Story byF1 Returns to Life at Barcelona Shakedown Rudy Carezzevoli - Getty ImagesPhillip HortonMon, February 2, 2026 at 2:22 AM UTC·12 min readFormula 1 held its first five-day test, sorry, “shakedown,” at an unrepresentatively cold and sometimes wet Barcelona, at which teams were permitted to run on three of the days. Of course, you can already check off the bingo list of “it’s too early to say,” or “we’re not yet focused on performance,” but what’s the lay of the embryonic land as Formula 1 teams and drivers start to get a handle on new cars?Ferrari sets the fastest timeFerrari flew under the radar for most of the three days of running, but late on it wound up topping the timesheets, with Lewis Hamilton’s effort on Friday narrowly eclipsing George Russell’s previous Thursday benchmark. Compared to the miserable final few months of 2025 both drivers, particularly Hamilton, cut a significantly more upbeat figure. Callo Albanese - “It was good, we went through our program, did everything we wanted to do, we pushed a little bit more as well, which was nice to feel a bit the limit of this car and understand a bit more of it as well, I’m happy, we’ve done everything we wanted,” said Charles Leclerc. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHamilton described the shakedown as “really enjoyable” and praised Ferrari’s efforts.“It’s been a huge amount of work over the winter, on my side, and what the team has done over the winter to make changes going into the test,” he said.