F1 2026: Max Verstappen battled illness during gruelling Barcelona testing

Credit for photo: Red Bull Content Pool — Photo: © IMAGO

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen battled illness during gruelling Barcelona F1 testing

Max Verstappen was under the weather

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Saturday 31 January 2026 18:56 Updated: 19:03

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Max Verstappen has revealed he was struggling with illness during F1's Barcelona shakedown.

Red Bull reportedly completed a total of 303 laps between Verstappen and Isack Hadjar over their three days of permitted testing, and the Dutchman took to the track for the final day on Friday.

When he spoke to F1.com after the Barcelona shakedown, Verstappen, through coughs and splutters, revealed he had been suffering with an illness throughout the week.

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When he was asked how he was feeling heading into 2026, he answered honestly: "I'm ill. I'm a bit sick," before laughing.

"I'll feel better at the start of the season," the four-time champion added.

How did Verstappen and Red Bull do at Barcelona testing?

Before Friday, Verstappen only had 27 laps worth of experience in the RB22 during wet conditions, and was forced to wait until the end of the week to run again.

On Tuesday evening, Hadjar crashed and hit the barriers where he caused significant damage to the Red Bull, and the team were forced to wait for spare parts to be flown in from Milton Keynes.

In the same interview, Verstappen reflected on the week of testing and said: "Overall pretty decent, the first morning [Tuesday] I didn't get to do too many laps, because of the weather basically.

"But today [Friday] was good, I did a lot of laps, we learned a lot. Still a lot of things we want to look into and do better but that's normal I guess. With the new engine, to do the amount of laps that we did was very nice and it's a good start for us. So, positive, but it's still very early days."

According to the unofficial timesheet following the shakedown in Barcelona, Verstappen set the fastest time of the two Red Bull drivers, a 1:17.586 (the seventh-fastest time overall) and Hadjar set a 1:18.159 (ninth-fastest).

Again, it is important to note not to take these times too seriously, with the caveat of pre-season testing and the teams running differently - for example, Mercedes and Ferrari reportedly attempted qualifying runs on their respective final days of testing.

F1 TESTING RESULTS: Barcelona shakedown times as Hamilton roars back

F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Isack Hadjar pre-season testing