Driver Franco Colapinto was once again the main protagonist of the 2026 Formula 1 pre-season tests, finishing second in the morning session's timesheet at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. At the wheel of the Alpine A526, the Argentine set a time of 1m19s150 and completed 56 laps, finishing only behind George Russell (Mercedes), according to the Argentine News Agency. The day's running was conditioned by the weather, after a Tuesday that was virtually inactive due to rain, when the French team decided not to go out on track, and saw a greater presence of cars on the circuit. The best time of the day was for Russell, who in the Mercedes W17 set the fastest time of the pre-season so far with 1m17s580, and was also the driver who completed the most laps, with a total of 92. In the first minutes of activity, Mercedes, Alpine, Racing Bulls, Haas, and Audi went out on track. The session had two interruptions with a red flag: the first around 9:50, when Nico Hülkenberg's Audi R26 stopped between turns 9 and 10 due to a possible hydraulic problem; and the second around 10:30, after the stoppage of the Haas VF-26 driven by Oliver Bearman at turn 2. After these interruptions, activity returned to normal, allowing for a smoother period, which included the track outing of McLaren with Lando Norris, the current world champion, who completed his first laps in the car and finished third. From Alpine, they confirmed that, as planned, Colapinto will hand over the A526 to Pierre Gasly for the afternoon session. Compared to Monday, Colapinto set a better time, nearly a second faster, as he had recorded 1:21.348 in the morning session, while in the afternoon he improved it to 1:20.189, maintaining third place for the day.
