Ferrari made an “intense but productive” start to the 2026 pre-season overnight as one of only two teams to undertake any running on a rainy day in Spain.
Both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton got behind the wheel of the SF-26 for their first significant stints in the new car following a 15-kilometre shakedown day at the team’s Fiorano circuit in Italy last week.
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Red Bull Racing was the only other team to share the track with the Scuderia. It was RBR’s second of a maximum three testing days this week, and Isack Hadjar ended it early with a crash at the final corner, triggering red flags.
“We felt … it was interesting to run in the rain, also with these regulations, and obviously everything is new,” Red Bull Racing boss Laurent Mekies said despite the late accident.
Several teams had signalled early that they were unlikely to hit the track on Tuesday owing to the forecast rain, which hit the track around 90 minutes after the pit lane opened and lasted the rest of the day.
Mercedes was the first to declare it wouldn’t be taking part on Tuesday, having completed almost 200 kilometres of private testing on a wet Silverstone track earlier this month.
The German marque was joined on the sidelines by Haas, Racing Bulls, Alpine, Cadillac and Audi.
McLaren arrived in Barcelona on Tuesday in anticipation of getting its first laps under its belt on Wednesday.
Aston Martin will not arrive until Thursday at the earliest, citing production delays, while Williams will not attend at all for the same reason.
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FERRARI MAKES A GOOD START
The track was still dry when Leclerc powered out of Ferrari’s garage to start Ferrari’s first day of pre-season testing, though the clement conditions lasted only around 90 minutes before wet-weather tyres were bolted on.
It was no hindrance, however, with Leclerc racking up a day-high 64 laps, per Racer.
Because this test has been declared private — the sport is describing it as a ‘shakedown’ rather than a test — no official data is being supplied by Formula 1, and most teams are choosing to make public basic results from each day.
“It’s not the best conditions because it’s been a little rainy this morning, but actually we did our program anyway,” he said.
“We’re not focused on performance whatsoever. We’re more about looking at all the systems that are new on this car and see if everything works as it should — and it did, so that’s a positive.
“[Performance] will come probably a bit later on in these three days and trying to understand first how everything behaves and then see how it goes.”
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Hamilton took the wheel after the lunch break and completed a similarly strong 57 laps.
“It was an intense but productive first day, especially with the mixed weather conditions,” Hamilton said. “There were no major issues, and that gives us a solid foundation to keep learning and building over the next days.
“Figuring out how to get the tyres working was really productive.
“We got a lot of information on the car today. We definitely need to keep it up — lots and lots to do — but a good first day.”
Mileage by team, day 2
1. Ferrari: 121 laps (563.5 kilometres)
2. Red Bull Racing: 79 laps (367.9 kilometres)
Though Ferrari’s power unit had already had extensive and reliable running via customer teams Haas and, to a lesser extent, Cadillac, it will have been a relief to rack up so many laps on its first full day of testing in its new car-engine combination.
That’s particularly the case given, unlike Mercedes, Ferrari didn’t burn up one of its 200-kilometre private testing days in advance of the session, choosing instead to use one of its two 15-kilometre event days to shake down the car.
That led to speculation in Fiorano that the team had immediately encountered reliability issues when Hamilton appeared to stop on track, but Ferrari later clarified it was carefully measuring its mileage to ensure both drivers could set around 7.5 kilometre each and not breach the regulations.
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HADJAR CRASH COULD DELAY RED BULL RACING’S NEXT DAY
Red Bull Racing triggered two red flags on Tuesday — one for Max Verstappen skating across the gravel early in the day and another when Hadjar crashed his car at the final corner late in the afternoon.
Reports suggest Hadjar had just switched off a set of wet tyres in exchange for some intermediates when he slid off the road and into the barriers.
Video and photos taken from a nearby hill outside the confines of the circuit — all public and independent media are banned from the track during this test — show the car lost its rear wing in the crash and likely damaged its rear-right corner given the impact angle.
“Unfortunately it didn’t end up in the right way, but what is important [is] that Isack is okay and we’ll try our best to repair the car and to see what’s coming next,” Red Bull Racing boss Mekies said.
“It was a very tricky condition this afternoon, so very unfortunate that it finished that way, but it’s part of the game.
“Again, very tricky. A lot of work to do on many aspects, and these sorts of things can happen.
“These difficulties today came after a very, very positive day yesterday in terms of the number of laps Isack could complete in the car and in terms of his learning and development and feedback to the engineers.
“It’s something we are trying to analyse now and hopefully we get some answer a bit later on.”
The crash could delay Red Bull Racing returning to the track for its final allocated day.
Though damage is unlikely to be extensive, new designs always take longer to repair than older ones given the lack of familiarity among the mechanics. The same applies to checking the power unit and gearbox, both of which will be tested extensively.
There is also a question of how many spare parts the team has on hand given the season is still so young. An active upgrade program could also complicate the availability of like-for-like parts.
“The priority right now is to assess the damage on the car and to see what it gives us in terms of opportunities to run in the next day.
“We only have one day left, so we have to make sure we place that card carefully and it’s an analysis that will take still a few hours.”
But the situation does highlight one of the reasons teams like Red Bull Racing opted to start testing early.
The flexibility the team has bought itself could be crucial to maximising all three days available to it. It can choose any of the last three days of this week as its final testing day.
McLaren, by contrast, will have no wriggle room if a similar situation were to befall it. If required repairs were extensive, it would simply lose some or all of the next day’s running without the chance to make up for it on subsequent days.
While the crash itself cost Red Bull Racing some time, the effect on the team’s three-day program overall will be limited.
Cumulative mileage by team, day 2
1. Red Bull Racing: 186 laps (866.2 kilometres)
2. Haas-Ferrari: 154 laps (717.2 kilometres)
3. Mercedes: 151 laps (703.2 kilometres)
4. Ferrari: 121 laps (563.5 kilometres)
5. Racing Bulls-RBPT: 88 laps (409.8 kilometres)
6. Alpine-Mercedes: 60 laps (279.4 kilometres)
7. Cadillac-Ferrari: 44 laps (204.9 kilometres)
8. Audi: 27 laps (125.7 kilometres)
9. McLaren: 0 laps
10. Aston Martin: 0 laps
11. Williams: 0 laps
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NEW POWER UNITS GET GOOD REVIEWS FROM DRIVERS
Despite the crash, Red Bull Racing’s 79 laps was a decent run for its new power unit, which continues to perform without any obvious problems.
Hadjar said after the first extensive day of running that even the team was surprised how smoothly things were going.
“Surprisingly we managed to do a lot more laps than expected,” he said. “We only had minor issues, so it’s quite impressive considering this was our first day with our own engine.”
Team boss Mekies paid credit to the team for delivering a car and engine combination that could run straight out of the box.
“The last few months and weeks have been incredibly hectic to be ready,” he said.
“I can only take that opportunity to say a big thank you and well done to everybody back in Milton Keynes chassis and power unit side, because it was incredible to see the car going out at a few minutes past nine on Monday morning with our own power unit.
“Of course it’s very early days, and of course nothing is perfect, but we could run, we could start to learn, work as one team, so that was a huge satisfaction.
“It doesn’t change the size of the journey in front of us, but certainly it’s a first moment that everybody in MK should be proud of.”
It’s important to remember that, despite Red Bull Racing’s grandee status, its power unit program is brand new.
While Audi opted out of Tuesday’s running, the former Sauber team is in a similar position.
The chassis side is obviously starting from a much lower base — Sauber was ninth in last year’s championship — but the engine program can be compared directly to Red Bull Racing.
Audi completed just 27 laps on Monday before calling it a day with technical problems, though it was unclear whether those issues related to car or engine.
Cumulative mileage by power unit, day 2
1. Ferrari: 319 laps (1485.6 kilometres)
2. Red Bull Powertrains: 274 laps (1276.0 kilometres)
3. Mercedes: 211 laps (982.6 kilometres)
4. Audi: 27 laps (125.7 kilometres)
5. Honda: 0 laps
It’s not just reliability where the new power units are standing up.
There are big questions about how the engines will work in race conditions this year given the near 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power. At almost every circuit the power unit will be limited by available electrical energy.
It will alter the way drivers approach racing given the importance of having electrical power available to defend and attack at different parts of every track.
Though that remains to be seen, early impressions of the engine have been positive.
“I think just generally, on the whole, the amount of power they give is pretty impressive,“ George Russell said on Monday. ”I think for all the cars I was watching today with all the different power units, it’s probably the quickest I’ve ever seen an F1 car pass here in Barcelona, so that was pretty exciting to see.”
Allied to slightly smaller and slightly lighter cars, Russell said his overall early impression of the new formula was also positive.
“You feel it being smaller, you can feel that weight reduction compared to previous years, so I think from that aspect as well it’s gone in a good direction,” he said.
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