Aston Martin made its first appearance at this week’s preseason test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya after completing a handful of laps in the final hour of the penultimate day.
The team announced earlier this week that it would not arrive at the test in time to complete its full three-day allocation and was instead aiming to hit the track on the final two days.
The Adrian Newey-designed AMR26 arrived at the circuit on Wednesday evening before finally emerging from the garage for four shakedown laps towards the end of Thursday’s running.
Lance Stroll was at the wheel of the new Aston Martin, which still features bare carbonfibre bodywork ahead of the team’s season launch event in Saudi Arabia on February 9.
The AMR26 is Aston Martin’s first F1 car to be designed with input from Newey, who left Red Bull in 2024 and joined Aston Martin as managing technical partner in April 2025 before becoming team principal over the winter.
The car also marks the start of a new partnership between Aston Martin and Japanese engine supplier Honda.
Although Aston Martin’s late arrival means it sacrificed nearly two days of track time compared to the vast majority of its rivals, it will allow the team to run basic checks ahead of two further pre-season tests at the Bahrain International Circuit in February.
In stark contrast to Aston Martin’s struggle to get its car on track, Mercedes completed its third and final day of its test on Thursday with another mammoth lap count and a new fastest lap time.
Between them, Mercedes teammates George Russell and Kimi Antonelli completed 168 laps, bringing the team’s total to 502 over its three days on track.
Sources confirmed to ESPN Russell set a fastest lap of 1:16.445, which was 0.636 seconds faster than Antonelli’s morning benchmark and 1.778 seconds faster than the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, which was third fastest overall.
Lap times at this stage of testing mean very little given differing circuit conditions, team run plans, and varying states of car development, but the strong showing underlines Mercedes’ favourites tag ahead of the new season.
– 2026 F1 livery Power Rankings: Does Red Bull’s new look take P1?
– What have we learned at F1 testing so far? Analysis, news in Barcelona
Antonelli also revealed Mercedes’ test had gone so well that the team had already completed a race simulation – a task usually completed in the final days of the preseason and closer to the first grand prix.
“I did a lot of laps and was able to do a race sim, which was nice and the most important thing is that we did a lot of laps, a lot of mileage and a lot of data for the team,” Antonelli said. “It was a good day overall.
“This car is completely new and it’s quite a big step compared to last year’s car. So whenever you go in the car, you have a bit more confidence and then throughout the stint you learn more about the car, you understand the limitations or where you can push a bit more. So, it’s constant learning every time you go on track.”
Ferrari’s driver pairing topped the lap count on Thursday with 172 laps between them, as Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a fully dry day of testing following a wet start to their week on Tuesday and a decision not to run on Wednesday.
“When you come to the test, you always want to get a lot of mileage, like today I did 85 laps in the morning, which is amazing,” Hamilton said.
“And that’s really down to all the people at the factory who’ve done such a great job to make sure the car so far is really reliable. So, you know, last year we had a worse start to testing.
“So this is actually, considering it’s a completely new band of rules, it’s better than we’ve experienced in the past. So I’m really hopeful that continues.”
Also present on track were Racing Bulls, splitting its final day on track between Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson; Cadillac, with Sergio Pérez behind the wheel; and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri for the first time.
Piastri only completed 48 laps in the morning session before the team identified an issue with the fuel system that ruled McLaren out of the afternoon session.
“We had a fuel system issue, which cut our day short, but the team’s working hard to get that fixed and back out tomorrow,” Piastri said. “These cars are completely different to what we’ve had the last few years. That’s part of what this test is about.
“We’ve already identified a few things that we can try to improve on the car to make it feel a bit nicer. We have one more day of running tomorrow. We’ll continue to get used to the car and get a good read on how different things feel. Then we’ll find a good direction to make the car quicker and feel nicer.”
Friday represents the final day of this week’s five-day test, but will likely be one of its busiest. Mercedes and Racing Bulls have already maxing out their three full days of running, but Ferrari, McLaren, Audi, Haas, Cadillac, Alpine, Red Bull and Aston Martin all have track time remaining.
Red Bull’s readiness for the final day remains in question, however, after Isack Hadjar crashed the new RB22 in the wet on Tuesday and it was unclear if spare parts would arrive at the track in time to repair it. Max Verstappen is expected to drive the car if it can be fixed in time.
Following delays to the production of its car, Williams decided late last week that it would not attend this week’s test in order to be fully ready for the two upcoming tests in Bahrain.
