The fourth day of the Barcelona Shakedown is now done and dusted, with just Friday remaining for some of the teams to complete their programmes. Others wrapped up their week during Thursday, however, and F1.com has got the lowdown on that and more in our Day 4 debrief\u2026<\/p>\n
Which teams and drivers ran?<\/p>\n
Amid a cold and cloudy start to Day 4, several cars made an early entrance when the morning session got underway, with Sergio Perez<\/a>, Kimi Antonelli<\/a>, Liam Lawson<\/a> and Lewis Hamilton<\/a> all heading out for Cadillac<\/a>, Mercedes<\/a>, Racing Bulls<\/a> and Ferrari<\/a> respectively.<\/p>\n Oscar Piastri<\/a> went on to join the fray as the morning progressed, making his first appearance of the shakedown for McLaren<\/a> following the squad\u2019s first run with Lando Norris<\/a> at the wheel on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Antonelli and Hamilton had clocked up particularly extensive mileage by the lunch break, while Aston Martin<\/a> \u2013 who previously confirmed that they intended to join the action on Thursday \u2013 were yet to make an appearance.<\/p>\n Charles Leclerc<\/a> was the first to emerge as the afternoon got underway, the Monegasque taking over driving duties at Ferrari, while George Russell<\/a> joined the action for Mercedes, Arvid Lindblad<\/a> returned for Racing Bulls and Perez put in further laps for Cadillac.<\/p>\n Aston Martin made their debut later in the day, with Lance Stroll<\/a> heading out on track in the AMR26 \u2013 and after further running from Leclerc, Russell, Lindblad and Perez, Day 4 drew to a close at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.<\/p>\n Who is still to run?<\/p>\n Every team \u2013 with the exception of Williams<\/a>, who will not be participating in the Barcelona Shakedown but have since issued an update on their pre-season testing plans<\/a> \u2013 has now been out on track at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.<\/p>\n With each squad permitted to run on three days across the five-day event, Mercedes and Racing Bulls have now used their allocated running time, having both spread their programmes across Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n That means that McLaren, Red Bull<\/a>, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Haas<\/a>, Audi<\/a>, Alpine<\/a> and Cadillac all have the option to run on Friday, having all used two days so far \u2013 Aston Martin aside, who started their running on Thursday.<\/p>\n What have the drivers said?<\/p>\n With Mercedes having now completed their allocated three days in Barcelona, Antonelli felt that the team\u2019s significant lap count was a positive factor, whilst the Italian also spoke positively about the opportunity to learn about the new car during his final morning in the W17.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was a pretty good shakedown,\u201d Antonelli commented. \u201cWe did a lot of laps, so really good mileage for the team. I\u2019m happy because I\u2019m learning quite a lot about the car, and just looking forward to being back in Bahrain.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking ahead to that first pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit, the 19-year-old added: \u201cWe go there with high confidence and high hopes because it\u2019s been good. Obviously we had our issues during the shakedown, but we were able to fix them and now we can be sure that in Bahrain we can more or less hit the ground running there as well.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other side of the garage, Russell also sounded a positive note about how the shakedown had gone for the Silver Arrows.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was a very positive test, to be honest, and we had lots of mileage on the car which was the main focus of the test,\u201d the British driver reflected. \u201cThe car\u2019s feeling nice to drive, no major issues, no porpoising which is pretty good news for all of us, so all in all a decent few days.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite this, Russell added: \u201cWe\u2019re in a reasonably good place, but I\u2019m sure things are going to change a lot between now and the next Bahrain test, and then I\u2019m sure people are going to be bringing upgrades to the car, so still very much early days.\u201d<\/p>\n Racing Bulls also wrapped up their running on Thursday and, following his final run at the wheel before handing over to Lindblad for the afternoon, Lawson said: \u201cWe just keep learning. We\u2019re making big gains, but so is everybody else. Very, very different cars, but [we\u2019re] in a much better place than we were on Monday which is the main thing. We just need to keep learning and improving the car.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of whether the team are at the point they wanted to be by this stage of the shakedown, Lawson continued: \u201cI think yeah, in terms of mileage, yes \u2013 we\u2019ve honestly had a pretty strong test in terms of reliability, so that\u2019s been a box ticked. In terms of expectations, it\u2019s very hard obviously \u2013 we don\u2019t know where anybody else is.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019ll still be quite unknown for a while, but the main thing is we\u2019re getting the laps down that we want to and learning what we need to about our car.\u201d<\/p>\n After taking over for the squad\u2019s final session of their programme, Lindblad said of the day: \u201cIt was good. It wasn\u2019t the smoothest, but overall we went through the programme, we did some good testing, we\u2019ve learned a lot about the car as well.<\/p>\n \u201cSo [I\u2019m] thankful for the team for this test, and now just looking forward to doing some work before Bahrain in the sim and then getting back on track in a couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n Over at Ferrari, Hamilton admitted that he was pleased to gain some mileage in the dry, having experienced wet conditions during his previous run on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was great to be able to get some running and understand the tyres,\u201d the seven-time World Champion explained. \u201cWe did the C2 and the C1. It\u2019s so cold that the tyres are not really working so much, but we got through our programme and [got] a bit of an understanding of where the car is at and where we need to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n Like others, Hamilton was encouraged by the lap count that the Scuderia have amassed so far in Barcelona, with the Briton labelling his mileage during Thursday morning as \u201camazing\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year we had a worse start to testing, so this is actually \u2013 considering it\u2019s a completely new band of rules \u2013 it\u2019s better than we\u2019ve experienced in the past, so I\u2019m really hopeful that continues,\u201d said Hamilton.<\/p>\n Leclerc was also glad to experience a dry track when he got behind the wheel of the SF-26 later on Thursday, summarising after the session: \u201cIt was nice. It\u2019s super interesting, it\u2019s kind of the first day for me in the car in normal conditions, so a lot to learn, a lot to discover, and it\u2019s a very different car to what we\u2019ve been driving since I arrived in Formula 1.<\/p>\n \u201cI take that as a challenge and I actually quite like that everything is new, and there might be an opportunity for us drivers to think outside the box. It\u2019s been an interesting day, no problems again, quite a lot of laps, so that\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n Ahead of the team\u2019s final day of running on Friday, Leclerc admitted: \u201cThe checklist is massive still, so there are still many, many things that we want to test and try differently, whether it\u2019s set-up on the car, some different things or some approaches that we have with these new systems. There are many, many, many things, but we are on track of checking all of those, which is a good thing. I just hope it stays that way.\u201d<\/p>\n As McLaren embarked on the second day of their programme, Piastri shared his thoughts following his first shakedown laps at the wheel of the MCL40.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was nice to be back out, and especially in a new car,\u201d the Australian conceded. \u201cA lot of new challenges for us this year up and down the grid, so it\u2019s nice to get stuck into some of them.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately a few issues today. We had a fuel systems issue, which cut our day a bit short, but I know the team\u2019s working really hard to get that fixed and get us back out for as many laps as we can tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Reflecting further on what the papaya squad have achieved so far with their programme, Piastri continued: \u201cDefinitely the first few things are just trying to iron out all these bugs, find the problems. They\u2019re all completely different cars, completely different engines to what we\u2019ve had for the last three or four years, so that\u2019s part of what this test is about.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019ve already identified a few things we can try and improve on the car to make it feel a bit nicer. They\u2019re all going to be different to what we\u2019ve had so, yeah, just trying to find all the bugs, all the problems, and then try and make the car faster.\u201d<\/p>\n Following Cadillac\u2019s second day on track, Perez felt that the squad\u2019s running had improved on their first outing on Monday, with the Mexican commenting: \u201cA much better day. We got a lot of running, a lot of information. Still finding a few issues out there, which is great \u2013 it was all about that today.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we are improving pretty much every run. It\u2019s been a positive day, so hopefully tomorrow with Valtteri [Bottas]<\/a> we can have another positive.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked if he is feeling more comfortable in the car with each lap, Perez responded: \u201cYeah, I do. We\u2019re obviously starting to explore the car, the set-up, directions we want to be taking, so I think it\u2019s starting well.\u201d<\/p>\n Aston Martin, meanwhile, gained their first laps of the shakedown during Thursday afternoon, and Stroll admitted that it \u201cfelt good\u201d to be back on track again.<\/p>\n \u201cNice to be back in the car after a few weeks off,\u201d the Canadian said. \u201cEveryone did a good job in getting the car ready today. It was a long day for all the mechanics and everyone in the team, pushing flat-out to get the car ready, so we got a few laps in at the end of the day and it was feeling good.\u201d<\/p>\n With the team embarking on the first season of their partnership with Honda, Stroll added on the 2026 car: \u201c[It\u2019s] a big project, very complex. A lot of hours have gone into this machine, so it was nice to get behind the wheel and getting used to the new Honda power unit and these new cars. It\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n There is now just one day remaining of the Barcelona Shakedown, and \u2013 as mentioned above \u2013 eight teams still have the option to run during Day 5 on Friday.<\/p>\n After that, the next opportunity for the field to take to the track will be at the first pre-season test<\/a>, which is set to be held at the Bahrain International Circuit from February 11-13 followed by a second test<\/a> at the same venue across February 18-20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fourth day of the Barcelona Shakedown is now done and dusted, with just Friday remaining for some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-441663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}