2026 F1 Constructors’ Championship leaders Mercedes had a solid day of running on Friday ahead of the Barcelona-Catalunya GP. George Russell lead the field in FP1, which also saw development driver Frederik Vesti on track.
In the afternoon Kimi Antonelli took back his spot in a session that saw Russell narrowly miss out on P1. The drivers’ championship leader ended P5 in FP2.
Antonelli feeling positive about long run pace
F1’s youngest pole sitter felt getting a single lap together was tricky. Degredation is traditionally high on the Spanish circuit, meaning the tyres are struggling.
“It’s been a bit tricky a single lap… Just, it’s so the window is so small. Tyres are overheating quite a lot, so just trying to find the best balance with only one lap where each set is always difficult. But I think overall there’s still work to do, quite a bit.But I’m quite confident ahead of tomorrow.
“Long run was good in the practice so that’s a positive, but definitely looking forward to tomorrow and looking forward to the changes that we’re going to make.”
Towards the end of the session the Italian youngster mentioned some issues with the brakes. He wasn’t too bothered however, as he revealed they were due to be replaced.
“Well the brake is always usual… We usually on a Friday, we use a really used set so definitely tomorrow is not going to be a problem, as we put the new set.
“But definitely George is looking very quick, McLaren look very quick as well so it’s not to be easy, but yeah, we’ll try to understand from tonight’s work and we’ll try to be ready for tomorrow.”
Bradley Lord names McLaren as biggest challenger
Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord reckons McLaren will be the biggest challenger for Mercedes. With the front of the field looking very competitive, the Briton was positive about his team’s chances. Even when they weren’t the outright fastest in FP2.
“Well, I think second by about four or five thousands, so not P1, but not that far off.
“I think the last race we went to where the tyres were overheating and hot and on the hot side was Miami. We saw there too McLaren were very, very strong. [They] obviously won the sprint race and were in the hunt for the win all the way through with Lando in particular. We are seeing these fluctuations from circuit type to circuit type and condition to condition.
“This is going to be a real sort of true test of how cars can keep the tyres alive across race stints and it is a place where race pace always dominates. So one lap is obviously of interest and interesting for qualifying to see where we’ll end up, but what really is important is making sure we can hang on to the tyres over a race stint and the long runs look close but competitive, particularly for George on the medium tyre.”
On the technical side of things, Mercedes brougth a small aero update. Nothing to fancy according to Lord, who thinks Ferrari’s big upgrade package might put the Italians into contention.
“It’s only a small update, so it’s kind of transparent.You bolt it on and off it goes and does its stuff. I think we’ve seen Ferrari bring a much bigger package here and it looks like that may also be a step forward for them. So perhaps they’ll be putting themselves in the mix tomorrow and on Sunday as well.”
Vesti hails ‘very good experience’ and hopes to take the knowledge to the sim
Mercedes development driver Frederik Vesti was designated as the rookie driver this FP1. Usually his Friday’s consist of late hours on the sim. This time he could correlate his own experience with real life.
“I think it was generally a very good experience and what I was expecting,” Vesti explained. “I think there is definitely some technical bits from the learning today that I’ll be able to take on to the sim in Brackley.
“Obviously George and Kimi are driving these cars all the time and that’s their main point of reference, where for me the sim is the main point of reference.
“So it’s quite an interesting experiment and we’ve definitely taken a lot of key learnings to the sim next week.”
Vesti underlined that the tyres are going to be the hot topic this weekend. He didn’t do himself a favour however, by locking up early in the session.
“Yeah, I made my day a little bit harder. On the medium I had a big lock up on already lap two so we had to bin that set of tyres.
“So I was very early on to the soft tyres which it sort of hindered a bit performance on the lower fuel.
“But the main focus for the team today was long runs because as we’ve seen the degradation is massive here and getting to the finish line is going to be tricky with the tyres, we need to extend them as far as we can.
“And my long run turned out really positive so I was really pleased with that.”
Vesti now has actual on-track experience with the new generation of cars. He thus hopes he can be more decisive in his advice to the team.
“You honestly can’t compare,” Vesti said. “The knowledge I’ve taken on board today is going to be so important for the team and for myself.
“I often find situations where we don’t really know what’s real and someone has to take a decision and now I’ll be able to just say ‘this is real and this is not’.
“So that’s a huge experience for me and something that we can use already Monday morning in the sim.”
Russell optimistic, but wary of McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull
Coming off a disastrous Monaco GP weekend, Russell was happy he could get back to the front immediately.
“We’ve had a solid day here in Barcelona,” he explained. “After our recent run of bad luck, it was important to start this weekend on the front foot and that is what we have done.
“The car felt good in both sessions and, importantly, consistent. That is particularly crucial around a track like this which can really expose any weaknesses of a car.”
Like his Deputy Team Principal, Russell considers McLaren to be the strongest competitors. However, he didn’t want to rule out Ferrari and Red Bull yet.
“The competitive picture looks tight. The McLarens were strong on the single lap and the long run picture in FP2 showed that we can expect a fight from the Ferraris and Red Bull too.
“There are still a few areas we can tidy up but we have a good base to build on overnight. Small gains will likely make a big difference, and I’m feeling positive about where we are heading into the weekend.”
