Five laps in the morning, 63 in the afternoon: Audi’s second test session shows how rocky the start to the new Formula 1 era is proving to be
Only five laps in a whole morning: The second day of testing for the new Audi team at the 2026 Formula 1 shakedown in Barcelona began with technical problems with the R26. As a result, Nico Hülkenberg was a spectator rather than a participant for hours.
The German took it with humor: “Yes, it was a bit of a slow start for us, but then we got everything under control and had a very productive afternoon.”
Hülkenberg actually added 63 more laps to the five he completed in the morning. Audi covered a total distance of 318 kilometers on the day, which is more than a full Grand Prix distance – a significant step forward after covering only 131 kilometers on the first day of Formula 1 test driving.
Hülkenberg certainly seems encouraged: “It was a decent number of laps. We discovered and tested a few things. We’ve gathered our first impressions and will now build on them.”
Audi focuses on groundwork
James Key, Technical Director of the Audi project, agrees with Hülkenberg: “This test basically serves to verify a very new car—for everyone, of course, but especially for us with a completely new powertrain, the first Audi power unit ever. So it’s mainly about reliability and understanding the basics.”
Key admits to a “slight delay” in the test schedule, which “for various reasons has actually turned out to be quite significant.” “But it’s all solvable,” he said. “That’s exactly what tests are for—you don’t want to discover things like this [at the start] in Melbourne. And on Wednesday, we saw better progress.”
However, the Audi team’s second day of testing did not go entirely smoothly: Key mentions a “hydraulic leak, so a very basic thing,” but does not go into further detail. So far, there have been “no real surprises” with the Audi R26. “If we had driven completely error-free from the start, that would have been a very pleasant surprise,” said Key. With completely new Formula 1 regulations, it is in the nature of things that the cars are “very, very immature” at the beginning.
“As I said, this is primarily a mechanical test. Performance will become a priority later on. Apart from that, we are simply working through everything point by point. It is definitely not the time to look at lap times. It’s all about the details.”
Why Audi is not yet concerned with lap times
The unofficial lap times achieved so far are of no use to Audi anyway: on the first day of driving, the team only managed to beat newcomer Cadillac, and on the second day, Audi came last – in both cases more than three seconds behind the fastest time.
But Key emphasizes that Audi is not concerned with lap times at this stage. “The most important thing for us was to rack up miles with the car,” he explained. “Our colleagues in Neuburg on the power unit side don’t have any reference data from the race track yet. This is the first time ever that they’re getting track data for the drive and also for the transmission.”
“In that respect, the main thing is to start fine-tuning these complex energy recovery strategies and all the other systems related to the 2026 car. As things stand, I would say that we are on target. Of course, the wish list is always endless, but if we have a good third day, we will leave here pretty satisfied.”
The mood is “good” at Audi
According to Hülkenberg, however, the mood in the Audi camp is already “good.” He says: “Of course, it’s still early days, but everyone is happy. We can finally drive and learn again.”
“There’s still a long way to go from here to [the test drives in] Bahrain and, of course, the first races, but I think everyone is very happy, positive, and looking forward to the coming season.“
”We’re really still at the very beginning,“ said the German. ”There are just so many things to explore and discover, but that’s the great thing about new cars. And yes, it’s fun to be part of this process.”
