Max Verstappen warns teams ahead of F1 2026 tests: “More time in the garage than on track”. Max Verstappen predicts reliability challenges for early 2026 pre-season tests in Spain.

F1, Verstappen warns: “In testing we’ll spend more time in the garage than on track”. The reason

With the 2025 season now set aside, the world of Formula 1 is already fully focused on 2026. In reality, the sport has effectively been in 2026 for months, as work on the new cars began a long time ago and is now entering its final and most intense phase. A final sprint that will see teams completing preparations on their respective cars by mid-January, before unveiling them to the media and heading out on track for the nine days of winter testing.

Over the coming winter, teams and drivers will effectively have a significant amount of time to work on the new projects, with three separate test sessions available to run in the new cars and brand-new power units, all of which still remain largely unknown.

It all starts at the end of January

The first round of winter testing is scheduled to take place in Spain, at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, at the end of January, with a session planned from Monday 26 to Friday 30. This first shakedown at Montmeló will differ from the past, as it will be held behind closed doors, reserved exclusively for the teams, with no media access to the circuit.

During this initial test, each team will have a total of three days of running at its disposal. After that, everything will be packed up and shipped to Bahrain, which, as has become tradition, will host the final round of testing before the teams head to the first Grand Prix of the new season.

Only at that point, especially in a year like this, will it be possible to begin forming a first clear picture of the competitive order. A huge amount of work will be required for teams to understand and refine the new cars before they can even start thinking about extracting outright performance.

Verstappen issues a warning

It was precisely the Spanish test session that Max Verstappen addressed in a recent interview with Blick, in which the Red Bull driver warned the paddock about how much actual running the cars will realistically manage at Barcelona.

“During the first test session in Barcelona, we’ll spend more time sitting in the garage than in the car,” Max Verstappen said, highlighting how the inevitable teething problems of the new generation of cars will be very much present.

For this reason, the Barcelona test can be considered more of a shakedown ahead of the two further test sessions scheduled, as mentioned, in Bahrain from 11 to 13 February and from 18 to 20 February. Only there will teams be able to begin properly evaluating reliability, understanding the new technical regulations and gradually building toward performance.