The doomsday scenario that had hung over Audi’s Formula 1 test debut when the car ground to a halt early on on Wednesday has been avoided.

But Audi still really needs a smooth run on its third and final day of the test for the Barcelona shakedown to go down as a success.

A lot had been made of Audi and its first-time power unit being ready to run immediately as the shakedown kicked off – when established rivals were either late or, in the case of Williams, a no-show.

But cutting that first day short after just 27 laps, even if it was partly “precautionary” according to driver Gabriel Bortoleto and “all fixable” according to designer James Key, took the shine off. And when Nico Hulkenberg stopped between Turns 9 and 10 early on Wednesday without a flying lap completed, alarm bells rang.

That, though, was a false omen for the rest of the day. The issue was a hydraulic leak, “a real basic thing”. Hulkenberg was back out and circulating productively through the day.

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“Decent amount of laps in, few things discovered and tested, obviously the first few impressions collected, and we’ll work from here,” he said.

“It’s going to be a long way, a long road, from here to Bahrain and obviously to the first couple of races, but I think everyone is very happy and positive and excited for the season ahead.”

The Hulkenberg mileage – 68 laps – took Audi’s two-day total to just under 100 laps, which is handy. “What we really needed to do is just get laps on the car,” said Key. “Our colleagues in Neuburg on the power unit side have got no track reference data at all, this is the first time they’re actually going to get track data for their power unit, and for the gearbox as well.

“So really it’s a case of doing that and beginning to tune all these complex energy recovery strategies and all the various other things that go with the ’26 car.”

So that’s good. But Audi’s lap total is still the lowest of any team that’s run two days so far, and also lower than Ferrari’s from Tuesday alone.

The only teams it has beaten on mileage as of this writing, apart from the delayed Aston Martin and the absent Williams, are McLaren (Mercedes customer) and Cadillac (Ferrari customer) and neither of those two engine manufacturers is exactly crying out for running.

And though laptimes have been universally described as irrelevant here due to the low temperatures, confusing run plans and “prove-out” nature of the test as a whole, it is clear Audi is not currently running in the same laptime range as most of its rivals.

Key said the “really important stuff” is being ticked off.

“Had we run faultlessly from the outset, that would’ve been a very pleasant surprise. We’ve seen plenty of red flags, it’s a very, very immature car still at the moment for everyone. But nothing particularly surprising. Like I say, this is really a mechanical test, the performance will become the priority later.”

But he also acknowledged the Red Bull-Ford teams should be in the same boat in terms of having a ‘debutant’ engine – yet though Red Bull and Racing Bulls have certainly had more issues, it’s undeniable they’ve both hit the ground running in terms of the ability to rack up mileage.

Key insisted that “provided we can have a good third day I think we’ll come away pretty pleased” with the test.

Audi’s target for the Australian Grand Prix in March is to complete its debut weekend without major reliability dramas on either the #5 of Bortoleto or the #27 of Hulkenberg.

That goal doesn’t depend on the final day of its shakedown here – but a good showing would clearly go a long way towards making it feel achievable at this early stage.