Mercedes impresses with first race sim at F1’s Barcelona shakedown

Mercedes has delivered a strong start to the 2026 Formula 1 pre-season as Andrea Kimi Antonelli completed a full race simulation on day two.

The Mercedes W17 ran reliably on both Monday and Wednesday, with George Russell having completed 92 laps by lunchtime yesterday before handing over the car to Antonelli. The youngster then reeled off 91 laps after the break, including what he said was a complete race simulation on only his second half-day in the car.

Mercedes’ two customers teams McLaren and Alpine have also been racking up the miles with the new Mercedes HPP power unit, with just Williams absent from the Barcelona shakedown.

Antonelli and Russell also led the timesheets with laptimes in the 1m17 range, but these times are unofficial and remain completely irrelevant this week. What really matters is that the first warning signs for the competition are there that Mercedes seems to have its house in order.

“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,” the Italian remarked. 

“This car is completely new and it’s quite a big step compared to last year’s car. So whenever you go in the car, you have a bit more confidence and then throughout the stint you learn more about the car, you understand the limitations or where you can push a bit more. So, it’s a constant learning every time you go on track.”

Russell was equally buoyed by the impressive mileage Mercedes has been able to cover from the start. “We got a huge amount of laps in today between Kimi and I, which was great,” he said. “The track was two degrees this morning, so I think maybe one of the coldest track temps I’ve ever driven in, but everything went really smoothly and just sort of getting through our test programme.

“We’re just enjoying seeing the progress that we’re making and hoping it will be enough to put us in a good place.”

Mercedes has since confirmed it will also run on Thursday, which will be its last of the three days that teams are allowed to run over the week. Its drivers suggested the Silver Arrows could already start having a first look at qualifying modes with the new power unit, and the challenge of deploying its massive 350kW electric energy over a single qualifying lap.

“We’re focused a lot on long runs and just proving out the power unit. We’ll probably look at sort of more qualifying style runs tomorrow.” Russell explained after his runs on Wednesday. “That’s going to be very different getting to use that 350 kilowatts over the course of a full lap, full beans, and that’s going to have a different reaction on the car compared to the long run. So, we’ll probably have a first look at that tomorrow.”‘

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– The Autosport.com Team