Aston Martin Joins Pre-Season Testing Late in Barcelona
Aston Martin made its debut in this week’s pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, completing a few laps in the last hour of the penultimate day. The team announced earlier in the week that it would not make it in time to complete its full three-day assignment, and instead, aimed to take to the track in the last two days. The AMR26, designed by Adrian Newey, arrived at the circuit on Wednesday night, before finally leaving the garage for four test laps towards the end of Thursday’s session. Lance Stroll was behind the wheel of the new Aston Martin, which still features an unpainted carbon fiber body, ahead of the team’s season launch event in Saudi Arabia on February 9. The AMR26 is the first F1 car from Aston Martin designed with input from Newey, who left Red Bull in 2024 and joined Aston Martin as a technical partner manager in April 2025, before becoming team principal during the winter. The car also marks the beginning of a new partnership between Aston Martin and Japanese engine supplier Honda.
Although Aston Martin’s late arrival means it sacrificed almost two days of track time compared to the vast majority of its rivals, it will allow the team to perform basic checks before two additional pre-season tests at the Bahrain International Circuit in February.
Mercedes Shines While Aston Martin Struggles
In stark contrast to Aston Martin’s difficulty in getting their car on track, Mercedes completed their third and final day of testing on Thursday with another massive lap count and a new fastest lap time.Among them, Mercedes teammates George Russell and Kimi Antonelli completed 168 laps, bringing the team’s total to 502 in their three days on the track.
It was confirmed that Russell set a fastest lap of 1:16.445, which was 0.636 seconds faster than Antonelli’s morning benchmark and 1.778 seconds faster than Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, which was the third fastest overall.The lap times in this stage of the tests mean very little given the different circuit conditions, the team’s race plans and the different states of car development, but the strong performance underlines Mercedes’ status as favorites before the new season.
Antonelli also revealed that Mercedes’ test had gone so well that the team had already completed a race simulation, a task that is usually completed in the final days of pre-season and closer to the first grand prix.Ferrari’s driver pairing topped the lap count on Thursday with 172 laps between them, as Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a fully dry test day after a wet start to their week on Tuesday and a decision not to run on Wednesday.I did many laps and was able to do a race simulation, which was nice, and the most important thing is that we did many laps, many kilometers, and a lot of data for the team. It was a good day overall. This car is completely new and is quite a big step compared to last year’s car. So every time you get in the car, you have a little more confidence, and then, over the period, you learn more about the car, you understand the limitations or where you can push a little more. Therefore, it’s constant learning every time you go out on the track.
Kimi Antonelli
When you come to testing, you always want to get a lot of kilometers, like today I did 85 laps in the morning, which is incredible. And that’s really down to all the people in the factory who have done a great job to make sure the car so far is really reliable. So, you know, last year we had a worse start to testing. So this is actually, considering it’s a completely new set of rules, it’s better than what we’ve experienced in the past. So I’m very hopeful that it will continue.
Lewis Hamilton
Friday represents the last day of the five-day test this week, but it will likely be one of the busiest. Mercedes and Racing Bulls have already exhausted their three full days of running, but Ferrari, McLaren, Audi, Haas, Cadillac, Alpine, Red Bull and Aston Martin still have remaining track time. However, Red Bull’s preparation for the final day remains in doubt, after Isack Hadjar crashed the new RB22 in the wet on Tuesday and it was unclear whether the spare parts would arrive at the track in time to repair it. Max Verstappen is expected to drive the car if it can be fixed in time. After production delays of their car, Williams decided late last week that they would not attend this week’s test to be fully prepared for the next two tests in Bahrain.We had a problem with the fuel system, which cut our day short, but the team is working hard to fix it and get back out there tomorrow. These cars are completely different from the ones we’ve had in recent years. That’s part of what these tests are about. We’ve already identified some things we can try to improve on the car to make it feel a bit better. We have one more day of racing tomorrow. We will continue to get used to the car and get a good idea of how different things feel. Then we will find a good direction to make the car faster and feel better.
Oscar Piastri
