F1 2026: 5 things we learned from the Barcelona Shakedown

Even though it wasn’t quite the private test most Formula One teams were hoping for, the first pre-season Shakedown test is now behind us, as teams prepare to crunch their data and learn what they can heading to Bahrain in the middle of February.

Here, we take a look at five key things we’ve learned from the pre-season Barcelona Shakedown ahead of the 2026 Formula One season.

#5 The 2026 cars are more reliable than anticipated

For months, 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 reliability and mileage ahead of the Bahrain test later this month.

The verdict coming from the track is loud and clear. 

#4 Audi and Cadillac are firmly at the back

Of the nine teams that completed proper running in Barcelona, barring Aston Martin and Williams, it is safe to say that three distinct groups have emerged.

Among the frontrunners are Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, and Red Bull, while 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, both encountering gremlins of varying degrees. Audi, in particular, paid a heavy price for a variety of technical issues across the five days, only partially recovering the lost mileage on the final day and managing to gather valuable data in the process.

A similar story applies to the American outfit. Cadillac are preparing to join the grid entirely from scratch, with returning names Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas, although the Ferrari power unit behind their 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 4 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.

Adrian 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 Alonso put the car through its paces on Friday, with the engine completing the least number of laps of any manufacturer. 

As the team hit their stride in Bahrain next time out, stretching and pushing the limits of the power unit will be their 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 Shakedown was its power unit, the first-ever in-house design under the Red Bull Powertrains moniker.

Although Ford Motors is 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 any changes could be made under the FIA’s ADUO safety net for PU manufacturers.

However, the power unit has proved to be reliable and to boast pace, with both Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls being able to clock up a combined 622 laps in Barcelona. Isack Hadjar’s crash in the wet on Tuesday was arguably the only issue, though this was not PU-related.

#1 Mercedes and Ferrari are back in the game

Throughout last season and this winter, Mercedes were touted as the favourites owing to their success with the switch to turbo hybrids in 2014. Although simply looking at the headline after the five days could be misleading, what cannot be disputed is that the Mercedes machinery has looked dominant, even though Lewis Hamilton pipped his former team to the fastest time on the final day. 

In the hands of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, the W17 racked up 502 laps in Barcelona across three days, proving reliable and fast and providing the perfect start to a team who 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 in his second 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, it is clear that the veteran Brit was keen to send a clear message to both his teammate, Charles Leclerc, and the rest of the grid — this new generation of cars could well usher in a revitalised Hamilton.