Red Mist: A decent start?

Considering that, A: we are talking about the team that’s won three times as many winter world championships than it has real ones, B: the Shakedown Test was run in secret, and C: the times were recorded by some clandestine Spanish spy shop likely using 1970s wind-up Heuer stopwatches on top of an old clipboard, the outcome is still good for us Tifosi

Lewis Hamilton allegedly set the 1 minute 16.348 fastest lap of the Formula 1’s 2026 shakedown week at Barcelona. Yeah it was a glory lap on softs late on Friday evening, bla-di-bla-di bla. But then teammate Charles Leclerc also turned a 1 minute 16.653 lap to go quickest Friday morning, the fourth fastest time of the week.

More significantly, perhaps, the SF-26 apparently turned 2025 kilometres over its three days, topped only by Mercedes’ 2337 km. The new Ferrari power unit did 4590 kilometres in total counting in the laps completed by customer teams Haas and Cadillac.

Better still, the Scuderia encountered few, mostly minor, issues. Leaving it to concentrate more on the behaviour of the car around nervous handling early in the week, pedal positioning, a degree of bounce at maximum downforce low ride heights a little tyre degradation

"It was an interesting week,” team boss Fred Vasseur admitted. “Day one was wet, but Thursday and Friday were good, which is important for the team to accumulate mileage, to learn about the car. The more mileage we do, the more we learn, which is good. Still, there’s a lot to do and a long, long way to Melbourne, but I think this is a very good first step."

“Last year we had a terrible start to testing,” Lewis Hamilton recalled. “So, also considering that this is a completely new set of regulations, it is better than what we have experienced in the past. In any case, we completed our programme and a lot of laps, which was great, we have a better idea of where the car is at and where we need to improve. I really hope it continues like this.”

"It's been super interesting," Charles Leclerc added, “We have had a lot to learn, a lot to discover and it's a very different car to what we've been driving since I arrived in Formula 1. The new car is a challenge but I definitely feel more comfortable now. I quite like that there are new with opportunities for us drivers to think outside the box.

" It remains an F1 car as well in a way, it's not like I was completely lost when I got back into the car and I was at ease quite quickly. With these new systems and obviously with 50% of the power that comes from the electrical engine, it makes it quite a bit more challenging to manage that, so the learning curve is quite steep. But it's very interesting."

Following Barcelona’s secret shakedown, the Formula 1 2026 focus now shifts to Bahrain's two regular February pre-season tests. “Our target at the shakedown was to be able to accumulate mileage, and we did it," Fred Vasseur concludes, "We have tons of topics to scan on the car, from aero, to mechanical, to engine; energy deployment and it takes time, so the best way to do it is to stay on track.”