Mercedes kicked off the 2026 Formula 1 pre-season strongly at the Barcelona shakedown, with rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli completing a full race simulation on his second day in the W17 car. The team accumulated 334 laps over two days without major issues, gathering valuable data. Drivers George Russell and Antonelli topped unofficial timesheets, signaling reliability for the new power unit.
The Barcelona shakedown marked an encouraging start for Mercedes in the 2026 F1 era. On Monday, George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli together completed 151 laps in the Mercedes W17, focusing on initial reliability checks. The team returned on Wednesday, where Russell drove 92 laps in the morning under cold conditions of two degrees track temperature, before handing over to Antonelli. The Italian rookie then managed 91 laps in the afternoon, including a complete race simulation.
"I did a lot of laps and was able to do a race sim, which was nice and the most important thing is that we did a lot of laps, a lot of mileage and a lot of data for the team. It was a good day overall," Antonelli said. He added that the new car represents "a big step compared to last year's," allowing constant learning on track.
Russell echoed the positive vibes: "We got a huge amount of laps in today between Kimi and I, which was great... everything went really smoothly." The pair led timesheets with laps in the 1m17 range, though these remain unofficial and irrelevant at this stage. Mercedes' total reached 334 laps by Wednesday, exceeding expectations without significant reliability problems.
Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin noted, "We’ve more or less ticked all our objectives... We managed to do over two race distances [on Wednesday] with it." He highlighted that red flags from other teams' issues caused more disruptions than any Mercedes faults. The team planned qualifying-style runs on Thursday to test the 350kW electric deployment, completing their allowed three days.
Mercedes' customer teams McLaren and Alpine also logged miles with the new HPP power unit, while Williams was absent. Williams boss James Vowles praised Mercedes' smooth operation alongside Red Bull and Ferrari's efforts. On Thursday, Russell set a benchmark 1m16.445s over 78 laps, ahead of Antonelli's 1m17.081s in 90 laps, underscoring the team's strong position ahead of Bahrain testing.
