F1 testing: Lewis Hamilton sets Barcelona shakedown week pace as Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren run long
Ferrari finish F1 2026's first week of track running with quickest lap time through Lewis Hamilton amid reliable start; Host of teams rack up over century of laps' watch every round of the 2026 season live on Sky Sports F1, starting with the Australian GP on March 6-8
Friday 30 January 2026 18:44, UK
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the Barcelona shakedown as Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull all topped 100 laps on a final productive day of long-running for most teams in Spain.
As the week of behind-closed-doors running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya came to a close, eight teams were on track for Friday's final day.
Ferrari, Red Bull and world champions McLaren were joined by Aston Martin - whose maiden Adrian Newey-designed car completed its first-full day on track, with Fernando Alonso at the wheel - Haas, Audi, Alpine and Cadillac.
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Mercedes - the team who finished the week with the most laps (500) completed - and Racing Bulls had already reached their respective three-day testing allocations on Thursday. Teams could run on any three of the test's five days.
The fastest lap times have not been published officially all week due to the closed status of the shakedown but it is understood Hamilton topped Friday's running after posting a test-best time of 1:16.348 during his afternoon in the Ferrari SF-26. The Ferrari was thought to have been on the C3 soft tyres.
That was a tenth quicker than Mercedes' George Russell went on Thursday when he clocked 1:16.445.
McLaren's Lando Norris had set a 1:16.594 earlier on during Friday afternoon, eventually finishing second quickest, with Charles Leclerc third having set the morning pace of 1:16.653 when he drove the new Ferrari.
Headline lap times in pre-season testing are notoriously unreliable indicators of performance, which is particularly the case from this 'shakedown' week when teams' focus has been almost exclusively on testing the reliability and systems of their brand-new cars for F1's 2026 regulations.
Teams also run different tyres and fuel loads, plus car and engine settings, across their runs in testing.
But Ferrari will certainly take heart from the strong early reliability displayed by their new car after the sport's biggest-ever regulation change.
Having completed almost 300 laps across the car's opening two days on track, Leclerc and Hamilton combined to add 145 more to the team's tally on Friday - taking Ferrari's overall count for the week to 440.
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said: "Overall it's a positive session [week].
"We had both conditions - wet at the beginning and dry at the end. We covered tonnes of laps all over the week, which is good. It's good to put 160 laps on the board each day. This is important in order to collect data and prepare for Bahrain in the best conditions.
"It's a very early stage and the most important [thing] is to complete laps."
McLaren, too, will be relieved to have racked up 166 laps between Norris and Oscar Piastri on Friday after a fuel system problem curtailed the latter's Thursday running in the MCL40.
Red Bull, meanwhile, completed 118 with Max Verstappen at the wheel of the RB22 all day as the team returned to the track three days on from Isack Hadjar's crash in the wet.
Alonso put 61 laps on the new Aston Martin after its brief on-track debut on Thursday.
When is F1 Bahrain pre-season testing?
The introduction of new regulations means there is a robust schedule of three separate testing events before the start of the 2026 season.
With the Barcelona Shakedown now complete, F1 will next head to Bahrain for two 'official' pre-season tests, when media will be present and live timing from the circuit available.
Two three-day Bahrain tests take place on February 11-13 and 18-20.
When is the first F1 race?
The teams then have two weeks to prepare for the opening round of the season, which is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne from March 6-8.
The first practice sessions of the season will take place on Friday March 6, with Qualifying on Saturday March 7 and the opening race on Sunday March 8.
Watch every race of the 2026 F1 season live on Sky Sports, starting with the Australian Grand Prix from March 6-8. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
