Start of the Formula 1 season: Read all about the winter test in Bahrain here

Why a winter test?

In the past, testing was normal for Formula 1 teams. The big teams all had their own track and could test there for days. The whole year if they wanted to. However, Formula 1 was fed up with that, because it only increased the differences between the big teams and the poor ones. In 2009, this changed.

With the completely new regulations for the cars in 2009, it was also decided that it was no longer possible to test per team. This testing was forbidden, and only the open test could be driven. These became the winter tests. In November 2008 the first test was held for all teams, although Toyota was absent.

Prior to the 2009 season the winter test as we know it today was born. A test with all teams on the circuit of Barcelona (or somewhere else in Spain) to give the participants the chance to test the new car. In 2021 however this has been shortened enormously, and for the first time also in Bahrain.

Formula 1 2021

Formula 1 looks a bit different since 2020 due to the corona virus. One has to think even more about saving costs, and so it was decided to take as many of the 2020 cars as possible into 2021. The development was frozen except for a few tokens, so teams don't have to do much testing either.

Three days are available for the teams in Bahrain, but since the decision a lot has changed. Pirelli decided to come up with new tyres last minute, and with a new floor and simpler diffuser also the teams had to make some changes . These are not small changes after all.

The blow is the biggest for McLaren, which had a new engine planned for 2021. McLaren had to rebuild the back end to install the new Mercedes engine instead of the Renault one, and will have to do everything to be ready for the start of the season. And that in just three days.

Winter test programme

The winter test of F1 is in Bahrain this year, and that means that it will be very warm during the day, but during the day it will cool down to a race weekend temperature. The question is how much the teams and drivers will get out of the morning programme, which runs from 7am to 11am.

From 12am to 5pm in the afternoon the second programme will be run, and as it will be evening in Bahrein, the temperature will be normal. A good moment for the drivers to be in the car then, but of course those days have to be divided over two drivers. So each driver will probably only have one good moment to really get into the rhythm.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday the teams will be in action for this test, and the schedule for which driver will be in action and when can be found here. At GPblog you will not miss a thing about the winter test with a live blog, summaries, updates and of course the latest news.