Another team will likely skip the start of the Formula 1 season

While several teams have already held a shakedown or at least unveiled their 2026 car, things have been very quiet at Aston Martin. The presentation of the Adrian Newey-designed car is not until February, so after the pre-season test in Barcelona.

Fans hoping to catch a glimpse of the car on Monday will probably be disappointed. It appears that Aston Martin will skip the first of the five test days.

GPblog understands that Aston Martin plans to decide only at the beginning of next week when it will take to the track in Barcelona. Since Monday is already the first test day, that day seems to be ruled out.

In Barcelona, significant rain is expected, especially on Tuesday, so there is a chance that teams will collectively skip that day. The circuit is likely to get very busy towards the end of the test week.

There are five test days, but teams are allowed to run on only three of them. Next month there will be two more sets of three days for testing in Bahrain. That is also where Williams would (normally) make its debut. The British team is skipping the entire test week in Barcelona, it was announced last Friday.

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