{"id":38730,"date":"2026-01-26T14:26:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=38730"},"modified":"2026-01-26T14:31:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:31:25","slug":"f1-audis-first-day-in-barcelona-cut-short-by-a-couple-of-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2026\/01\/26\/f1-audis-first-day-in-barcelona-cut-short-by-a-couple-of-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"F1: Audi’s first day in Barcelona cut short by “a couple of problems”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audi spent the least amount of time on track at day 1 of this week’s Barcelona shakedown, with Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> completing just 27 laps before his R26 came to a halt. The Brazilian did not resume running after this stoppage, as his mechanics spent the afternoon assessing the problem.<\/p>\n

Such issues are normal in testing, especially at the beginning of a new generation of cars and power units. With that said, Audi managed far fewer laps than any of their competitors, a less than ideal start to their 2026 journey.<\/p>\n

Of course, as a new engine manufacturer, Audi are conscious of the challenge ahead. Still, every lap counts – as Bortoleto touched upon in his media declarations post-session.<\/p>\n

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Audi limited to just 27 laps in first day at Barcelona<\/h2>\n

Audi were one of seven teams to participate in the first day of the Barcelona shakedown. With teams permitted to run in three out of five test days this week, some opted against bring their car to track on Monday.<\/p>\n

Ferrari and McLaren will make their debuts tomorrow, deciding to make a slightly later start in a late push to prepare new components. Still, they expect to complete their allocated three days.<\/p>\n

The same cannot be said for Williams<\/a>, who will be completely absent. The Grove-based operation are paying the price for failed crash tests and severe misjudgements in the FW48’s assembly.<\/p>\n

A variety of rumours are swirling around about the difficulties Williams could carry into the first round. For now, it is not entirely clear how limited track time will limited the British team’s campaign.<\/p>\n

After all, there are still two tests in Bahrain where they can try and make up for lost time. Still, there can be no denying Williams are not where they wanted to be.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin<\/a> will participate in this week’s Shakedown, but are also experiencing delays. Due to logistical and organisational dilemmas, the Silverstone outfit are set to be on track on Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n

Crucially, this means Aston expect to complete just two days of running – as opposed to three. Whilst not necessarily a nightmare scenario, this setback does complicate their preparations. It also puts added pressure on Adrian Newey’s team to maximise their two-day programme.<\/p>\n

In this context, it is not necessarily a disaster for Audi to complete just 27 laps on the first day. Small hiccups and interruptions are a normal part of pre-season testing.<\/p>\n

However, this does not mean that mechanical failures are without consequence – as Gabriel Bortoleto explains (cont. on next page).<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Bortoleto admits to limited track time in Barcelona<\/h4>\n

A successful pre-season is determined by two basic areas. The first is completing a series of efficient and thorough run plans. Accumulating laps and data will be the number one priority for teams heading into the Australian GP.<\/p>\n

Only by putting laps on the board can engineers begin to understand their 2026 challengers and how to extract further performance.<\/p>\n

Simultaneously, a positive shakedown or tests is also determined by a car’s inherent potential. In short, the work done in the factory will decide whether the car being tested is competitive and consists of strong technical foundations.<\/p>\n

In this sense, completing laps and collecting data is only half the story. An equally important element is actually having a good package to work with – otherwise the only conclusions teams can draw is that they need to to return to the drawing board.<\/p>\n

For Audi, there are several question marks to answer. On both the engine and aerodynamic front, the 2026 season presents a new set of equations to solve.<\/p>\n

A manufacturer team like Audi is in an especially demanding position. Unlike customer outfits like McLaren or Haas<\/a>, the German team is forced to worry about all areas of performance.<\/p>\n

In theory, this is a positive – as it means your destiny is entirely in your own hands. At the same time, it is also a huge responsibility – particularly if you lack the expertise and infrastructure of an established name like Mercedes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was with this perspective that Gabriel Bortoleto reflected on his first day in the R26:<\/p>\n

“It was, I would say a bit of a short day. We were doing a pretty decent job in the morning, putting some laps on board and testing some things, going in the right direction.<\/em><\/p>\n

“But as we all expect, this is a shakedown and everything can happen, and we expect to find issues here and there in the car.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We found a couple of problems that unfortunately put us out of the day, basically, from the morning already… <\/em>(cont. on next page)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Audi Revolut F1 Team – 2026 Launch event<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

“So I didn’t really run much today. But yeah, it was expected, this kind of thing. We are finding everything now to not hopefully find it in the next test, or even in the first race of the year.<\/em><\/p>\n

“But yeah, overall, I would say when we were running [it was] positive. Good to have a feel with the new car, the new regulations, power unit and everything.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

“So hopefully on the next day I’m driving, I can get a few more laps on board…<\/em><\/p>\n

“I think there was a lot of learnings from the laps I completed, to understand a little bit the power unit and the car, and give feedback to the team where we need to improve.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Because there is a lot of things we have to do better, we are a new team as well building for the first time our own power unit. So there is a lot of places we need to do a step, here and there.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

“But I am very excited for that. It’s been incredible being part of this new journey for me, and regarding the stoppage on track today, as I said, it was a precaution thing as well. And we decided to not run until we fully understand [the problem].”<\/em><\/p>\n

As previously mentioned, the teams who opted against running today (i.e McLaren<\/a>, Ferrari<\/a>) are not necessarily at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n

Audi, for example, only managed 27 laps on their first day. This means that any further complications would severely limit how much data they collect in Barcelona.<\/p>\n

For the next four days, it will be imperative that teams achieve maximise every second they are on track. If not, there is a risk of leaving the Catalunya circuit with more questions than answers.<\/p>\n

Drivers like Bortoleto are also keeping their fingers crossed they can get some substantive mileage on the board. These 2026 cars are vastly different to their predecessors, which makes pre-season testing a huge learning process for drivers as well as engineers.<\/p>\n

Main photo: Steven Tee\/LAT Images (Red Bull Content Pool)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Audi spent the least amount of time on track at day 1 of this week’s Barcelona shakedown, with Gabriel Bortoleto completing just 27 laps before his R26 came to a halt. The Brazilian did not resume running after this stoppage, as his mechanics spent the afternoon assessing the problem. Such issues are normal in testing, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":38732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2576,2582,2072],"class_list":["post-38730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-audi-f1-team","tag-f1-2026-season","tag-gabriel-bortoleto"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38730"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38735,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38730\/revisions\/38735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}