams spend the next two weeks tinkering with their new 2026 challengers, there is still much to be seen for the upcoming pre-season test at Bahrain. As of now, the perennial top four of McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari will likely still be the ones to beat. Furthermore, there might be a larger shakeup in the mid-field pecking order.
Despite initial concerns about the 2026 rulesets’ effect on performance, things turned out much better than most anticipated. The road to the 2026 World Championship starts here. Welcome to the next generation of Formula One.
We will have further coverage of the Formula One season soon, including possible predictions and an early rundown of the car designs of this new era of Formula One.
