Leonardo Fornaroli is set for another step in his Formula 1 climb this week, with Haas scheduled to run the 21-year-old McLaren reserve driver in a two-day Testing of Previous Cars session at Jerez on Wednesday and Thursday. The test, which will use Haas’s VF-25, is being treated by the team as an appraisal of Fornaroli and a chance for him to build more F1 mileage. Haas reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa is also expected to take part.

The Jerez outing comes as Fornaroli’s profile rises after a rapid run through the junior categories. He won back-to-back Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles in 2024 and 2025, putting him in a small group of drivers to achieve the same feat as Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto. He has already done Testing of Previous Car runs for McLaren at Silverstone and the Circuit of the Americas, and McLaren does not have an obvious opening for him in 2027 because Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are both on long-term contracts.

Fornaroli’s recent McLaren debut in Formula 1 practice at Barcelona added to the interest around him. He drove Lando Norris’s car in FP1, finished fifth fastest, and was praised by McLaren for his pace and professionalism. Team principal Andrea Stella said Fornaroli’s speed, consistency and professionalism made him an asset for the future, and said McLaren is working to find him a race seat. The Haas test now gives him another opportunity to strengthen his case for a Formula 1 drive.

Charles Leclerc says he needs to be fighting at the front with Lewis Hamilton after a difficult Spanish Grand Prix weekend in Barcelona, and Martin Brundle warned that the Ferrari driver must respond in the next two races at Austria and Silverstone to stop Hamilton becoming Ferrari’s clear team leader. Leclerc said it was up to him to “up my game” after a Q3 crash left him 10th on the grid. He recovered to sixth before a BBW (brake-by-wire) failure left him without power steering in Turn 2 and forced him to retire. He said his biggest mistake was qualifying poorly, added that he wants cleaner events, and said he hopes to rebound at the Austrian Grand Prix. Leclerc has failed to finish his last two races.

Hamilton, meanwhile, extended his momentum with a dominant win for Ferrari at the Spanish Grand Prix, his record-extending 106th Formula 1 victory. He used a flawless three-stop strategy to finish nearly 20 seconds ahead of George Russell, while Kimi Antonelli’s retirement left Mercedes short of a stronger result. Ferrari’s win was its first Grand Prix defeat of Mercedes this season. Hamilton’s points lead over Leclerc now stands at 115 to 75. Leclerc said he credited Hamilton and the team for earning the victory on their own, and he said the virtual safety car likely helped Hamilton’s strategy, though he did not think it would have changed his own result much.

Piero Ferrari said Leclerc’s Spanish Grand Prix weekend was hurt by the qualifying mistake and the power steering failure, but said he has strong confidence in Leclerc’s ability. He said he expects Leclerc to rebound strongly after Barcelona and that the Monegasque driver will remain a major contender in the 2026 title fight. Piero Ferrari also said Leclerc’s switch to Carbone Industries brake parts was an improvement.

Red Bull left the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona facing a blunt assessment of its pace, with team principal Laurent Mekies calling it a “reality check” after the team struggled to match Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Mekies said the track’s long straights and fast corners exposed Red Bull’s weaknesses, and he put the team about three to four tenths off the pace needed to fight for pole positions or race wins. Red Bull said it was still the fourth-fastest team on the grid there, although Mekies said the gap to the leaders was narrower than in earlier races on similar circuits.

Max Verstappen finished fourth in the 66-lap race, about 40 seconds behind winner Lewis Hamilton, with late retirements from Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc helping lift him up the order. Verstappen said Red Bull remained behind the front-runners and described the team as a work in progress, with no wins yet in the 2026 season and only one podium, a third place in Canada. He said Red Bull needs more upgrades and better overall performance, and warned that without major development the team would stay in fourth place on upcoming tracks.

Mekies said Red Bull’s poor starts had been a season-long problem and that the team still had many areas to improve in its first year as a power unit manufacturer, including the chassis and the power unit program. Red Bull is now looking for incremental gains in power unit output, chassis performance, cornering speed and straight-line pace. Isack Hadjar finished sixth after recovering from a poor start, after dropping out of the top 10 on lap one despite starting sixth.

George Russell said a back-to-basics reset of his car setup and mindset restored his confidence and helped him take pole position for the Barcelona Grand Prix. After a difficult run since Miami, he abandoned recent setup experiments, stopped following teammate Kimi Antonelli’s direction and returned to methods that had worked earlier in the season and in past years. The change made him feel like his old self again and more in control of the Mercedes.

The turnaround followed scoreless weekends in Canada and Monaco that left Russell third in the standings and 68 points behind Antonelli, who had won five straight Grands Prix. Russell said he had overthought his approach and made several wrong decisions in recent races. In Barcelona, he topped two of the three practice sessions and said he spent every lap in the top two, while Mercedes boss Toto Wolff called him the fastest driver all weekend.

Russell’s pole was a sharp turnaround ahead of his 100th Mercedes Grand Prix start. He said the result mattered less than regaining comfort and confidence, and he expected a tough race from Antonelli, the McLaren drivers and other rivals.

Pirelli said the hot conditions at Barcelona have pushed tire degradation and race strategy to the center of the Spanish Grand Prix, with track temperatures reaching 50C to 53C and the softer C2, C3 and C4 allocation leaving little margin. The supplier said the most likely outcome is a two-stop race, though a three-stop approach could become viable if teams push hard early or end up in clean air after a Safety Car. It also pointed to two often overlooked variables, rim design and the range of setup choices, as factors that could matter almost as much as outright pace.

Friday running backed up the concern. Long-run data showed the medium C3 dropping about three tenths of a second per lap over the first 10 to 12 laps before falling away further, and Pirelli chief engineer Simone Berra said degradation and thermal decay were higher than expected. Friday practice also suggested the hard tire was not clearly the preferred option, with many teams saving sets for race day. Pirelli expects stops around laps 15 to 21 and 38 to 44, with Medium to Hard to Hard the most probable sequence, although Medium to Hard to Soft and Soft to Medium to Hard were also listed.

The strategy picture came into sharper focus after George Russell took pole for Mercedes in a close qualifying session with McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull, but Russell said a one-stop race was not possible and that even a three-stop could emerge if tire life collapsed. Lewis Hamilton, who qualified second, said Ferrari’s tire wear was running at roughly double what the team had forecast, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, third on the grid, said the long run to Turn 1 could create opportunities for drivers with a strong launch. Teams are expected to use lift-and-coast and power management to keep the tires alive on a circuit where overtaking is difficult and traffic can punish worn rubber.