Mercedes finish F1 testing early after dominant week

Russell shaking hands with Mercedes boss Wolff at F1 track, both smiling — Photo: © IMAGO

Formula 1

Mercedes finish F1 testing early after dominant week

Mercedes have already vacated Barcelona

Originally written by Sam Cook. This version is a translation.

Friday 30 January 2026 17:00

Mercedes have been able to skedaddle from Barcelona testing early this week, having run their three allowed days before Friday's running even started.

Teams have been in the Catalan city this week for their first testing runs of the year, with each of them allowed to run a maximum of three days across the week.

Mercedes and Racing Bulls were the only two teams who managed to wrap up their running early, not even needing to be at the track on Friday.

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For Mercedes, their three days were filled with positivity, with the Brackley outfit managing to complete over 400 laps with very few reported reliability issues, while George Russell topped the timesheets on Thursday.

The team have been rumoured to be best placed to master the new regulations that are hitting the sport this year, and Russell, Kimi Antonelli and Toto Wolff were all smiles in their interviews this week.

Are Mercedes going to dominate F1 2026?

Lap times at this week's Barcelona shakedown are unlikely to have much relevance on where each team is shaping up in the competitive order this season.

But Mercedes drove more laps than all of the teams that are expecting to be challenging them for the 2026 championships, and the reliability of their W17 was pretty flawless.

The lap times at the two three-day testing events in Bahrain in February are set to be more representative of what we might see in the early stages of the season, but even then, teams are expecting the competitive order to shake up throughout the season as all teams get used to the new regulations at different rates.

But it's definitely a good start for Mercedes, and they have only intensified the speculation suggesting that they could well be in a championship fight in 2026.

Formula 1