The seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, secured an encouraging final day for Ferrari during private testing in Barcelona. Hamilton set a time of 1:16.348, slightly surpassing George Russell and Mercedes’ 1:16.445 from the previous day, marking the close of the five-day closed-door Formula 1 testing, with two more tests scheduled for next month in Bahrain.
It’s important to remember that times in this stage of testing can be misleading, and obtaining key information, such as the tires used and the time of day, can be complicated due to the nature of closed-door testing.
Ferrari, which had reliability issues in 2025, was encouraged by another solid day of mileage, with Hamilton and Charles Leclerc accumulating 145 laps in total.
Furthermore, Ferrari’s customer team, Haas, recovered from a disappointing second day, completing 195 laps thanks to Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon, who took turns at the wheel. This was the highest number of laps recorded by any team during the week, far exceeding the distance of three races of the Spanish Grand Prix, held at the Barcelona circuit.McLaren, the current world champions, also had a good day, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri completing 166 laps and recording a time 0.25 seconds slower than Hamilton.
Aston Martin, which completed only four laps on Thursday, improved on Friday with Fernando Alonso completing 61 laps. However, it was observed that Aston Martin was not seeking fast times, with a flashing blue light on the rear of its car, indicating that it was not running at full power and operating in lower engine modes.
Mercedes, which completed its three days of testing on Thursday, is emerging as the preseason favorite due to its rapid adaptation and accumulated mileage, showing promising performance before the real search for performance begins in the Bahrain tests in February.
Mercedes’ customer team, Alpine, added 121 laps thanks to Pierre Gasly on Friday.Max Verstappen returned to the Red Bull car and completed 118 laps. The team, which has started a new engine project with Ford, has not shown reliability problems. Verstappen’s fastest time was 1.2 seconds slower than Hamilton’s, but the real performance tests will be carried out in Bahrain.
Audi had its best day of the week, with 148 laps between Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, while Valtteri Bottas completed 54 laps for Cadillac.
Formula 1 will continue with two three-day tests in Bahrain next month, before the Australian Grand Prix on March 8.
