Alarms for Colapinto in Barcelona: his A526 suffered a technical failure and had its first red flag of the season

Formula 1 got underway for the 2026 season with the start of preseason testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, where the teams began to rack up the first kilometers before the official debut, scheduled for March with the Australian Grand Prix.

Franco Colapinto was one of the first drivers to go out on track as soon as the light turned green, at the wheel of the A526. However, after two hours of running, the Argentine's car suffered a technical issue that forced him to stop momentarily on the circuit.

The situation led to the first red flag of the day, although the interruption was brief. Minutes later, Colapinto managed to get going again and bring the single-seater back to Alpine's garage without external assistance and without major consequences. For the moment, Alpine has not provided details about the origin of the failure, which kept him off the track for approximately an hour and a half, but did not prevent his return near the end.

Minutes later, the session was interrupted again by a second red flag, this time caused by Gabriel Bortoleto. The Brazilian driver, who was running with Audi, suffered a problem that appeared to be more serious and remained off track for a longer period while his team worked on the car.

How Colapinto performed in the first tests in Barcelona

Beyond this malfunction, the native of Pilar completed a day with good performance in his new single-seater. Colapinto completed 28 laps and, in the last 15 minutes of the morning session, he managed to set a time of 1:21.348, which placed him third among seven teams that went out to run.

The one who took the top spot was Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) with 1:18.835, followed by Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) with 1:20.700. Further back were Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) with 1:21.864, Esteban Ocon (Haas) with 1:24.520, Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) with 1:24.651 and Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) with 1:25.296.