During its three filming days—Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday—the tests surpassed 500 laps, showcasing solid reliability. Italian driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) even completed a full race simulation on the second day, while George Russell had set a benchmark time of 1m16.4s on Thursday that stood as a reference for much of the session. The German power unit was once again decisive, as between Mercedes and its customer teams McLaren and Alpine, with Williams absent due to production delays, the engine would have completed nearly 1,000 laps. Ferrari was the second-highest mileage supplier, while Red Bull Ford Powertrain finished third after the main team's return to the track on Friday with Max Verstappen, who completed 69 laps and set a time of 1m18.285s. Other teams on track included Haas, Audi, Cadillac, and Aston Martin. The British team drew attention with the design of its sidepods and engine cover under Adrian Newey's leadership. Spanish driver Fernando Alonso completed at least 49 laps in an incident-free day, concluding a much more orderly shakedown than in previous days. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) was the main star of the final day of the 2026 Formula 1 pre-season tests in Barcelona, setting the fastest lap of the entire week. The fifth and final day focused primarily on reliability and accumulating mileage. The Ferrari driver set an unofficial time of 1m16.348s late on Friday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, using soft tires in the late phase of the day. This lap allowed him to surpass his countryman George Russell, his former teammate at Mercedes, and secure the best reference of the test, a lap clearly aimed at measuring pure performance. The session began with a strong performance from Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who led the timing charts in the morning with a lap of 1m16.653s. Leclerc completed 78 laps and was 0.793s faster than Australian Oscar Piastri, who did 80 laps with McLaren and showed a clear recovery after a fuel problem on Thursday, highlighting the continuity of the work and a better adaptation to the car compared to the first days. In the afternoon, in cold track conditions, current world champion Lando Norris set the provisional best time with 1m16.594s, until Hamilton overtook him in the final moments. Beyond the lap times, the central objective was to complete as many laps as possible to evaluate the new power units before a calendar that will again feature 24 races. In that aspect, Mercedes was the standout team of the week. The next event will be the first official collective test, from February 11 to 13 in Bahrain.
