What we learned from Friday testing at the 2026 Brazilian GP

Past tension is in the past; The new Formula 1 champion felt free when he returned to the Sao Paulo Grand Prix circuit, a week after his coronation.

Kimi Antonelli admitted to feeling stiff behind the wheel under the stress of victory in Mexico, which slowed down his natural approach to driving to leave a few tenths on the table. But now that the deed was done, there was no such mental block; the Italian was a quarter of a second ahead of Lando Norris at the close of the second practice session in Brazil.

Norris himself was just 0.006 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen at the end of the session, with McLaren experimenting with new front and rear wings for this round in a bid to regain third place in the constructors’ championship from Red Bull. The Milton Keynes team’s rapid escalation of development over the season has demonstrated that it can match the dizzying heights achieved by McLaren in 2023 and 2024 with its own development, and the Woking team are seizing one last chance to find their own path.

With both Mercedes, McLaren and Verstappen all within 0.321 seconds of the top five, the Ferrari duo fell short – a surprise, given their prowess in testing and their recent string of leading performances on Friday.

It’s true that its performance hasn’t been up to par given that the circuit temperatures haven’t been particularly hot, only around 36C – and we know that Ferrari tends to fade as the track cools as it struggles to generate heat in the tyres, particularly on the front axle. Thus, we heard Lewis Hamilton comment that the fronts were having difficulty biting on several occasions, while Charles Leclerc was disturbed by his braking performance shifted towards the rear at the start of the session.

Isack Hadjar also had some difficulties, finishing the session only ninth, and was beaten by Gabriel Bortoleto. The Paulista is looking to make up for his nightmare debut race at his home grand prix last year, his performance infused by the pressure of driving at your local circuit. It’s a fate newcomer Rafael Camara is trying to avoid; Although hailing from Recife, over 2,000km north of Sao Paulo, the pressure of debuting on your home race is indeed a very unique scenario. It’s no wonder Haas is looking to help the Brazilian slowly build up throughout the weekend.

Rafael Camara makes his F1 debut this weekend – under pressure from his home crowd

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

Camara’s new teammate Ollie Bearman placed his car 10th in FP2, above the usual suspects Alpine and Racing Bulls. A common thread running through the weekend so far is that Liam Lawson, who has been an impressive force in the ‘main’ VCARB this season and sits a clear ninth in the championship (with almost double the points of 10th-placed Pierre Gasly), has an ‘unclear’ future with the team.

Young Nikola Tsolov is in the running to become Bulgaria’s first F1 driver, and the likely scenario is that Lawson would be the one to make way. It’s a real shame given the Kiwi’s impressive form in 2026, but Racing Bulls’ raison d’être is to provide Red Bull with future championship prospects – and there’s a feeling Lawson doesn’t appear on that radar.

On the subject of surprise driver moves – in a driver market that has suddenly come back to life after months of dormancy – Colton Herta has now earned the final superlicense point needed to drive in F1 in 2027. Cadillac is weighing whether to keep Valtteri Bottas for next year, or realize its dream of fielding an American driver – and Herta, despite his efforts in F2, is still highly regarded by the team. Either way, F2 is still difficult to read – just look at Bearman, who endured a miserable second year in the series before impressing with his rise to F1. Among the other FP1 rookies, Gabriele Mini impressed for Alpine, finishing the session seventh fastest.

For the first time since 2019, Sao Paulo is not organizing a sprint weekend. So, for the first time in six years, we have the opportunity to assess the teams’ racing pace on Friday during two practice sessions.

Long average series of FP2

While it’s not entirely surprising that Antonelli was in the lead after FP2 in both the long and short races, the length of his switch to soft tires during FP2 was gargantuan and he completed a 20-lap run on softs while producing the fastest average of all. There was a difference of about 0.7 seconds between his last lap of the race and the first, but with two or three laps slower which will have helped cool the tire. Regardless, his handling of the degradation seemed rather practical and would provide a significant boost to his potential rivals’ bow for victory.

That said, Antonelli believes there is “a bit of work to do” – so either there may be more (and understeer seemed to be a factor throughout the session on both cars) or he expects his rival teams to improve in performance. A clue to this was Norris’ matching pace on the hard tyres; While Norris completed fewer laps in the C3 compared to Antonelli in the C5, the McLaren driver’s pace was strong – and overall, faster than Piastri’s soft tire run.

“Certainly FP1 was a bit of a pleasant surprise; FP2 I think we seem to be struggling a bit more compared to Mercedes, with only two tenths of a gap each lap,” Norris mused. “But compared to some of the others, I think we look pretty good. The improvements, even though I got half of them, then half of them, and we’re going to put it all together for tomorrow, the improvements also seem to have delivered what we were hoping for, I would say. I think it was a good day in terms of carrying out the race plan and also a good day for relative performance.”

If McLaren can indeed be a factor, it will be bad news for Red Bull, who were dealing with a handful of issues throughout the day. Max Verstappen, for example, had difficulty managing the steering of his car. It had become progressively heavier during FP1, and Laurent Mekies suggested a “similar” problem was causing problems during FP2. There’s definitely more to be found with the RB22, although Verstappen managed to put in a good lap early in the session… but at the same time, you’d back the Dutchman to be competitive in a pickup.

Ferrari probably has the biggest portfolio of work to do overnight. Single-lap pace was lacking, and neither Lewis Hamilton nor Charles Leclerc could dig much in the way of racing either – Leclerc’s soft tire average was around 0.4 seconds behind his nearest rivals, while Hamilton used the mediums before switching to the softs. The Briton completed a short stint on these C5s and achieved an average of 1’15”245; There is some encouragement to be found here, but it would be negligent of us to count a period of five rounds.

Hamilton and Ferrari have time to find after a discreet start to the weekend

Photo by: Manuel Eletto / Getty Images

Alpine and Audi were very evenly matched on the long runs, although Audi only had Bortoleto’s car in action as Nico Hulkenberg missed FP2 with an electrical problem – something that flared up during Freddie Slater’s FP1 session.

Still, Bortoleto was incredibly close to Gasly’s average, as both teams were about 0.2 seconds per lap ahead of the Racing Bulls and Haas stints. Unsurprisingly, Camara’s time on the softs was less consistent than Bearman’s – and the Pernambucan also earned himself a first visit from the F1 stewards after unintentionally impeding Leclerc on the final corner – for which he was ultimately reprimanded.

Williams looks closer this weekend, although Carlos Sainz has to manage his engine mileage, which has limited reserve driver Luke Browning to only a handful of laps in FP1. At the low end, Cadillac and Aston Martin were divided by a tenth.

But as always, all of this might be for naught if it rains for the rest of the weekend. Rain is forecast for the next couple of days, although it entirely depends on when it is expected to fall. As a local journalist said a few years ago, you should always view the weather forecasts in Sao Paulo with a certain skepticism…

Herta has clinched his final FP1 superlicense point – will he drive F1 full-time in 2027?

Photo by: James Sutton / Formula 1 / Formula Motorsport Ltd via Getty Images

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