It has been a very weird week in the world of Formula 1: cars have hit the track for the first time in 2026 but the general public, media included, has only been drip-fed information. In a world where everything is usually on constant demand, putting the Barcelona shakedown behind closed doors as teams gear up for this year’s regulation change certainly caused a stir.
But alas, what can you do? As at least one newsworthy topic made its way into the domain and that was Williams opting to skip the five-day test following “delays in the FW48 programme”. Minds inevitably went back to 2024 when the British outfit also had a nightmare start with a car that was both late and overweight, but team…