Technical problems halted McLaren’s race on the penultimate day of F1’s first pre-season test of 2026, while rivals Mercedes and Ferrari performed well in Barcelona.

Reigning world champion Lando Norris made his MCL40 debut of the week on Wednesday and it was Oscar Piastri’s turn to drive for the constructors’ championship on Thursday, but the Australian’s afternoon was cut short by a fuel system issue.

That meant McLaren completed just 48 laps in total, more than 100 fewer than Mercedes and Ferrari completed on the day Aston Martin made its belated debut in the closed-door event, which gave the team its first opportunity to test its all-new car for 2026 following the introduction of new powerplant and chassis regulations.

“Unfortunately, there were some issues today. We had a fuel system issue which cut our day a bit short, but I know the team is working hard to fix it and get us as many laps as possible tomorrow,” Piastri said.

After fruitful efforts on Monday and Wednesday, Mercedes took advantage of the last of three days they were allowed to compete in the five-day event to rack up another impressive lap at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Many paddock insiders are keen to kick off the sport’s new rules era on the grid, with Mercedes continuing to make an extremely smooth start to pre-season, with Kimi Antonelli and George Russell completing 167 laps between them.

Antonelli set the fastest time of the event in the morning, but Russell went one better in the afternoon, with the Briton clocking 1:16.445, more than half a second ahead of his team-mate and nearly two seconds faster than the rest of the field.

While it’s too early to read too much into the era, especially given that Mercedes are further along in their plans than their leading traditional rivals, the Silver Arrows’ performance has been impressive.

Russell said: “The car is running well so far but the question is not how well it runs but how fast it goes on the track and we have no real indication yet.

“We’re in a pretty good position but I’m sure things will change a lot between now and the next Bahrain test. I’m sure people will make upgrades to the car, so it’s still early days.”

After a wet debut on Tuesday, Ferrari had a strong day with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in the afternoon, clocking 174 laps in total.

Hamilton said after his morning run that Ferrari’s performance was “better” than last year’s pre-season test and that his 85 laps on Thursday was an “amazing” feat. Leclerc was third on the timesheets, behind the Mercedes duo.

The three title contenders were joined by Cadillac and Racing Bulls, who became the only team besides Mercedes to use up their allotted running time before the final day of racing on Friday.

Aston Martin is finally on track

Having said on Monday they would miss the first three days of racing and hope to finish on track, Aston Martin almost achieved their goal on Thursday, with the AMR26 rolling out of the garage with Lance Stroll in the cockpit with an hour remaining.

Stroll raised the only red flag of the day when he stopped on track at the last moment, but overcoming some minor issues overnight will be crucial to keeping them in contention for a full day of racing on Friday, when Fernando Alonso will get his first chance behind the wheel.

The design of the team’s first car was heavily influenced by team principal Adrian Newey, whose legendary design skills helped Red Bull dominate at the start of the last rules era.

The car wore an all-black camouflage livery rather than the team’s usual green, but onlookers immediately noticed the car’s design was noticeably different from most other cars seen this week.

Stroll said: “Everyone did a great job preparing the car today. It was a long day for all the mechanics and everyone on the team and we worked hard to prepare the car. We did a few laps at the end of the day and felt good.”

Seven teams have completed two days of racing and are expected to complete their allocation on Friday, with Williams missing the entire event due to an inability to prepare its cars, while Aston Martin hopes to be on track for a full day.

Max Verstappen is among the drivers expected to race on Friday, but Red Bull Racing have been unable to compete for the past two days after Isack Hadjar’s RB22 crashed in wet conditions on Tuesday.

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