Fred Vasseur reveals Ferrari F1 testing plans after successful 2026 launch

Fred Vasseur has revealed when Ferrari will first be on-track during F1's first pre-season test in Barcelona next week.

The five-day test is taking place behind-closed-doors as teams put their new 2026 generation machines through their paces, although Williams will be missing the test due to delays in passing the crash-tests, RacingNews365 understands.

Across the five days in Barcelona, each team is only allowed to have its car on-track for three days, which, when added to the two Bahrain tests, allows for nine days of running in total. 

McLaren has already declared that it will miss the opening days of running, not appearing until potentially Wednesday, with Ferrari's SF-26 set to appear before that, on Tuesday 27th, February, before further plans are made for the rest of the week. 

"It's quite an emotional day for us today, the launch of a new project is always an important milestone," Vasseur told select invited media, including RacingNews365. 

"But I would say that it is even more true this year with the completely new regulations for 2026. It was a long way to go until today, and I think it went pretty well. 

"It was a good start, so let's be positive and enjoy the journey, and now we have to be focused on Barcelona.

"We will start the test on Tuesday, and then with the regulation, we will decide which date to run with Thursday, we will [also] be on track on Thursday. 

"It has been a huge amount of work in the last weeks, month and probably also years on the engine side, but we are more than happy with the setup today, and it is not the end of the story, but the beginning of the season."