F1 Barcelona pre-season testing live commentary and updates - day 3

Cadillac has just confirmed to us that it will run on Thursday and Friday and not today, because of the better weather forecast later this week.

Following a first day out with limited mileage on Monday, we saw test driver Pietro Fittipaldi was out on the team's simulator in Charlotte yesterday to use what Cadillac learned on Monday and help trial set-ups.

In terms of liveries, the Toyota-branded Haas might just be our winner so far from what we've seen. Very clean.

Esteban Ocon, Haas

Photo by: Haas F1 Team

Zac206: "I know it's a test behind closed doors, but have you been able to hear if the engines sound different to last year?"

From what people have been telling us they sound slightly louder and less muffled without the MGU-H, but naturally the V6 engine notes are still very similar to previous years.

And here's another thing, it's around 8 degrees now in Montmelo. Running in the mid-to-high twenties in Bahrain will be a much bigger stress test.

"I don't like this shakedown testing where everything is ran in privacy. We are so eager to seeing cars on track, innovations, fast times, long runs," says reader Faris.

I tend to agree in principle and in hindsight the level of anxiety from the teams was probably not warranted. But bear in mind we will have six full days of public testing in Bahrain so there will be plenty of time for that. We were never going to see any proper fast times or long runs this week at all, as teams are largely focused on just making sure these complex power units are running as expected. And we certainly won't learn anything from blurry pictures from a grassy knoll.

As always with these tests, I am more interested in who isn't running than in who is. 

Recap

Just to recap the day so far. The McLaren MCL40 has made its 2026 debut half an hour ago with Lando Norris doing the honours.

Ferrari and Red Bull are sitting today out, while Russell is aboard the Mercedes, Lindblad is getting time in the Racing Bulls car and Colapinto is driving the Alpine.

There have been two brief red flags for Hulkenberg (Audi) and Bearman (Haas) stopping out on track.

McLaren - Norris
Mercedes - Russell (AM), Antonelli (PM)
Ferrari - Not running
Red Bull - Not running
Aston Martin - Not running
Williams - Not running
Racing Bulls - Lindblad
Haas - Bearman
Audi - Hulkenberg
Alpine - Colapinto (AM), Gasly (PM)
Cadillac - Not running

While it's been a stop-start test for Audi so far, Red Bull and its Red Bull Powertrains engine has been running a decent number of miles so far. That obviously says nothing about competitiveness, nor does anything this week. But there's no nightmare scenario of being stuck in the garage with power unit gremlins, which Laurent Mekies said was a huge source of pride.

Our colleague Ronald Vording recently spoke to Ford's Mark Rushbrook about Ford's confidence in Mekies as Red Bull's main man going forward, while also paying respect to his predecessor Christian Horner who was so instrumental in getting the Ford deal over the line.

McLaren on track

The McLaren MCL40 has gone out to make its winter testing debut, our 'spies' are telling us. The team told us earlier it's world champion Lando Norris behind the wheel today.

Red flags so far this week

Colapinto (Alpine) Day 1
Lawson (Racing Bull) Day 1
Bortoleto (Audi) Day 1
Verstappen (Red Bull) Day 2
Hadjar (Red Bull) Day 2
Hulkenberg (Audi) Day 3
Bearman (Haas) Day 3

This idea of Melbourne not being a perfect indication of the rest of the season also applies to the technicalities of how we go racing this year. Think overtaking, boost modes, energy deployment, active aero zones.

Given the huge complexity of the new regulations, the FIA is aware that it may well have to make a few tweaks on a race-by-race basis to ensure the on-track show is in a good place.

We sat down with the FIA's single seater director Nikolas Tombazis at last week's Autosport Business Exchange to go through it all, which you can read here.

Meanwhile we have asked and received confirmation from Ferrari that it is not running today with the SF-26.

So, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton will be expected out on track both on Thursday and Friday for Ferrari to use up its full three-day allowance.

But it's still been a better start for Audi than for Aston Martin, which won't run before tomorrow and loses at least one day of running.

And then there's Williams, which has kicked off the 2026 campaign with what can only be described as a black eye by having to sit out the entire Barcelona week. Nobody in their right mind would voluntarily miss out on precious, rare off-track running for the benefit of more development time in the factory, so it definitely is an unwanted setback if you don't run in Barcelona.

Next week Williams is officially launching its 2026 car and livery and we will have the opportunity to grill James Vowles on the exact causes. To Vowles' credit, he has been pretty transparent so far with Williams' rocky journey.

But would the 2026 car being late and overweight - if that is indeed confirmed - after having focused all of 2025 on it, be a strike against Vowles' name? It's not a good look, but I honestly don't think so. Not yet. Owner Dorilton is very much focused on the long-term, and a few bumps and bruises will be accepted as long as there is tangible progress.

Even if it were to turn up in Melbourne with a weight penalty, the FW48 might actually turn out to be quick in the long run. One thing you keep hearing from engineers is that the pecking order towards the end of 2026 could well be quite different to the start of the season given the massive development rate.

I'm not trying to sugarcoat Williams' woes, it's just that how you start 2026 will be far less important than how you finish it. The stopwatch will tell us.

Audi had also been restricted to a limited number of laps on Monday, so it has not been the smoothest start for one of F1's two new power unit manufacturers. Red Bull has been much more impressive in that regard at this stage. Just talking about reliability.

Red flag

The session is brought to a halt for the first time. Our Spanish colleagues have someone out there and they say it is for Nico Hulkenberg's Audi coming to a stop at the end of the back straight.

Are F1 2026 cars more similar than we thought?

Good point from Zac206: "New regulations, but I feel like cars are quite similar. Except for Mercedes' front wing any other notable difference? Or too soon, and some may bring the real package in Bahrain?"

So, I asked Alpine's TD David Sanchez this very question at their launch on Friday, and this was his response: "I think they look quite similar. We've got plenty of people looking at pictures: 'Have you seen this, have you seen that?' Some interesting details, but I think it's fair to say the cars look macroscopically quite similar."

There is also an element of teams keeping the best till last. Not necessarily to deceive others, but simply because it's such a frantic, rolling development programme and Australia is still six weeks away. So the final specification of aerodynamic parts hasn't even gone into production yet, and Barcelona is more about exploring the power unit. Having said that, these 2026 rules are considered to be quite prescriptive.

Ask your questions

Like yesterday, we'll do our best to answer any and all questions you may have about testing or the F1 2026 season.

Here's one from us. Who's won the 2026 livery championship?

Not Ferrari, says 'SkidCarrera'. "Every time I see that blue HP logo on the Ferrari, I die a little inside."

Here's who's doing what today. Ferrari and Cadillac have yet to confirm their run plan.

McLaren - Norris
Mercedes - Russell (AM), Antonelli (PM)
Ferrari - ?
Red Bull - Not running
Aston Martin - Not running
Williams - Not running
Racing Bulls - Lindblad
Haas - Bearman
Audi - Hulkenberg
Alpine - Colapinto (AM), Gasly (PM)
Cadillac - ?

We're doing the round of the other teams. McLaren intends to go out soon with Lando Norris behind the wheel. Audi will also be taking part with Nico Hulkenberg. It seems like a good day for it. Crisp but dry.

Mercedes has just confirmed to us George Russell will be in the W17 this morning, with Kimi Antonelli taking over for the afternoon.

Red Bull likely to skip Wednesday

I think it's safe to say Red Bull won't be in a rush to lock in its third and final day, having run both on Monday and Tuesday. Isack Hadjar suffered a crash out of the final corner yesterday afternoon and the team was still assessing last night what to do. Max Verstappen will get a full day of running in the RB22, but it seems more likely that will be on Thursday or Friday.

This was team boss Laurent Mekies last night. "It's something we are trying to analyse now and hopefully we get some answer a bit later on. The priority right now is to assess the damage on the car and to see what it gives us in terms of opportunities to run in the next day. We only have one day left, so we have to make sure we place that card carefully and it's an analysis that will take still a few hours."

From McLaren last night: "Having used today to complete important final checks and preparations ahead of the MCL40's on-track debut, utilizing the full flexibility of the programme, we now plan to run the car on the final three days of running here at the Barcelona shakedown."

Haas has also confirmed it will be running today just now.

McLaren MCL40 ready for debut

One team that will be running today is McLaren, which sat out the first two days. The MCL40 should be on track every day from now until Friday to make the most of this week's running.

Good morning

Hello and welcome to day three of the Barcelona 2026 F1 shakedown. We'll try and bring you updates throughout the day again from the third of five shakedown days at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which is held behind closed doors. It should be a busy one today as most teams sat out Tuesday due to rain.