Mercedes’ promising start to Formula 1’s new rules era looked set to continue on the third day of action in Barcelona, when world champion Lando Norris finally made his new McLaren debut on track.
Mercedes, tipped by many in the sport to return to the title race in 2026, are thought to have completed the most laps – 183 – of the six teams running on Wednesday at the Barcelona-Catalonia circuit.
Timings are not officially released at the closed-door event, but Kimi Antonelli is understood to have set the fastest test time so far during his afternoon in V17, clocking 1:17.362.
Teammate George Russell had earlier lowered Isaac Hajar’s benchmark from Monday’s opening day with a 1:17.580.
Lap times, however, are virtually irrelevant throughout the week with the grid’s focus on reliability and system checks with their latest cars following what has been billed as the biggest technical rule change in the sport’s history.
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Mercedes director of track engineering Andrew Shovlin said: “We are pleased with the mileage we have achieved today and have met most of the targets we set for the first two days of running here in Barcelona.
“The car was reliable and we were able to put together more race distances today. It’s encouraging as an initial step, and I know both drivers will feel the number of laps they’ve completed today!”
“Drivers have commented positively on the feel these smaller, lighter cars give them compared to the previous generation. However, they will only be truly happy when we see the relative performance compared to our competitors, which is something we won’t see in Bahrain at the earliest.”
Norris behind the wheel as McLaren makes his first appearance
After sitting out the first two days of running – the second of which was hit by rain with only Red Bull and Ferrari running on Tuesday – world champions McLaren made a late start to track preparations.
Norris, wearing the coveted reigning champion’s number 1 on the nose of his car for the first time, left the pit lane just before the start of the third hour of the day and completed 74 laps in his MCL40 debut. His fastest time is believed to have been 1:18.307, placing him third in the standings.
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Check out the highlights from the second day of the shakedown as the teams run their cars at the Barcelona test.
An Alpine split run between Franco Colapinto in the morning and Pierre Gasly in the afternoon, while Haas gave Oliver Berman the first full day in their new VF-24.
Haas, who completed 150 laps on Monday, encountered a reliability issue that caused Bearman to stop and bring out the red flags in the morning. But the Brit managed to get back on track and record 42 laps.
The Audi also stopped on track, for the second time in as many track days this week, but Nico Hulkenberg was also able to return to action after the garage and finished with 68 laps.
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British rookie Arvid Lindblad drove for Racing Bulls and completed more than 100 laps on the new Red Bull power unit, and the senior team did not compete on Wednesday after running on the opening two days, significantly damaging the RB22 on Tuesday when Hajjar crashed late in the day in wet conditions.
Teams can run on three days of the five-day shakedown week. Aston Martin is yet to enter the race, but their first Adrian Nevei-designed car is understood to have arrived in Spain ahead of a possible track debut as early as Thursday.
More to come…
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