F1: Five Things We Learned From The 2026 Barcelona Shakedown? 

Although not quite the private test most F1 teams were hoping for, the first pre-season ‘shakedown’ test is now firmly behind us as F1 teams prepare to crunch their data and take what learnings they can heading to Bahrain in the middle of February.

In this article, we take a look at the five things we’ve learned from Barcelona’s pre-season shakedown.

#5 The 2026 Cars Are More Reliable Than Anticipated

For months in recent years there had been a wave of caution surrounding the new regulations, with many predicting a repeat of 2014 and engines breaking down after just a handful of laps. However, none of that has materialised. 

On the contrary, the new-generation power units have already exceeded expectations in terms of mileage, to the point that teams have been able to move beyond simple reliability runs and begin showing their first tentative signs of performance.

Even newcomers like Audi and Red Bull PowerTrains have both done comparatively well in terms of both reliability and mileage ahead of the Bahrain in mid-February. Thus, the verdict coming from the track is loud and clear. 

#4 Audi & Cadillac Are Firmly At The Back

Of the nine teams that completed proper running in Barcelona, discounting Aston Martin and Williams, it is safe to say that three distinct groups emerged. Among the frontrunners are Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, and Red Bull, whilst Alpine, Haas, and Racing Bulls make up the midfield order. That leaves Audi and Cadillac, perhaps predictably at the back. 

Audi completed 240 laps and Cadillac 164 as both teams encountered gremlins, of varying degrees. Audi in particular paid a heavy price for the various technical issues encountered across the five days, only partially recovering the lost mileage on the final day but still managing to gather valuable data in the process.

A similar story applies to the American giant, Cadillac, which is preparing to join the grid entirely from scratch with returning names Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, although the Ferrari power unit powering its package has so far appeared noticeably more robust than Audi’s early showing.

#3 Aston Martin Are The Real Dark Horses 

The AMR26 hit the track relatively late compared to its rivals, managing just four laps on day four before Fernando Alonso added a further 61 on the final day. 

Despite the limited running, however, the car has already become a major talking point thanks to several technical solutions that appear notably innovative when set against the rest of the field.

Newey has gone radical and to the very limit of the regulations, and if the AMR26 goes as fast as it looks, then the other teams have a serious problem.

The chassis is on point, but the big question mark is the Honda engine. Only a few slow laps were completed on Thursday before Fernando Alonso put the car through its paces on Friday, with the Honda completing the least number of laps of any manufacturer. 

As the team hits its stride in Bahrain next time out, stretching and pushing the limits of the power unit will be the team’s biggest challenge. If it lives up to the billing of the car it is powering, El Plan could finally come together.

#2 Red Bull Aren’t Going Anywhere 

The biggest unknown surrounding Red Bull heading into the new season was its power unit, the first-ever in-house design under the Red Bull Powertrains moniker.

Although Ford Motors are bringing technical support, if the DM01 proved to be inefficient, Red Bull would have to carry around that engine for the first half of the season, before it could make any changes under the FIA’s ADUO safety net for PU manufacturers.

The power unit is reliable, has pace, and both Red Bull Racing and the Racing Bulls were able to clock up a total of 622 laps of Barcelona in total. Moreover, the only issue for both Red Bull and Racing Bulls came when Isack Hadjar crashed in the wet on Tuesday, with this not being power unit related.

#1 Mercedes And Ferrari Are Back In The Game

Throughout last season and this winter, Mercedes were touted as the favourites owing to its success with the switch to turbo hybrids in 2014. Although simply looking at the headline times after the five days could be misleading, but the Mercedes has looked dominant, even if Lewis Hamilton pipped his former team to the fastest time on the final day. 

The W17 in the hands of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli racked up 502 laps of Barcelona across the three days, with the car reliable and fast, providing the perfect start for a team which never quite grasped the ground effect rules. 

As for Ferrari, and Hamilton in particular, this test was a crucial yardstick for his future. The seven-time world champion is coming off a first Ferrari season to forget, yet he does carry an intriguing statistic in his favour: every time he has joined a new team in the past, he has gone on to win the title the following year.

Thus, if noises coming from Hamilton’s side of the garage were downbeat after the running, it would just compound his misery and make an exit even likelier. However, the 41-year-old looked immediately energised at the wheel of the SF-26, striking a cautiously optimistic tone in interviews but, more importantly, walking away with the outright fastest time across all five combined days of testing.

While lap times at this stage of the year always need to be taken with a pinch of salt, the Briton still appeared keen to send a clear message to both his team-mate and the rest of the grid — this new generation of cars could well usher in a revitalised Hamilton.