What went wrong for Audi on first day of F1 2026 testing

Audi’s opening day of running at the first F1 2026 pre-season test did not go completely to plan.

The former Sauber squad completed the fewest laps of any team as F1’s behind closed doors shakedown test got underway in Barcelona on Monday.

Gabriel Bortoleto clocked 27 laps around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya before he caused a red flag when his R26 reportedly ground to a halt with a technical issue late in the morning session.

The unspecified technical problem prematurely ended Audi’s day as the German manufacturer, who have also produced their own power unit for F1’’s new rules set, failed to reappear in the afternoon.

“We were doing a pretty decent job in the morning, putting some labs onboard, testing some things, we were going in the right direction,” Borotleto explained.

“But as we all expect, this is a shakedown and everything can happen, and we expect to find issues here and there in the car. And we found a couple of problems that unfortunately put us out of the day, basically, from the morning already. So I didn't run really much today.

“It was expected, this type of things, you know, we're finding everything now to not hopefully find it in the next test or even in the first race of the year.

“Overall, I would say when we were running, positive, good to have a few [laps] with the new car, the new regulations, power unit and everything. So hopefully on the next day I'm driving, I can get a few more laps on board.”

On the stoppage he suffered, the Brazilian, who will contest his sophomore F1 season this year, added: “Regarding the stoppage on track today, you know, as I said, it was a precaution thing as well. And we decided to not run until we fully understand, and to put the car back on track and have a clear run.”

Audi remained tight-lipped on the exact nature of the problem, with team principal Jonathan Wheatley saying: “We had a technical issue with the car – we spotted it, decided to switch the car off on track.

“We’ve got plenty of testing this year and we wanted to really understand the problems and we’ve been carefully analysing that.”

Audi are among several teams who have elected to sit out of Tuesday’s session. Each team are permitted to run their new 2026 challengers on any three of the five days of their choosing.