Liam Lawson has wrapped up his first taste of Formula 1’s radically new 2026 machinery with a growing sense of confidence, as Racing Bulls completed a productive three-day shakedown at Barcelona.
The closed-door running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya marked the first opportunity for teams to gather meaningful data under the new technical regulations, with cars now smaller, lighter, and operating without DRS while relying far more heavily on electrical power deployment. For Lawson, the learning curve was immediate and steep.
After describing his initial laps earlier in the week as “very, very different,” the New Zealander showed clear progress by the time his programme concluded on Thursday morning.
Lawson logged 64 laps in his final session, contributing to a week that saw him exceed 150 laps across multiple days behind the wheel of the VCARB03.
“We just keep learning. We are obviously making big gains, but so is everybody else,” Lawson said.
“Very, very different cars but in a much better place than we were on Monday, which is the main thing. We just need to keep learning and improving the car.”
That sense of advancement was reflected in the lap times. Having set a best of 1m 21.513s earlier in the shakedown, Lawson improved dramatically to a personal best of 1m 18.840s, trimming more than two-and-a-half seconds from his benchmark.
While outright times remain largely irrelevant at this stage, the gains indicate steady progress as the team works through setup variations and systems checks.
Despite that improvement, Lawson remains realistic about what the early running does — and does not — reveal. With teams operating on different programmes and fuel loads, the true competitive order is still well hidden.
“In terms of mileage, we have honestly had a pretty strong test in terms of reliability, so that’s been a box ticked,” he said.
“In terms of expectations, it’s very hard [to know], we don’t know where anybody else is.
“That will still be unknown for a while, but the main thing is we’re getting the laps down that we want to and learning what we need to about our car.”
Track conditions also played a role across the week, with afternoon sessions typically quicker due to track evolution — a factor highlighted when team-mate Arvid Lindblad set a faster time later in the day. Lindblad took over the car for the afternoon running on Thursday, completing 47 laps and setting a best of 1m 18.451s.
Lawson’s overall impression of the new-generation car underscored just how significant the shift has been for drivers.
“There’s a lot to learn for all of us as the 2026 car is very different to drive, so I just tried to adapt as much as I could,” he said.
“The car has less downforce compared to the past, so it moves around quite a bit; there’s a lot of power when the battery is fully deployed, but the way in which you have to manage it is something completely new.”
Racing Bulls were among several teams focused heavily on reliability and systems validation rather than performance, a strategy that appeared to pay off as the car and power unit ran cleanly throughout the test.
“We’ve been trying several things on the car, and it’s been great to keep building mileage on the new power unit,” Lawson added.
“We had a pretty strong test in terms of reliability, but in terms of expectations, it’s very hard to say at this point, as we don’t know where everyone else is.”
With the Barcelona shakedown now complete, and Aston Martin making their first appearance during the final stages, attention shifts to the next phase of preparation.
Formula 1 will reconvene in Bahrain for two official pre-season test blocks in February, ahead of the opening round of the 2026 championship in Melbourne on March 8.
“I think that will stay quite unknown for a while, but we’re focused on our own job and want to keep improving in order to be in the best shape possible for the first race in Melbourne,” Lawson said.
“Overall, we ended the test in a much better place than where we started on Monday.
“The next test in Bahrain is in less than two weeks, so we’ll keep collecting data, but it’s a completely different track from here, so I’ll be curious to see how the car performs in those conditions.”
Raw footage from Racing Bulls’ filming day. Hear the new VCARB 03 in action, with slow-motion on-track clips of Lawson and Arvid, plus drone shots and behind-the-scenes pit-garage footage.
Header Image: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images via Red Bull Content Pool
