Mercedes will hit the track on day one of Barcelona testing, GPblog has learned.
After keeping their plans under wraps until now, the Brackley team has finally decided to roll out immediately with George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. They’re jumping straight in on day one thanks to favorable weather forecasts.
This puts Mercedes in the same camp as Red Bull Racing, Racing Bulls and Alpine – all starting on opening day.
McLaren and Ferrari, however, have chosen to hold back their 2026 cars a bit longer.
Pirelli has just revealed which tire compounds teams will use during the Barcelona test, along with how many sets each team has picked.
Teams can only run three out of the five available test days at Montmeló. Several teams have already said they’ll skip day one, and potential rain could throw a wrench in everyone’s plans.
The C1, C2 and C3 compounds will be available – that’s hard, medium and soft tires for this track. Intermediate and full wet tires are also ready if it rains.
Looking at what teams have chosen reveals some interesting strategies.
Red Bull has gone super aggressive with 18 sets of the soft C3 tires and zero medium C2s.
Ferrari has done almost the exact opposite, bringing just three sets of softs while loading up with 12 sets of the medium compound.
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