Barcelona Test 2026 day-5: Red Bull is back. Verstappen on track to make up for lost time

Start with ups and downs Last day of shakedown testing in Barcelona for F1, waiting to prepare for the trip to Bahrain, and last chance for the teams who have not yet exhausted their three days of work on the track to collect useful data for the development of these new single-seaters. One of these is Red Bull, which is among the special observations of this day-5. The Milton Keynes team has so far been penalized by circumstances and also by some choices: the RB22 took to the track on Monday with Isack Hadjar, completing a large number of laps and also setting the best time of the session, and then on Tuesday with both drivers. It’s Max’s turn. That day, however, was conditioned by rain, with Verstappen having completed just 27 laps in the morning; towards the end of the afternoon session Hadjar lost control of his car, destroying the rear end against the barriers at turn 14. Red Bull was thus forced to wait until today to return to the track and try to carry out the planned work. Verstappen in particular still had little time to acclimatise to this new generation of single-seaters. Today for the four-time world champion the objective will therefore be to clock up as many kilometers as possible with the aim of making up for lost time and showing himself ready for the next two test sessions which will take place in February in Bahrain.