Hadjar rolls out in Red Bull colours as rookies headline Abu Dhabi test
The floodlights are off, the champagne’s flat, and the final act of 2025 took place under a hard-working winter sun: one last day at Yas Marina to tick off mileage, try new rubber and give tomorrow’s names a proper run. Twenty-five drivers racked up more than 2,500 laps in the Abu Dhabi post-season test, but the headline images were simple enough — Isack Hadjar in Red Bull gear at last, a golden-helmet Norris doing his champion’s lap, and a timesheet topped by rookies with itchy right feet.
This was a split affair. Pirelli’s first proper 2026 tyre work ran alongside the traditional young driver test, so while full-timers and senior reserves pounded around in heavily tweaked “mule” machinery, the juniors had all day in current cars. Mercedes even bolted on a modified front wing to probe the ‘active’ concepts coming for 2026. The tyres themselves? Narrower and lighter: 25mm less at the front, 30mm less at the rear, to the tune of about 2.1kg per set.
At the top of the times, Aston Martin junior Jak Crawford lit it up with a 1:23.766 after 119 laps, leading a rookie lockout of the first five positions. Sauber’s Paul Aron was a whisker back, Williams’ Luke Browning third, and Mercedes reserve Frederik Vesti fourth after a heavy 145-lap shift. Ayumu Iwasa rounded out the rookie run in P5 for Red Bull.
Hadjar was the one everyone craned their necks for. The Frenchman slipped into Red Bull kit and quietly chalked up 111 laps on his first day as a full-time RBR driver. The stopwatch didn’t matter — his 1:27.515 left him 21st — but the haul did. Iwasa’s speed on the other car makes for a neat footnote, yet Red Bull’s programme was always about systems, tyre work and settling Hadjar into the deep end before winter.
There was another debut of note over at Racing Bulls. Arvid Lindblad, stepping up to a race seat next season, banked 138 laps and a 1:26.519. Liam Lawson matched the team’s mileage push with 141 laps, a useful foundation as Faenza pivots toward 2026 with everyone else.
McLaren kept it in-house and on-brand. Newly crowned 2025 World Champion Lando Norris turned laps with a celebratory golden lid and a voice still paying for Sunday night, sharing tyre duty with Oscar Piastri while Pato O’Ward handled the young-driver running. O’Ward landed P7 with a 1:25.418 after 127 laps, Piastri logged 85, and Norris 71 — solid, sensible winter work from a team that doesn’t need to flex right now.
Mercedes did flex on the lap count. Kimi Antonelli topped the day with 157 laps, fastest of the race drivers in P6 with a 1:25.170, while Vesti’s 145 made it 312 for the Silver Arrows. Mileage wins December.
Ferrari spread its programme across experience and youth. Lewis Hamilton posted a 1:26.138 from 73 laps, Charles Leclerc a 1:26.417 from 75, and Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic impressed with 122 laps and a 1:25.720 to slot P9. Over at Williams, Browning’s eye-catching third was backed by strong stints for Alex Albon (92 laps) and Carlos Sainz (76), with Sainz’s move to Grove paying off in seat time if not raw pace in this context.
Haas had the bruiser of the day. Esteban Ocon managed only four laps before an engine issue shut him down, while Ollie Bearman and Ryo Hirakawa picked up the workload. Alpine split the day between Pierre Gasly’s long-run graft (141 laps) and Kush Maini’s 128 laps of rookie education.
As ever, don’t read too much into a single-lap ranking when half the field is on prototype tyres, fuel loads are a mystery, and teams are swapping bits that won’t see a race weekend. What matters is the cadence: rookies got a full day to breathe in F1 machinery, the 2026 tyre picture sharpened, and teams stress-tested concepts you won’t see for months.
A quick look at the key numbers from Yas Marina:
– Fastest: Jak Crawford (Aston Martin) 1:23.766, 119 laps
– Rookie lock-out of top five: Crawford, Aron (Sauber), Browning (Williams), Vesti (Mercedes), Iwasa (Red Bull)
– Mileage king: Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), 157 laps; Mercedes total with Vesti: 312
– Red Bull’s day: Iwasa P5; Isack Hadjar 111 laps on debut, P21
– Racing Bulls’ next-gen: Arvid Lindblad 138 laps, P17; Liam Lawson 141 laps
– McLaren split: Pato O’Ward P7 with 127 laps; Piastri 85; Norris 71 with a golden helmet and a grin
– Ferrari trio: Beganovic P9 (122 laps), Hamilton P11 (73), Leclerc P14 (75)
– Trouble: Haas’ Esteban Ocon, 4 laps with an engine issue
From here, it’s spanners down and CAD up. Teams will disappear into the factories to birth all-new cars, with a private five-day run pencilled in at Barcelona-Catalunya in seven weeks. The next time we see many of these ideas, they’ll be wrapped in 2026 thinking — and the kids who topped the board today will be meeting them head-on.
