Ferrari's late surge to top the unofficial times at Formula 1's first 2026 test completed its 'sleeper hit' arc through the week.
With so much expectation around Mercedes and other teams getting headlines for various reasons - Red Bull's new in-house engine, McLaren's car being revealed later than most, the aggressive first Adrian Newey Aston Martin - Ferrari went largely below the radar at Barcelona.
That could no longer be said once Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the week on the final day.
The reality is that Hamilton and Ferrari could be a tenth ahead or a tenth behind Mercedes in the times and it would make no difference to how we judge its test. Prior to Hamilton's 1m16.348s, the verdict we had provisionally locked in was that Ferrari had made the second-best impression behind Mercedes and that remains the case.
Regardless of that final time, Ferrari had a good week in Spain. Its new car ran extremely reliably, its mileage was impressive, and some early whispers suggest rivals think Ferrari is heading the chasing pack behind Mercedes and ahead of McLaren and Red Bull - all this being heavily caveat early conclusions, of course.
The suggestion is that the works teams have an early edge in understanding what these engines need to maximise their performance - in general, not just over a lap, as nobody's actually pushed near the limit yet - so that advantage plus how well prepared Ferrari clearly is with its early 2026 package is a very pleasing foundation for the Maranello team.
But as Hamilton said: "We're under no illusions, we know we've got work to do.
"We don't really know where we are, but I think it's a solid first week and we can really build from here.
"There may be some big leaps that we need to take. Development's going to be key, just really making sure we leave no stone unturned and we're really clear and concise with our communication and the decisions we take."
Where its test was a 'dream'
Ferrari never caught up to Mercedes' mileage in this test. Running 440 laps for a total of 2050km was the equivalent of half a day less than Mercedes which, at this stage, is a significant amount. It would be silly to pretend that this does not confer a benefit in some way.
But this reflected the incredible standard Mercedes set in this area more than anything else. Because Ferrari was just as far ahead of the next-most-productive team, Haas, which uses the same engine. The next non-Ferrari team was 100-odd laps (or around 400km) behind. And Red Bull and McLaren completed a day's worth of testing less than Ferrari.
Read more: Best times and total mileage for every team and driver at Barcelona
So from a mileage perspective, this was a wonderful test for Ferrari. It's not the first time this could be said for the Scuderia, admittedly, and its high standard of preparation has not yet translated into title-winning success when it counts. But in terms of controlling the controllables, there is little more Ferrari could have asked for.
"We covered tons of laps all over the week, that is good," said team principal Fred Vasseur.
"It's good to put 160 laps on the board each day and this is important in order to collect data and to prepare [for] Bahrain the best conditions.
"It's really early stages and the most important is to be able to complete laps."
Ferrari did this in abundance. It was already a good sign when over 100 laps and almost 600km were put on the board on the car's first day, despite that mostly taking place in the wet and Ferrari admitting things were a bit tight with parts and car preparation beforehand.
"If you look back to the new regulations in the past, it was like a dream," to do so many laps immediately, noted head of track engineering Matteo Togninalli. But that dream was very much Ferrari's reality this week.
"Of course, there's always small things, but we didn't really have any downtime moments," said Hamilton, while team-mate Charles Leclerc added: "All the tests we wanted to do, what we had in mind, we did."
Most teams spun this as a positive week in one way or another but Ferrari was one of the few which could legitimately claim it without any meaningful caveat.
Starting to test car's 'limit'
Ferrari has emphasised the extent of the car and engine changes, and the challenge for teams and drivers to get on top of them, more than most early in 2026.
"You have so many things to discover for the team on the engine side, on the chassis side, but also for them on the management of the systems," said Vasseur.
"It means that each lap we are probably a bit better. And it's very demanding for the two drivers because they have to do not a full reset compared to the past, but almost [full].
"For sure it's an important week for them."
The aforementioned mileage definitely kept the drivers busy, especially on days two and three given most of Tuesday was conducted in the wet. Leclerc only managed 19 laps on the medium C2 tyre on that day with all of Hamilton's running coming on intermediates and full wets.
Come Thursday, Hamilton did a lot of work on the C2 - which seemed to be Ferrari's tyre of choice for car mapping work and baseline checks - and then a few laps on the hard C1. It was the same for Leclerc: the bulk of the running on the C2, some on the C1.
The C2 was again the tyre of choice on the final day but as their jumps in pace showed both drivers got to sample the softer C3 tyres as well. And Leclerc at least dropped a hint that this included leaning on the car a little bit.
"We went through our programme, we did everything we wanted to do and we pushed a little bit more as well, which was nice to feel a little bit the limit of this car and to understand a little bit more of it as well," he said.
"I'm happy because again we've gone through our programme and done everything we wanted."
Hamilton was fizzing with enthusiasm at the end of the test although his car comments were mainly about the 2026 cars overall. There was not a huge amount of meaningful feedback from anybody about car behaviour, much less strengths and weaknesses after this test, and Ferrari was no exception.
"In terms of understanding the car and the balance, we have a lot less downforce than previous years," Hamilton said.
"The car generation is actually a little bit more fun to drive. It's oversteery and snappy and sliding, but it's a little bit easier to catch and I would definitely say more enjoyable.
"But we definitely have work to do to improve, or course, like everybody does."
'Tonnes of open topics'
Teams will now dive into the Barcelona data at length before the next test in Bahrain in just over a week's time.
Vasseur said Ferrari has "tonnes of open topics for Bahrain" in terms of working out the many areas that can be improved off the back of the first week of on-track running.
He said it will be a "very intense" process as the next two tests will be much more meaningful in exploring performance so going there prepared is essential to make the most out of it.
For the drivers, they have a full-on week in Maranello. Hamilton said there are lengthy promotional days coming up for both drivers, along with relaying their notes to engineers, "setting up a plan" for Bahrain, and simulator work.
Getting on the sim sounds like it is Leclerc's priority in all that.
"Probably the most important part will be the correlation," said Leclerc.
"Now that we've driven the real car, we'll go on the simulator and compare it and try and make it as similar on the simulator as what it felt now in order to then focus on Bahrain and know that we have a good reference in the sim."
