an underwhelming 48-lap day curtailed by a fuel system problem<\/a>.<\/p>\nIt ended the test in much better shape, however, with 166 laps on Friday and a competitive time, notwithstanding the unimportance of lap time at this stage of the year.<\/p>\n
McLaren put it down to \u201csmall, niggly, little issues\u201d that added up to considerable time in the garage. Given it\u2019s running the Mercedes power unit that has looked bulletproof for other teams, most of those issues must be on the team side of the equation.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not disastrous by any stretch. It\u2019s just not at the level we might have expected for the reigning champion \u2014 though, depending on how the year goes, we may reflect on it simply being quiet confidence.<\/p>\n
Red Bull Racing had a similar week worth only 14 more laps. It was ready to go on Monday, but a crash for Isack Hadjar late on Tuesday had the team hold off on its final day until Friday as it waited for spares.<\/p>\n
The brand-new power unit \u2014 which looked reliable throughout \u2014 explains the modest lap count, but how both these teams kick on in Bahrain will give context to the gaps left behind by Barcelona<\/p>\n
Piastri stars in hilarious new ad | 01:10<\/p>\n
THIS ISN\u2019T 2014 (FOR MOST TEAMS)<\/p>\n
Red Bull Racing\u2019s solid running did tell us one thing: fears of a repeat of 2014 were overblown.<\/p>\n
In 2014, the first year of the turbo-hybrid power units, several teams struggled to string together more than a handful of laps in pre-season testing.<\/p>\n
This year most power unit manufacturers looked like they were in good shape. Even Audi ended the test looking reasonable, with only Honda a question mark given Aston Martin\u2019s very late start.<\/p>\n
Cumulative mileage by power unit<\/p>\n
1. Mercedes: 1141 laps (5313.6 kilometres)<\/p>\n
2. Ferrari: 995 laps (4633.7 kilometres)<\/p>\n
3. Red Bull Powertrains: 623 laps (2901.3 kilometres)<\/p>\n
4. Audi: 243 laps (1131.7 kilometres)<\/p>\n
5. Honda: 66 laps (307.4 kilometres)<\/p>\n
To put this into context, the first day of testing in 2014 resulted in a total of 93 across the eight teams that got on track. Ferrari set a day-high 31 laps.<\/p>\n
This year the seven teams that ran on Monday completed a stunning 631 laps between them, with Haas setting a day-high 154 laps.<\/p>\n
Mercedes completed 309 laps over the opening four-day test in 2014. This year it racked up 502 over three days.<\/p>\n
Red Bull Racing stuttered to just 21 laps in 2014. The least productive team in 2026 was Aston Martin, which ran for pretty much just one day and still managed three times as many laps. The fewest laps completed by a team that ran for the maximum three days was Cadillac, which completed 164 tours.<\/p>\n
Considering that reliability was largely ironed out by the time the 2014 season started, it suggests that unreliability will be much less of a factor in 2026 that perhaps first expected.<\/p>\n
Power unit reliability looks more even if you break it down by days on track.<\/p>\n
Different manufacturers supply different numbers of teams. The Mercedes engine, for example, effectively had nine track days \u2014 three each for the works team, McLaren and Alpine \u2014 compared to Audi, which had just its own three days.<\/p>\n
Average mileage by power unit per day per team<\/p>\n
1. Mercedes: 126.8 laps (590.4 kilometres)<\/p>\n
2. Ferrari: 110.6 laps (514.9 kilometres)<\/p>\n
3. Red Bull Powertrains: 103.8 laps (483.6 kilometres)<\/p>\n
4. Audi: 81.0 laps (377.2 kilometres)<\/p>\n
5. Honda: 61.0 laps (284.1 kilometres)*<\/p>\n
*Honda\u2019s first five-lap day discounted given the team turned up only in the last hour of running<\/p>\n
Mercedes still leads, but Ferrari and Red Bull are certainly in the ballpark.<\/p>\n
And though Audi looks a step behind, it\u2019s only roughly as far behind Red Bull as Red Bull is behind Mercedes. It\u2019s also worth noting that Audi ended the test in much better shape than it started, with 60 per cent of its laps being set on Friday. That trajectory should count for something, even if the challenge for the German marque is still great.<\/p>\n
Ricciardo & Max reunite for track day | 01:18<\/p>\n
CHALLENGE STILL SIGNIFICANT FOR NEWCOMERS<\/p>\n
There are four newcomers this year, though they arrive in Formula 1 with different degrees of freshness.<\/p>\n
Red Bull Powertrains is a new entity, but with Red Bull Racing it has an established frontrunning team.<\/p>\n
Audi is also a new power unit operation, though the team is the former Sauber operation \u2014 a backmarker but an established one.<\/p>\n
Cadillac is a brand-new team that received its entry barely a year ago. It\u2019s being built from the ground up, but it\u2019s using Ferrari motors.<\/p>\n
Honda is not new to Formula 1, but its decision to quit the sport in 2021 and its subsequent backflip meant most of its most senior engineers are either working for other manufacturers or have been deployed to different departments of the Honda company. Its F1 engine program, therefore, is pretty much new. The Aston Martin team of course isn\u2019t new, but there\u2019s been considerable change there in the last two years.<\/p>\n
Deciding which team-engine combination deserves to be cut the most slack for being new is tough, but on the evidence of the first test, it\u2019s tough to go past Cadillac.<\/p>\n
The car is sometimes taken for granted among all the talk of power units being the critical performance differentiator, and that\u2019s because 10 of the 11 teams have been building F1 prototypes for years. They understand the challenge and the common pitfalls. Cadillac doesn\u2019t have any of that institutional knowledge, and that showed in Barcelona, with 66 laps its biggest one-day total.<\/p>\n
Audi\u2019s challenge mustn\u2019t be underestimated, but it ended the test in promising shape. Though the day started with issues, it racked up a strong 148 laps on the last day. The team expects to be around the back of the field this year, but if it does so with strong reliability, that\u2019ll be a good baseline.<\/p>\n
Aston Martin-Honda is a wildcard given Honda resolved to re-enter F1 late, and the brand has already acknowledged it\u2019s probably left performance on the table with its internal combustion engine \u2014 and it would know given it has the benchmark performance of last year\u2019s motor. The reorganisation of the Aston Martin team also makes this an interesting combination with potential that\u2019s hard to pit down.<\/p>\n
Red Bull Powertrain seems to be of least concern given both Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls appeared to encounter no major issues, but it\u2019ll be only when the motor is pressed for performance that we\u2019ll know for sure how well the project is going.<\/p>\n
Aussie Jack Doohan released by Alpine | 00:36<\/p>\n
WHAT\u2019S NEXT?<\/p>\n
The second pre-season test in Bahrain starts next Wednesday, 11 February. It\u2019s the first of two tests in Bahrain, with another three days in the following week, a fortnight before the Australian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Bahrain will be a big moment for Williams given its no-show in Barcelona<\/a>, which it put down to non-specific production delays. Team principal James Vowles said the 2026 regulations are three times as complicated as any other project the team has undertaken.<\/p>\nIt has committed not just to being ready for the first Bahrain test but to undertaking a private test \u2014 a 200-kilometre filming day \u2014 at the desert track in the days before other teams arrive.<\/p>\n
The filming day will help to tick some of the boxes other teams ticked in Barcelona in a bid not to start Bahrain too far behind.<\/p>\n
Williams at least knows the Mercedes power unit is reliable. If it can rack up three days \u2014 and then another three days \u2014 of significant, uninterrupted running, it might feel it got away with it before Melbourne. If it\u2019s bogged down by issues, however, the lost time in Barcelona will be compounded through a season for which the team harboured big hopes for improvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first of three pre-season tests has given us a crucial first glimpse of Formula 1 under the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[14212,1724,64,223185,63,936,937,233897,81121,84696,229844,16185,233885,233889,233900,220230,233901,2057,233895,817,845,18880,16271,233886,813,816,13276,231322,233893,3875,2093,841,16200,2101,21764,1737,233902,106466,16201,233905,825,913,233899,233884,223975,18923,220235,233883,233896,51043,225387,233881,12022,14444,220220,192123,233882,2072,3595,2020,233894,85,233904,233906,13773,233891,233890,233888,233903,233892,233887,233898,12000,16198],"class_list":["post-452752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-arvid-lindblad","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-aussie-jack-doohan","tag-australia","tag-bahrain","tag-barcelona","tag-benchmark-performance","tag-brand-new-power-unit","tag-combustion-engine","tag-cumulative-mileage","tag-customer-team","tag-definitive-statement","tag-dominant-title-winning-era","tag-downforce-sensitive-circuit","tag-engine-program","tag-established-frontrunning-team","tag-europe","tag-expects-cars","tag-f1","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-filming-day","tag-final-day","tag-five-lap-day","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-fred-vasseur","tag-fuel-system-problem","tag-genuine-performance-run","tag-george-russell","tag-german-marque","tag-grand-prix","tag-honda-motor-company","tag-italian-team","tag-james-vowles","tag-lando-norris","tag-lap-count","tag-lap-times","tag-ltd","tag-manufacturers-supply","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mclaren","tag-narrative-arcs","tag-non-specific-production-delays","tag-performance-differentiator","tag-power-unit","tag-power-unit-manufacturers","tag-power-unit-operation","tag-power-unit-reliability","tag-pre-season-testing","tag-preseason-testing","tag-promising-testing-session","tag-province-of-barcelona","tag-question-mark","tag-ricciardo-amp-max","tag-rules-shake-up","tag-senior-engineers","tag-sergio-perez","tag-southern-europe","tag-spain","tag-sport-dodges","tag-sports","tag-steve-etherington","tag-supercars-amp-formula","tag-team-principal","tag-team-side","tag-team-engine-combination","tag-teams-kick","tag-test-looking","tag-testing-analysis","tag-turbo-hybrid-power-units","tag-unit-reliability-looks","tag-western-asia","tag-works-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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