The first official pre-season tests for the 2026 F1 season begin tomorrow after some shakedowns earlier this month, as most of the teams and cars head to Barcelona for the first of three testing periods ahead of the start of the championship.
Seven 2026 F1 cars have hit the track for shakedowns or filming days
But before then, several F1 teams have already tried their new-for-2026 machinery in private tests and shakedowns, of which you can see a full breakdown below.
Mercedes – 200km completed in wet Silverstone filming day
Widely tipped to be the favourites ahead of the new season, Mercedes didn’t exactly shy away from that status, as it clocked an impressive mileage at its first shakedown of the W17 E Performance, splitting its running between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
The team managed to use its full allowance of 200km, one of the few to have achieved the feat.
Ferrari – 15km demonstration run at a wet Fiorano
After a disappointing 2025 F1 season, Ferrari will be pinning its hopes on the SF-26 delivering a good baseline for the new regulation cycle.
And its first day of running went smoothly, if not a little short, as the team opted to use its allowed ‘Demonstration run’, which only allows 15km to be covered.
That amounted to five laps of Ferrari’s Fiorano test track, three for Lewis Hamilton and two for Charles Leclerc – although in not representative conditions, as the track was wet, and both drivers followed a filming car for one of their laps.
Racing Bulls – Lindblad spins in first outing
Racing Bulls put the VCARB-03 and the all-new Red Bull Powertrains-Ford through its paces in a two-day program at Imola last week.
The Faenza squad, like Ferrari, opted for a 15km demo run for the first running on Tuesday with Liam Lawson behind the wheel for an installation lap, before Arvid Lindblad took the car for a spin in his turn..
It is believed the car ran into some sort of technical trouble early on which prevented much running on Tuesday morning, before a more productive Wednesday running.
Although disrupted by some severe weather, the team managed to complete 33 of its allowed 40 at the Imola circuit on the second day, with no reliability concerns and a decent amount of mileage completed.
Haas – Bearman spins on filming day at Fiorano
Haas took its VF-26 to Ferrari’s test track in Fiorano for a 200km or approximately 66 laps of the circuit, with Ollie Bearman behind the wheel. It’s believed the team faced no reliability issues, but a spin for Bearman caught the attention of many watching trackside, as the Haas slowly drifted away from the British driver.
Audi – First on track in 2026, but not without issues
Audi was the first F1 team to take to the track in 2026, as it impressively put the new R26 on track in Barcelona as early as the 9th of January.
Whilst it’s an impressive feat from the outside, all was not well, as the team faced some serious reliability issues during its shakedown of the new car.
It is believed they spent over half of the day just trying to get the car running somewhat reliably.
Mattia Binotto told the official F1 website that the running of their 2026 F1 machine couldn’t be considered “successful“, but is adamant that it will help the team grow and improve going forward.
“Our power train and power unit are not yet driveable as they should be but that’s all normal,” said Binotto. “It’s not unexpected, so I can say even the filming day maybe was not a successful day.
“But it was a positive one because we face problems, but those problems were useful for us to further learn and further prepare for the start of the season and the next test at the end of the month in Barcelona.”
Alpine – Reliability surprised even Briatore
Alpine clocked 140km in a soaking wet Silverstone shakedown, with Pierre Gasly behind the wheel of the all-new A526.
Running Mercedes engines for the first time in 2026, the Enstone squad was only limited by the severe weather conditions in Silverstone.
But there was no hiding the fact that the team enjoyed a very smooth day of running, with team boss Flavio Briatore even admitting that he was surprised there weren’t any teething issues with the car after the installation laps:
“There was aquaplaning, so it made no sense to risk the car,” Briatore explained at the team’s launch event on Friday. “It was easy to do the 140km, and the first time in my long experience in F1, the car went out, came back, went out and never came back.
“Normally they have the oil pressure [sensor] or temperature [problem] and talk over the radio, but everybody was quiet.
“This was good news that nobody was talking. When the people are not talking, we’re doing well.”
Cadillac – Laps on the board at Silverstone
It’s an impressive feat for a completely new team to get laps on the board well ahead of pre-season testing, and that’s exactly what Cadillac managed in its first running of the yet-unnamed machine it will field in the 2026 F1 season as they will hope to have smooth running with both cars next week.
There were reports that the Ferrari engine gave the team some headaches in the morning, with Sergio Pérez taking the car for a run in the afternoon, which is believed to have run trouble-free in a slightly wet Silverstone.
The teams that haven’t run their 2026 F1 cars in a shakedowns
McLaren
The reigning double world champions haven’t run the MCL40 on track – not even the livery has been revealed – with team principal Andrea Stella revealing the team will not run on the first day of pre-season in Barcelona either, as it aims to maximise development time and focus on a very different development strategy compared to some of its rivals.
Red Bull
With its sister team getting some mileage with the new RBPT-Ford power unit, Red Bull made the decision to wait until testing in Barcelona to run the RB22 for the first time, with its plans for the five-day span yet to be revealed.
Williams
Williams is in somewhat of a crisis right now, with the team not only having failing to run the car so far, but also announcing it will miss the first test in its entirity, due to some “delays in the FW48 programme“.
Aston Martin
The Silverstone-based squad is yet to run its AMR26 on track, and hasn’t announced any plans so far of how it will operate at the Barcelona test, with its run plans set to be decided on Monday.
