What happened on day three of F1’s secret 2026 test
A rundown of everything that happened on the third day of F1 testing in Barcelona.
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli set a new fastest time of testing so far on day three of F1’s behind closed doors shakedown at Barcelona.
The benchmark time was twice beaten on Wednesday by Mercedes drivers as first George Russell posted a 1m17.580s in the morning, before Antonelli eclipsed his teammate’s time with a 1m17.382s.
While outright lap times mean very little in pre-season testing, it proved to be another strong day for Mercedes, who racked up an impressive total of 183 laps. Russell logged 92 in the morning, with Antonelli managing 91 in the afternoon.
As well as setting the headline time of the five-day test, Mercedes’ W17 has run reliably and not been affected by any major problems.
Lando Norris was third-quickest as McLaren's 2026 challenger finally made its highly-anticipated track debut with the reigning world champions joining the Barcelona pre-season testing action on Wednesday.
The MCL40 broke cover just before 10am local time (11am UK) with reigning world champion Norris behind the wheel and sporting the number 1 on the nose of his car for the first time. Norris totalled 77 laps on McLaren's first day of running.
Audi’s troubled test continued as Nico Hulkenberg ground to a halt with just a handful of installation laps on the board, adding to the technical issue which curtailed the team’s day after only 27 laps on Monday.
Unlike on Monday, however, Audi were able to return to the track.
Ollie Bearman’s Haas and Arvid Lindblad's Racing Bulls also stopped on track on Wednesday, causing red flags.
A total of six teams were in action on Wednesday, with Red Bull notably sitting out following Hadjar’s hefty crash on day two.
The Milton Keynes squad are still repairing their RB22 but only have one of their three permitted test days left to play with.
Ferrari and Cadillac also chose to miss Wednesday, along with the late-arriving Aston Martin, who are set to debut their AMR26 no earlier than Thursday, and Williams who are missing the entire test.
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