Mercedes reveal impressive scale of 'encouraging' F1 2026 start

Mercedes has reached all of its objectives from the Barcelona shakedown after just two days of running.

The Brackley-based squad enjoyed an encouraging opening day of on-track action on Monday as George Russell and Kimi Antonelli tallied up 151 laps between them.

Mercedes returned to the track on Wednesday for their second of three allowed days and clocked another 183 laps - taking its total count for the week up to 334.

It has not been bogged down by any major reliability concerns, which has allowed it to carry out its scheduled programme largely uninterrupted.

“We’re pretty pleased with [Wednesday], obviously two days done out of the three,” trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said.

“We’ve more or less ticked all our objectives from the first and the second [day].

“So really pleased with how the car has gone. We managed to do over two race distances [on Wednesday] with it.

“Both drivers feeling that now - but the car was going strong at the end. So that was really encouraging.”

Other teams have run into various issues, causing red flags after being forced to stop on the track.

Shovlin suggested the disruptions from other teams are the biggest obstacles Mercedes is navigating to get through its programme.

“Mileage, we are a bit ahead of where we'd hoped to be, so that's good,” he said.

“Normally you’d expect to have a few teething problems, the odd reliability thing that costs you track time.

“The car worked faultlessly. We're actually losing more track time from other people breaking down and causing red flags than for anything on our side.

“In terms of data gathered, we're getting there, but as all the electrical systems are new, there's still quite a few issues that we're bottoming out with collecting the data and making sure everything is as accurate as we normally have it.

“But as I said, we had a long list of objectives and if anything, we’re slightly ahead of where we expected to be on day two.”