Aston Martin confirms late start to F1 2026 testing as Barcelona plans announced

Aston Martin has outlined when it intends to begin its pre-season testing programme for the F1 2026 season.

The Silverstone-based squad is not taking part in the first day of running in Barcelona, but intends to take to the track later this week.

Aston Martin AMR26 to debut in Barcelona shakedown

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As revealed by PlanetF1.com last week, Aston Martin has delayed the start to its pre-season testing programme for the F1 2026 season and was one of several teams not to take to the track on Monday, with McLaren and Ferrari also sitting out the day.

Williams confirmed last week that it will not take part in the test at all, citing delays to the car build programme, which could have stemmed from the possibility that the Grove-based squad took some time to get its new chassis through all the relevant FIA crash and stress tests.

Speculation has abounded about the first Adrian Newey-designed Aston Martin, with rumours suggesting details such as the chassis being overweight or that the AMR26 is yet to pass the crash tests.

However, PlanetF1.com understands that the AMR26 has indeed passed the relevant tests, although it’s thought that the latest specification of some components may still need the necessary homologation.

It’s understood that the team has pushed development time as its main priority, resulting in the slightly delayed start to its F1 2026 programme, meaning that, as things stand, the team will miss one day of preparation time due to only taking part in two of the permitted three days of the five-day event in Barcelona.

Either way, the car does appear set to take to the track before the conclusion of the Barcelona test, with a team spokesperson clarifying to PlanetF1.com that, “The AMR26 will be in Barcelona later this week for its shakedown.

“Our intention is to run on Thursday and Friday.”

The AMR26 will thus be one of the final cars to make its 2026 debut, with filming days and demonstrations used by several teams ahead of the shakedown at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, in which seven teams have taken to the track on Monday.

Assuming McLaren and Ferrari do appear, as planned, on either Tuesday or Wednesday, Aston Martin’s late start will see it only beat Williams in getting its new car onto a race track for the first time.

However, as McLaren’s Andrea Stella told the media, including PlanetF1.com, at a pre-season launch event, a late start doesn’t necessarily mean problems and that running a car early locks a team into running a configuration that has had less development time than one launched at the last possible moment.

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