Aston Martin have confirmed they will miss at least one of their allowed three days of Formula 1 pre-season testing. The news comes amid speculation that the Silverstone-based team has experienced delays with the development of its new car for the 2026 season, and after rivals Williams confirmed they will miss the week-long shakedown in Barcelona entirely.

The first batch of pre-season testing began in damp conditions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Regardless, most teams wasted little time before heading out on track, Mercedes becoming the first to begin shaking down their new car narrowly ahead of German rivals Audi and new engine customers Alpine, while Red Bull made a fast start to top the timesheets at the end of the morning’s running.

Teams are allowed to run a car on three of the five days for which the Spanish Grand Prix circuit has been rented out by F1 this week, and have the choice of which days they would like to choose. In total, seven of F1’s 11 teams opted to get straight on with it when the pit lane opened on Monday morning.

McLaren and Ferrari are also already in Barcelona, but decided against taking to the track on Monday. Both teams confirmed that they would not be putting a car on track until Tuesday at the earlier, choosing to spend extra time developing before running any real-world testing.

There were question marks about what Aston Martin would do. They had not made any public statements about their plans prior to this week, and there was speculation that they may have faced some delays with their development which could limit their running opportunities, or perhaps even force them to skip the shakedown altogether like Williams.

Aston Martin have now released a statement confirming that they do intend to take part, but that they will at best only complete two days’ worth of running. A spokesperson said: “The AMR26 will be in Barcelona later this week for its shakedown. Our intention is to run Thursday and Friday.”

Their time on track later in the week is likely not to be completely full of dry running. Weather forecasts in the Montmelo area, north of Barcelona where the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is situated, show the potential for rain every day for the rest of the week, justifying the decision by every team to take some wet-weather tyres with them to the shakedown.

The private test is being conducted behind closed doors, with no live TV coverage and zero accredited media allowed on site. Those who have made the trip to Barcelona to try to cover testing from outside the confines of the circuit have encountered a much increased security presence, including local police who have been moving people on from vantage points where they might be able to get a glimpse of the track.