The Aston Martin Formula 1 team has announced its “intention is to run Thursday and Friday” at Barcelona’s 2026 shakedown, which means it will not take up at least one of its three days of running.
F1 heads to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this weekend for a five-day pre-season test, dubbed the shakedown as official testing takes place in Bahrain in February with two three-day tests.
At the behind-closed-doors event in Barcelona, teams are allowed to pick any three days from Monday until Friday to conduct testing, with Williams the only team to miss the test entirely due to delays getting its 2026 challenger ready.
Aston Martin is also racing against the clock to make it to the Catalan event, with Autosport previously reporting the Silverstone squad would at least miss Monday and Tuesday running.
A spokesperson for the team has now confirmed that Aston Martin will try to run its brand-new AMR26 from Thursday onwards, meaning Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll would get to run two days out of a potential three.
Honda power unit launch
Photo by: Honda
“The AMR26 will be in Barcelona later this week for its shakedown. Our intention is to run Thursday and Friday,” Aston Martin told Autosport.
McLaren and Ferrari also missed the opening day on Monday and intend to run from Tuesday onwards. The remaining seven teams all started testing in Monday’s cool but dry conditions, with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar leading Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes in the unofficial timings by lunchtime.
Due to a lack of live timing for the afternoon running, there is no reliable information on lap times, although the main target of the Barcelona week is to gather mileage and dial in the new-for-2026 power units, rather than chase performance.
The AMR26 is the first car overseen by Aston’s managing technical partner Adrian Newey and developed in the Silverstone base’s new wind tunnel as the Lawrence Stroll-owned team aims to become a competitive force. Aston is also becoming an exclusive works team in 2026 by switching to Honda power units.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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