The F1 2026 season begins today with teams in Barcelona for the first test of the new campaign.
This year sees testing rules be a little different than usual with a test before the test in the form of five days at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Here’s what we are hoping to learn from the week in Spain.
Which teams are telling the truth and which teams are looking through rose-coloured spectacles?
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The Barcelona test is unique in that fact that even the media has been shut out of the
paddock so the amount of information we will have is going to be limited at best and ultimately, it will come from the teams themselves.
Therefore, every piece of information we do get will have to be taken with a whole bucket of salt as a team is hardly likely to tell us if they had a shocker.
Similarly, if a team is gushing about how well its car has done over the course of the test, that is something else best not taken too seriously for we cannot be sure how much of the truth is being exaggerated.
Sky Sports, as one of the sport’s biggest broadcasters, has managed to get the green light for a 30-minute highlight show every evening and that may provide a clearer picture than what any of the teams report themselves.
Of course, it is testing so even if a team has an excellent three days, the real test will come at the first race in Melbourne and we can see just how true the pre-season reports were.
Who uses up all three allocated days?
The Barcelona test will be running from Monday to Friday but each team is only permitted to run on three of those five days and as is always the case, laps completed are more important than the fastest lap.
That is even more true this year with the new regulations and new engines to be tested and from a power unit perspective, you would expect to see Audi and Aston Martin maximising their track time with Audi and Honda only having one car running their engines. On the flip side, a Mercedes customer may feel they do not need to push themselves too much given there are three other teams testing the power unit.
We already know that Williams is missing the whole test while McLaren and Aston Martin have confirmed they will not appear on the opening day but F1 teams are given only limited testing time and so will want to maximise every inch of it.
Last season in the Bahrain test, Mercedes completed the most laps which translated into a positive start to the season. Red Bull on the other hand completed the fewest which offers part of an explanation as to why the car started behind the likes of McLaren.
Time on track is invaluable but as Williams has already shown, not everyone may be in a position to capitalise.
Can Ferrari find its ‘reference’?
Of the many teams looking for a 2026 change of fortune, Ferrari is one of the most desperate.
There is a lot of pressure on just about everyone wearing a red tracksuit with Ferrari at what feels like its lowest for a number of years.
Team principal Fred Vasseur knows that and has already had to see off speculation surrounding his job but if the SF-26 proves to be another false dawn, his head will be for the chop.
How the Frenchman spares himself from the guillotine is simple, make a car that works.
Vasseur himself knows that and has pointed to a disrupted start to 2025 as one of the reasons why the team never looked competitive. This season, he wants that to change and wants to find the “reference” of the car and the team with the extended testing days.
“We are not used to nine test days,” said Vasseur. “The last four or five seasons, we did three. It’s an advantage, but it’s also a completely different programme.
“It means that the first target in this kind of season is to get the reliability. First we need to get mileage. It’s also what we want to avoid compared to 2025, is that when we were lost at the beginning of the season with the disqualification, we lost mileage, we lost reference, and then you are running after this.”
Vasseur says Ferrari’s first focus is “mileage” and said that by the time they leave Spain, they must “understand” the car. Anything but three days of smooth running and the Italian newspapers will be whispering of unrest once again.
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Will the ‘no excuses’ Alpine begin 2026 without a hitch?
2025 was a soul-sapping year for Alpine and the decision to switch focus early to 2026 meant the nightmare was only going to continue.
But it’s a new dawn and now, Alpine’s 2026 focus should start reaping its rewards. Well in theory at least.
Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore said it is a year “not for excuses” after a slip down to the bottom of the Constructors’ and any hope of a rebuild must start with positive days in Barcelona.
The benefit for Alpine is it is not being powered by an underwhelming Renault engine anymore and so focus can be put solely on the chassis but this is a team with a history of testing problems. In 2022, Fernando Alonso’s car set fire while 2023 saw ‘usual teething problems’ bring a disrupted day.
2025 was at least positive with Alpine completing the fourth most laps but that only translated to an awful start to the year.
2026’s goal then is not only to get the miles in but to be competitive amongst the other 10 constructors on the grid. That question will not be answered after Barcelona but an incident-free three days would go some way to easing any lingering concerns.
How will the Red Bull drivers find their new homes?
Of the four Red Bull seats on the grid, half of them have new occupants this season with some typical intra-squad shuffling.
Yuki Tsunoda has lost his Red Bull seat with impressive rookie Isack Hadjar promoted up the order. Meanwhile, highly rated youngster Arvid Lindblad has taken Hadjar’s seat at Racing Bulls.
There is plenty of interest in both of the new occupants. Starting with Lindblad, he is one of the most hyped rookies since Max Verstappen and while a pre-season test will neither confirm nor deny that, he will want an incident-free running having spun during an Imola shakedown recently. Completing a satisfactory number of laps while avoiding being last on the timings would be a good start for him.
Meanwhile for Hadjar, he is the latest sacrificial lamb offered up to Verstappen. The Frenchman is the seventh teammate Verstappen has had at Red Bull and in that time, only Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez can claim to have held their own against the Dutchman.
Red Bull’s expectation will not be for Hadjar to be beating Verstappen but they will want him to be at least more competitive than Liam Lawson and Tsunoda were last year. Starting positively with the Barcelona test will be a good way to calm any doubts about his ability to survive in that seat.
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