Photo: Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

Barcelona testing gets underway as first 2026 F1 cars roll out on track

10:24, 26 Jan

Updated: 10:28, 26 Jan

byTobia Elia

Formula 1 has shared the very first images of the 2026 cars hitting the track in Barcelona on the opening day of testing.

The 2026 season can now officially be considered underway, with seven of the 11 teams set to run on track today for the opening day of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Several of them — including Mercedes, Audi and Alpine — were already out on track in the morning, just minutes after the green light.

Kimi Antonelli had the honour of giving the W17 its first outing, while Gabriel Bortoleto and Franco Colapinto took the RS26 and A526 onto the track respectively.

Unsurprisingly, very little information is available given that the test is being held behind closed doors, but the teams’ focus — at least in the early days — will not be on outright performance, but on data gathering and reliability.

The full schedule for the 2026 Barcelona pre-season test days

Running will be split into two four-hour sessions each day. The action gets underway at 9:00 CET (8:00 GMT), with the morning session running until 13:00 CET (12:00 GMT). After a one-hour lunch break, cars will return to the track from 14:00 CET (13:00 GMT), with running continuing through to 18:00 CET (17:00 GMT).

Teams will be allowed to run on three of the five available test days, with each outfit free to structure its programme according to its own priorities. As a result, several teams have opted to skip today’s running and focus their work later in the week, while others have chosen to hit the ground running from day one.

Read the full schedule here.

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