What happened on day three of F1’s secret 2026 test

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli set a brand new quickest time of testing up to now on day three of F1’s behind closed doorways shakedown at Barcelona. 

The benchmark time was twice crushed on Wednesday by Mercedes drivers as first George Russell posted a 1m17.580s within the morning, earlier than Antonelli eclipsed his teammate’s time with a 1m17.382s. 

Whereas outright lap occasions imply little or no in pre-season testing, it proved to be one other sturdy day for Mercedes, who racked up a formidable complete of 183 laps. Russell logged 92 within the morning, with Antonelli managing 91 within the afternoon. 

In addition to setting the headline time of the five-day take a look at, Mercedes’ W17 has run reliably and never been affected by any main issues.

Lando Norris was third-quickest as McLaren’s 2026 challenger lastly made its highly-anticipated monitor debut with the reigning world champions becoming a member of the Barcelona pre-season testing motion on Wednesday.

The MCL40 broke cowl simply earlier than 10am native time (11am UK) with reigning world champion Norris behind the wheel and sporting the number one on the nostril of his automobile for the primary time. Norris totalled 77 laps on McLaren’s first day of working. 

Audi’s troubled take a look at continued as Nico Hulkenberg floor to a halt with only a handful of set up laps on the board, including to the technical difficulty which curtailed the crew’s day after solely 27 laps on Monday. 

In contrast to on Monday, nonetheless, Audi had been in a position to return to the monitor. 

Ollie Bearman’s Haas and Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bulls additionally stopped on monitor on Wednesday, inflicting pink flags. 

A complete of six groups had been in motion on Wednesday, with Pink Bull notably sitting out following Hadjar’s hefty crash on day two.

The Milton Keynes squad are nonetheless repairing their RB22 however solely have certainly one of their three permitted take a look at days left to play with.

Ferrari and Cadillac additionally selected to overlook Wednesday, together with the late-arriving Aston Martin, who’re set to debut their AMR26 no sooner than Thursday, and Williams who’re lacking the complete take a look at.