On the opening day of the Barcelona test, the seven teams that took to the track collectively racked up 629 laps — a net contrast to the mere 93 laps recorded at the dawn of the hybrid era 12 years ago.

One of the biggest question marks heading into testing was reliability, shaped by memories of past shake-ups and the scale of what is widely regarded as one of the most sweeping regulatory overhauls of the new millennium.

With a completely overhauled power unit and aerodynamic concept — alongside the introduction of new fuels — there were doubts over how much running teams would manage on day one. Instead, the 2026 cars have already shown themselves to be in a healthy place, with performance expected to build steadily from one session to the next.

Mercedes featured heavily in the running on the opening day in Barcelona, with the Silver Arrows making the most of early track time as one of seven teams to begin their 2026 preparations at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The team logged 151 laps across the two cars, as George Russell emerged as one of the standout performers in the afternoon, posting the day’s second-quickest lap behind only Isack Hadjar.