Formula 1 Teams and Drivers report from Barcelona shakedown after Day 4

The British team joined the pack on Wednesday night but spent the full penultimate day putting the car together and managed to send it out for a handful of laps in the final hour before it stopped out on track and brought out the Red Flag.

Mercedes looked good again, while Ferrari beat them mileage-wise as McLaren suffered fuel system issues that limited their running to 48 laps only.

Here is what some of the teams and drivers said after Thursday's running.

"The Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team™ made its 2026 track debut today with the AMR26 taking part in the Shakedown at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

"Lance Stroll was at the wheel of the team's first-ever Adrian Newey designed Formula One machine, with an all-new Honda power-unit. Lance completed a handful of laps towards the end of the day's running.

"Fernando Alonso will also be in the cockpit tomorrow, as the team continues to shake down the car for the final day in Barcelona."

Oscar Piastri: "It was nice to be back out today, especially in the new car. There's a lot of challenges this year up and down the grid, so it was good to get stuck in. We had a fuel system issue, which cut our day short, but the team's working hard to get that fixed and back out tomorrow.

"These cars are completely different to what we've had the last few years. That's part of what this test is about. We've already identified a few things that we can try to improve on the car to make it feel a bit nicer. We have one more day of running tomorrow. We'll continue to get used to the car and get a good read on how different things feel. Then we'll find a good direction to make the car quicker and feel nicer."

Mark Temple, Technical Director, Performance: "Second day on track, with positives to take away. We've got a good understanding of where the car is from a baseline point of view. In this shakedown, the most important aspect for drivers is that they understand how the new car operates, how the power unit interacts, and the process of energy management. Oscar now has some good reference points for that, as well as a feel for how the chassis behaves.

"Overall, we haven't encountered anything too unexpected. The behaviour and handling of the car is in line with what we thought, so nothing is catching the drivers out. It's just about learning and getting to know it, and then as we get more time, we'll look to try and tweak or tune the car. This is a shakedown and is meant to help us identify any issues so we can understand and solve them going into Bahrain, so that's our big focus as we go into the final day tomorrow.

"Of course, it's a shame we could not run in the afternoon as every minute of track time is precious at such an early stage of the season. We discovered a fuel system problem, which meant we haven't been able to do all the running we would like. The car is very complex, so we decided to bring the car back into the garage and strip it down to fully understand where the problem is coming from, ahead of tomorrow's running."

Kimi Antonelli: "Overall it has been a good shakedown for us. We've had our own issues but that hasn't hindered our running too much. We've completed a lot of laps and today, I was able to drive for 90 more in the morning session. That is useful mileage to help build our learning about the W17 and gather plenty of data. We focused on the C3 tyre today but still on longer runs rather than anything performance related. We were able to understand a little more about how the car and the Power Unit reacts to a few different set-up options.

"I am now looking forward to having a few days to work with the team and digest everything from Barcelona. I am already looking forward to being back in the car in Bahrain for the first official test though and continuing the journey towards the start of the season. We will go there with a good understanding of the car and hopefully we can hit the ground running once again.

"It's very cool to be part of the incredible history of Mercedes innovation, particularly as we put this new car through its paces on the 140th anniversary of Carl Benz registering the patent for the motor car. We are all proud to represent the three-pointed star and I cannot wait to see how we continue to innovate under these new regulations in the months and years ahead."

George Russell: "It's been another decent day and overall, a positive shakedown for us here in Barcelona. The car feels nice to drive but more importantly, we've completed plenty of mileage and had no major issues. The minor issues we've come across we've been able to resolve which is the purpose of such running.

"The car is working well but we know that it is not about the car working well, it's about how fast it can go. We don't have any indication of that yet so we will have to wait until Bahrain until we get any indications of the relative pecking order. It's very early days but we can be pleased with this initial foundation we have put in place.

"It's an exciting time for our sport with possibly one of the most impactful regulations changes we've seen. It's an honour to be representing Mercedes, particularly as we mark the 140th anniversary of Carl Benz's invention of the motor car today. It's quite apt to be behind-the-wheel of such an innovative machine today; I am excited to continue our journey towards the season and look ahead to going racing.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: "From a reliability perspective, it's been a good week for us. The car has enabled us to run the programme exactly as we wanted each of the three days and that's what we hoped for coming here to Barcelona. It is a huge testament to the hard work of everyone at Brackley and Brixworth in bringing this car to life. We've also made good progress with some of the challenges we saw on days one and two and that is pleasing.

"That said, in Barcelona we have only really been focused on proving out the W17. In Bahrain, we will switch to set-up exploration which you can't do here when it is so cold. That will give us a much better idea of the car's relative abilities as we progress towards the 2026 season."

Lewis Hamilton: "It was good to finally get some dry running and work through our programme. Everything is new under these regulations and the cars are very different to what we’ve been used to, with lower downforce, so there’s a lot to learn. The most positive aspect so far is the amount of laps we were able to put together, and that’s a real credit to the work done back at the factory. We’ve been able to gather valuable data, understand where the car is at, and start building a clear direction. It’s early days, but the process has been productive and we’re focused on continuing to learn, refine and move forward step by step."

Charles Leclerc: "It was positive to finally get a full day in more representative conditions. Everything is new with these regulations, so there is a lot to learn and discover, and the way the car is driven is quite different to what we’ve been used to in recent years. I see this as a real challenge and also an opportunity to approach things in a different way. I’m feeling more and more comfortable in the car, even though managing the new systems, particularly with the increased contribution from the electrical side of the power unit, is demanding. At this stage we are not looking at performance, but at completing our checklist and understanding the car as much as possible. There is still a lot to test, but we are on schedule with our programme, which is encouraging as we continue our work towards Bahrain."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: "It has been a productive shakedown so far. After a difficult first day in wet conditions, today we were able to run consistently and, most importantly, to accumulate mileage, which was the main objective. Reliability and learning are the priorities at this stage, especially with such a significant change in the regulations. We gathered a lot of data and followed our programme as planned, which is an important first step. There is still a long way to go before the start of the season, but this is exactly what these days are for: understanding the car, analysing every area in detail and continuing to improve step by step as we head towards Bahrain."

Liam Lawson: "It was a positive and interesting three days of testing here in Barcelona. There's a lot to learn for all of us as the 2026 car is very different to drive, so I just tried to adapt as much as I could. The car has less downforce compared to the past, so it moves around quite a bit; there's a lot of power when the battery is fully deployed but the way in which you have to manage it is something completely new. We've been trying several things on the car and it's been great to keep building mileage on the new power unit. We had a pretty strong test in terms of reliability, but in terms of expectations, it's very hard to say at this point, as we don't know where everyone else is. I think that will stay quite unknown for a while, but we're focused on our own job and want to keep improving in order to be in the best shape possible for the first race in Melbourne. Overall, we ended the test in a much better place to where we started on Monday. The next test in Bahrain is in less than two weeks so we'll keep collecting data, but it's a completely different track to here, so I'll be curious to see how the car performs in those conditions."

Arvid Lindblad: "We did some good testing this week at the Barcelona Shakedown. It's been really exciting to get behind the wheel of an F1 car and properly start the 2026 season. We've been learning a lot about the car, and we're obviously already planning on how to carry this work forward to the sim before the next test. Coming here with a completely new car and power unit, I feel like there was always an unknown and some uncertainty about expectations, but we've been able to gather good mileage, which is great. The focus these days has been on building mileage and consistency, trying to understand the car as much as we could and see how we could get out the most from every part of the car, since this is very different compared to last year. It's been a great start to the journey for all of us and I've been enjoying it so far. A special thanks to the team for their support and a massive credit to everyone involved in this project; we'll keep working hard based on the data collected and really looking forward to going to Bahrain."

Alan Permane, Team Principal:  "We have had very productive three days here at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. We feel we hit the ground running with the new car and power unit, and they've both run very reliably since the first run. We had no significant stoppages, and every time the car went out, we learnt something new, which is amazing. A whole week of learning and understanding as much as we could about the chassis and the power unit allowed us to make several changes and explore the setup of the car as well as running the engine in different modes. One of the new things about this new generation of power units is learning how to manage the energy in them; we started testing that on various fuel loads. Both Liam and Arvid have worked hard this week and it's been really good to see them following each other's runs on track; there's already a great collaboration between them and we've seen them always ready to help each other.

"We achieved everything we set out to do here at the Shakedown, and now we feel ready and look forward to going to the official Bahrain Pre-Season Testing in less than two weeks. It's been a great job done by everyone back at the factory in Faenza and Milton Keynes, and we got to see the beginning of a really great relationship between us and Red Bull Ford Powertrains."