Seven of the eleven teams in the 2026 paddock took to the track this Monday in Catalonia, during a first day of private testing held behind closed doors, without the public or journalists.
Seven of the eleven Formula 1 teams ran their 2026 single-seater, which meets new technical regulations, on Monday during the very first pre-season tests on the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit.
Alpine, Audi, the new American team Cadillac, Haas, Mercedes, Racing Bulls and Red Bull took to the track in Catalonia for this first day of private testing held behind closed doors, without the public or journalists.
Skip the ad
The teams have the right to run for three days between Monday and Friday on the Catalan route. They will have two other sessions of three days of testing, official this time, in Bahrain, from February 11 to 13 then from February 18 to 20, before the first Grand Prix, on March 8 in Melbourne (Australia).
McLaren, double defending champion among manufacturers, and Ferrari are expected on the track on Tuesday, while Aston Martin indicated on Monday that it would not run before Thursday. Finally, Williams announced on Friday that he would have to give up taking part in this session “due to delays in the FW48 program, in order to continue to optimize the performance of the car”.
Isack Hadjar would have set the best time
According to the times which leaked to several media, the Frenchman Isack Hadjar would have achieved the best time of the day on Monday at the wheel of his Red Bull single-seater, ahead of the British George Russell (Mercedes) and the Argentinian Franco Colapinto (Alpine) by respectively five tenths and two seconds per lap.
The Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) would be fourth ahead of the Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Haas) and the New Zealander Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls). The Finn Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac), the Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) and the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Cadillac) would bring up the rear with between six and eight seconds behind the lap on Hadjar.
These times should obviously be taken with a grain of salt and no conclusions should be drawn so quickly, with the teams instead focusing this week on the reliability of their car. It will be necessary to wait for Bahrain and in particular the second test session in the Gulf island for performance to really be at the center of the debates.
