Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen completed their first laps of the Barcelona shakedown before Isack Hadjar crashed his Red Bull on a rain-affected second day.
With Formula 1’s teams able to choose to run on any three of the five days at the behind-closed-doors test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, only Ferrari and Red Bull opted to participate on a rainy Tuesday.
Red Bull’s slightly surprising decision to participate – having already managed a strong day of running on Monday – backfired as Hadjar crashed at Turn 14 in the final hour of the day, damaging the rear wing and suspension of the RB22.
The perils of the conditions were further highlighted as Hamilton ran into the gravel on his first outing at the event, but the seven-time world champion avoided causing any significant damage to his Ferrari.
Red Bull confirmed Hadjar was not hurt in a brief statement released on social media on Tuesday evening.
“That’s a wrap for day two of Shakedown, with 78 laps of running for Max and Isack in RB22,” the post said. “Isack’s afternoon was cut short after finding the barrier at Turn 14. He was out of the car immediately and is ok.”
Ferrari were running for the first time having stuck to a plan they announced last week not to participate on Monday, when seven of the 10 squads at the event took advantage of the largely dry conditions.
Ferrari, who had already run the SF-26 at their own Fiorano test track on Friday, were first out on Tuesday with Charles Leclerc getting a chance to run in what were initially dry conditions.
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Lewis Hamilton reflects on a challenging first run of his new 2026 Ferrari during the second day of the Barcelona shakedown.
Leclerc was soon joined on the circuit by Verstappen in the RB22, with the Dutchman having not featured on Monday when Hadjar drove for the whole day.
The other teams which ran on day one – Mercedes, Racing Bulls, Haas, Audi, Alpine and Cadillac – all sat Tuesday out, while world champions McLaren further delayed their start to the test until Wednesday. Williams are missing the whole event, while Aston Martin are hoping to be ready to run on Thursday.
After some very early slick-tyre running for Leclerc and Verstappen, the first band of rain arrived midway through the morning session and necessitated a switch to wet tyres, allowing the duo a first opportunity to try out F1’s all-new 2026 in the rain.
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Charles Leclerc reflects on the 2026 Ferrari after taking it to the track in Barcelona on day two of the shakedown.
Leclerc completed 66 laps in the morning and Verstappen 26 laps before they were replaced by Hamilton and Hadjar, their respective team-mates, after the lunch break.
Hamilton completed 57 laps for Ferrari in the afternoon, with Hadjar managing 52 for Red Bull before his crash.
Timings are not officially being published at the closed doors testing but it is understood Verstappen set the early dry-tyre pace with a 1:19.578, 1.5s slower than where the pace ended up on Monday when Hadjar was fastest.
Lap times, however, are effectively irrelevant all week with the grid’s focus on reliability and systems checks with their latest cars after what has been billed as the biggest technical rule change in the sport’s history.
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Sky Sports F1’s Bernie Collins and Craig Slater share their thoughts on why Aston Martin are making a late arrival on track at Formula 1 pre-season testing in Barcelona.
‘Challenging but productive’ – Hamilton’s verdict
Hamilton, who is seeking to bounce back from a hugely disappointing first campaign with Ferrari, said it had been a “really productive” day for the Italian team.
“Very challenging today, obviously because it started raining at 10.30am,” Hamilton said. “Charles had a little bit of dry running but then it’s been wet all afternoon.
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Speaking on the F1 Podcast show, Karun Chandhok feels there are alarm bells that Lewis Hamilton hasn’t been building a relationship with his soon-to-be race engineer as pre-season testing gets underway.
“Figuring out how to get the tyres working, it was really productive. I think we got 120 laps, given it’s in the wet and we had a red flag, I think that’s pretty solid.
“So, I’m really proud of everyone back at the factory for getting the car to this point. We got a lot of information on the car today, we definitely need to keep it up. Lots and lots to do, but a good first day.”
Leclerc, whose best time was just over a second slower than Verstappen’s leading effort, said Ferrari could be satisfied that their challenger was working as expected.
“For now, it’s all about trying to understand if everything is working properly, which it kind of did,” he said.
“It’s not the best conditions because it has been a little bit raining this morning but, actually, we did our programme anyway because we are not focused on performance whatsoever.
“We’re more about looking at all the systems that are new on this car and seeing if everything works as it should. It did, so that’s a positive.”
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