Aston Martin delays Barcelona shakedown: “We plan to run on Thursday and Friday”. Aston Martin confirms it will miss the opening days of the Barcelona F1 shakedown.

F1 shakedown, Aston Martin running late

The 2026 Formula 1 season officially got underway today, with the cars firing up their engines for the first time during the Barcelona shakedown at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. It is a rather unusual “first day of school”, however, as several teams are missing from the roll call. Ferrari and McLaren will not be running on day one, and neither will Aston Martin.

In fact, the Silverstone-based team will also skip tomorrow and Wednesday. The decision was made official in the afternoon by Lawrence Stroll’s team through its social media channels: “The AMR26 will be in Barcelona later this week for its shakedown. Our intention is to go on track on Thursday and Friday.”

The reason behind this delay appears to be similar to the one that led Williams to skip all five days at Montmeló: development delays affecting the car. Despite this, Aston Martin personnel are already present at the circuit, continuing preparations behind the scenes.

The programme

The Catalan test sessions began today behind closed doors — even though photos and videos have been circulating from foreign media outlets, despite being strictly prohibited by Formula 1 — and will run until 30 January. All 11 teams competing in the championship are allowed to choose only three out of the five available shakedown days to run.

If Aston Martin were to take to the track on Wednesday, therefore, it would not lose any mileage, provided it also runs on Thursday and Friday without encountering technical issues. Careful planning of track time will be crucial to ensure the AMR26 completes its initial systems checks and data correlation work.

After the week of running in Catalonia, Formula 1 will head to Bahrain for the official pre-season tests at the Sakhir circuit. The first session is scheduled from 11 to 13 February, followed by a second session from 18 to 20 February. After that, attention will turn fully to the World Championship, with the opening round set to take place in Australia during the weekend of 8 March.