The 2026 Formula 1 regulations are moving in a “good direction” as George Russell experiences “pretty exciting” outing during Barcelona private shakedown.
The latest era of the sport is finally underway as the teams have taken to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to test the 2026 cars for the first time officially.
Dubbed as a ‘private shakedown’, teams will have three out of the five allocated days between 26th and 30th of January before moving on to the more conventional set of two pre-season tests at the Bahrain International Circuit in February.
Mercedes, who already debuted its W17 at Silverstone for a filming day, earlier this month, hence, got to benchmark its package, at least in terms of reliability and driveability, against its rivals for the first time this week.
There was a lot of anticipation and honestly trepidation about the new cars, but Russell’s experiences on the opening day, yesterday, have left a good first impression on the Briton.
“It’s amazing just to be back out driving again,” he said. “I think at the end of the year everyone’s looking forward to a break, but then after a week or two you’re raring to go again.
“There was obviously a lot of anticipation for these new power units, and so far, just generally on the whole, the amount of power they give is pretty impressive.”
Not only have the new regulations mandated a completely overhauled engine formula, with a 50-50 split between electrical and combustion output, but it has also reduced the minimum weight of the cars by a staggering 30kgs.
Further, the wheelbase has also been shortened substantially, and Russell can already feel the difference as compared to the ground effects era.
“I think for all the cars I was watching today, with all the different power units, it’s probably the quickest I’ve ever seen an F1 car pass here in Barcelona, so that was pretty exciting to see,” he added.
“And the cars, you feel it being smaller, you can feel that weight reduction compared to previous years, so I think from that aspect as well it’s gone in a good direction.”
George Russell was left ‘pretty impressed’ by F1 rivals during the opening testing day
The current rulebook has offered a clean slate to all the 11 teams on the grid, but a lot of jeopardy too for new entrants.
Audi has entered the sport as an OEM for the very first time in its history, and Red Bull has decided to go the works team way after collaborating with Ford for its very own F1 engines.
Cadillac, the official 11th team on the grid, is also entering the fray as a would-be works outfit – utilising Ferrari power units for its opening years whilst developing its engine program with the backing of General Motors.
Naturally, for all intents and purposes, the Barcelona shakedown was meant to be a closed-doors affair where teams would be fixing its gremlins. But the reliability record so far has been pretty encouraging.
Looking up and down the grid, especially the ‘newcomers’ Russell was left “pretty impressed” by just how cohesively they were running given the monumental ask of a regulation change like the one introduced.
“For sure, we’re very pleased with the day, but I was pretty impressed with a number of other teams, to be honest,” Russell asserted,, who completed a solid 95 laps for the Silver Arrows himself on Day 1.
“You see the Red Bull-powered teams’ brand new power unit, they’re like a brand-new team from a power unit side, and they had a really smooth day with two cars.
“Audi had some good laps in there as well, and I think Haas did the most laps of everyone with a Ferrari engine.
“It’s not quite 2014 vibes of half the grid is breaking down and having loads of issues – I think Formula 1’s evolved so much since then and the level’s just so high.
“From every single aspect, it was pretty impressive to see all the teams on the whole having a lot of laps under their belt on day one.”
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