What happened on ‘debugging’ first day of F1 2026 testing

F1 has entered its brave new era by completing the first day of collective on-track running in a private test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The first of three pre-season tests is being held across five days this week at the Spanish circuit, with all 11 teams invited to take part.

Information was hard to come by, with F1 going to great lengths to ensure the test remained as secret as possible.

Officially, the so-called ‘shakedown’ is a behind closed doors event. There is no official timing or live TV coverage, and media have not been granted access to Barcelona.

The circuit gates were locked and security patrolled the perimeter of the track to keep any members of the media, photographers or fans trying to get a catch a cheeky peek of the action away.

During the morning, an unofficial stream including live timings appeared on YouTube, only to be taken down in the afternoon.

From the limited information that is available, Crash.net understands that seven of the 11 teams were in action on Monday.

Reigning champions McLaren and Ferrari had already confirmed they would skip at least the first day of running, while Williams are missing the entire first test after failing to get their car ready in time.

It emerged on Monday that Aston Martin find themselves in a similar boat, though the official line from the team is that their lateness is down to a decision to maximise development time.

Aston Martin are set to join the test on Thursday at the earliest, meaning they are set to lose at least one day of the three permitted test days.

Hadjar puts Red Bull on top on Day 1

On track, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar is understood to have topped the timesheets ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell. 

It is worth stressing that lap times are unofficial, but Hadjar is believed to have set a 1m18.159s, with Russell clocking a 1:18.696. 

Kimi Antonelli drove the W17 in the morning before handing over to Russell, while Hadjar completed all of Red Bull’s running solo as he gave the RB22 its track debut.

Red Bull and Mercedes traded fastest lap times throughout the day.

Valtteri Bottas, who drove his new Cadillac for the first time, suggested that every team faced issues in some form or another on the first day.

"We had some issues throughout the day but it's de-bugging, that's why we're here, and it seems like every team had some issues,” Bottas told F1.TV in one of the few approved interviews that took place.

"It's just now really figuring about those and getting more and more running each day. But great to be here and in the car. The priority list now is to get more laps each day.

"I got a bit more than 30 laps today, some of them just installs and stuff, but we need to get some proper running in, get the mileage in and get a reliable package for race one.”

It is believed there were at least three red flags that disrupted the morning session, with stoppages for Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto.

In terms of mileage, it was a busy day for Haas as Esteban Ocon completed the most laps of any driver with 154.

“Now that we are running, we are discovering issues, problems we need to solve, every lap, every run. But that’s what we are here for, right?” Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu told F1 TV:

"At least we are running, that means we are gathering data, we are identifying issues that we need to solve. Still, obviously we just got started, but I’m very, very happy how we started.”

Ferrari and McLaren are expected to start their respective F1 2026 testing programmes on Tuesday.