With the beginning of the 2026 F1 season just around the corner, Ferrari, led by Fred Vasseur, went out on track for the very first time for the F1 shakedown in Barcelona. Three days of running for each team, in a Circuit de Catalunya that was able to offer wet conditions at the beginning and dry asphalt as runs went on.
Day 5 certainly closed on a positive note for Ferrari, with only reigning champions Lando Norris splitting Hamilton and Leclerc at the top.
No more than a first run, just to make sure that everything is working properly, as the actual pre-season testings will be held in Bahrain from February 11th.
Good first impression in a “early stage” for Ferrari says Fred Vasseur
Nonetheless, as Team Principal Fred Vasseur remarked, the positive signs definately seem to be there for Ferrari. The SF-26 run a total of 2050 km over the three days of shakedown, with no particular issue seeming to come out so far.
“Overall, it’s a positive session that we had both conditions, wet at the beginning and dry at the end,” he commented on Friday at the end of running.
“We covered tons of laps all over the week, that’s good. It’s good to put 160 laps on the board each day, this is important in order to collect data and to prepare Bahrain in the best conditions. But, overall, it’s a really early stage and the most important is to be able to complete laps.”
Vasseur on an “important week” at the 2026 F1 Barcelona shakedown with “many things to discover”
The 2026 regulations introduce the biggest change for F1 since the switch to turbo-hybrid engines back in 2012. In the new single-seaters boost mode and active aerodynamics substitute the DRS and 50% of power comes from the hybrid component, quite a significant jump from the 20% of the previous ones.
“You have so many things to discover for the team, on the engine side, on the chassis side, but also for them [Hamilton and Leclerc] on the management of the systems.
“That means that each lap we are probably a bit better. It’s very demanding for the two drivers, because they have to, not do a full reset compared to the past, but almost and for sure it’s an important week for them.”
Too soon to make assumptions, but as of now Lewis Hamilton’s SF-24 closed the fastest lap of the week in Montmelò.
Vasseur sets the focus to the next steps
A lot of work still to be done ahead of the start of the season, but definately a boost for the morale a team that comes from a rather difficult season.
“Now focus on Bahrain,” said Vasseur to describe the mood over in Maranello.
“I think that next week we will be back at home and it‘ll be very intense to have a look at what we collected the last couple of days, all the data, all the improvement that we have to do. We have tons of open topics for Bahrain.”
A tight timeline, to be in the best possible form for the season opening on March 8th in Australia.
“As usual it will be very intense, because that is just before race one and then we will fly to Melbourne. But yeah, it will be probably much more representative in Bahrain than it was this week.”
