While UAE4 and Formula Regional Middle East hosted their season finales and the Formula Winter Series had an unusual Valencia round, testing carried on around Europe, albeit to a lesser extent than last week. Feeder Series tells you who tested where over the past week.

By Marco Albertini and Daniele Spadi

F3 at Barcelona (official)

Formula 3 held its annual pre-season test from Tuesday to Thursday at the historic Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which will end a 36-year run of hosting F1 after 2026. The vast majority of the 2026 grid was at the first pre-season test, with the exception of Campos Racing’s Ernesto Rivera and Hitech’s Michael Shin, who are both resting after sustaining some minor injuries. They were replaced, respectively, by Patrick Heuzenroeder and Tim Tramnitz, F3’s fourth-place finisher in 2025.

Cool temperatures and light showers from the night before the opening day foiled teams’ run plans and forced everyone to run on wets in the morning. Hitech’s Jin Nakamura went fastest ahead of teammate Tramnitz in those conditions, but things shifted in the afternoon, when dry running gave way to faster lap times. Freddie Slater came out on top thanks to a 1:28.411, with Kanato Le second and former McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu third. All three were frontrunners in FR Oceania over the winter.

Slater topped the standings again on day two, setting the 1:27.020 that proved to be the session’s fastest time. Behind him was Trident teammate Noah Strømsted, with Taito Kato in third. On an afternoon dominated by long runs, Campos locked out the top three spots, with Ugochukwu leading Heuzenroeder and Théophile Naël.

The 2025 Macau Grand Prix winner also went quickest on day three after topping the morning standings with a 1:27.525. With the field focusing on long runs after that, the afternoon times were less representative. Nicola Lacorte set the fastest lap time in the afternoon session, with his DAMS teammate Gerrard Xie 0.599 seconds behind him in second. Trident’s Matteo De Palo rounded out the top three of the first – and only – official F3 test ahead of the season opener in Melbourne in less than three weeks.

F3, Barcelona, 10–12 February	P1	P2	P3
Day 1, AM	Jin Nakamura, 1:36.795	Tim Tramnitz, +0.393s	Brando Badoer, +2.029s
Day 1, PM	Freddie Slater, 1:28.411	Kanato Le, +0.331s	Ugo Ugochukwu, +0.447s
Day 2, AM	Freddie Slater, 1:27.020	Noah Stromsted, +0.288s	Taito Kato, +0.297s
Day 2, PM	Ugo Ugochukwu, 1:28.241	Patrick Heuzenroeder, +0.203s	Théophile Naël, +0.414s
Day 3, AM	Théophile Naël, 1:27.525	Noah Stromsted, +0.095s	Ugo Ugochukwu, +0.115s
Day 3, PM	Nicola Lacorte, 1:29.676	Gerrard Xie, +0.599s	Matteo De Palo, +1.234s

F2, F3, EC3, F4 at Barcelona

The day before F3’s pre-season test began, Barcelona hosted a private test day for cars ranging from F2 to F4.

Speed-center was the only team to bring F2 machinery with its #901 and #902 cars, whose occupants’ identities remain unclear. F3 machinery was too present thanks to a singular team in Campos, who fielded two cars for unidentified drivers.

The Spanish team also brought three of their Eurocup-3 cars. Their drivers were not identified, but it is believed Alex Powell tested for the team. Hitech also participated at the test with four Eurocup-3 cars, but the identities of their occupants still remain unclear.

Campos also brought six F4 cars, driven by their Spanish F4 squad consisting of Noah Monteiro (#801), Ty Fisher (#802), Vivek Kanthan (#803), Jacob Micallef (#804), Daniel Kelleher (#805) and Luna Fluxá (#806). The only other team to field F4 machinery to the test was GRS, who fielded their #72 car for an unnamed driver.

EC3, GB4, F4 at Navarra

On the same day as the Barcelona test, a three-day test for GB4 and F4 machinery took place at Navarra to the west from Monday to Wednesday.

Eurocup-3 machinery appeared on track only on Wednesday, with Drivex fielding three cars for drivers whose identities remain unclear. Hillspeed was the sole GB4 representative, bringing three cars for Connor Willis (#5), Demitri Nolan (#32) and Dhena Rohan (#38).

F4 machinery composed the majority of the test’s entry list, as three teams fielded a combined nine cars across the three days. Harp Racing was only present on Tuesday, with its F4 CEZ signing Piotr Orcholski taking to the track in the team’s sole car. The following day, Drivex brought six cars to the test, with Nathan Tye, Leo Nilsson and Kaiden Higgins among those understood to have driven for the team. The only team to participate in all three days was JHR Developments, which fielded two cars for unidentified drivers.

Other testing activities

Outside of the Iberian peninsula but still in Europe, there was a one-day test at Cremona in which TS Corse fielded an FRegional car for Daniella Oré. Meanwhile in Great Britain, two separate one-day tests were held at Oulton Park and Donington Park on Tuesday, both for GB4 machinery. In the former, Arden and Idola brought a car each for Solenn Amrouche (#95) and Jamie Leverton (#11), whereas in the latter, ADM’s and Scorpio’s cars were driven by Caitlyn McDaniel (#35) and Archie Davies respectively.

Finally, on Saturday, there was a one-day test at Lédenon for French F4 machinery. Jules Avril, Guillaume Bouzar, Maverick McKenna, Clara Stiebleichinger and Truly Adams all turned laps.

Read the previous week’s round-up here.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool