Test 2025, the ‘Barcelona motion’ does not break through: we remain in Bahrain

We start again in Australia

As the 2024 season gets underway, Formula 1 teams and leaders are organizing what will be the start of the 2025 championshiphighly anticipated due to the great line-up revolution on the track, starting with Lewis Hamilton’s transfer from Mercedes to Ferrari. The next World Cup will start on March 16th in Australiathus re-embracing Melbourne as the inaugural race for the first time since 2019.

The choice to start Down Under is not linked to nostalgic but religious reasons: in fact, the month of March will be entirely dedicated to Ramadan and it would become impossible to race in countries such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Already this year, F1 has had to adapt to the needs of the ‘fasting month’, holding the first two GPs in these two countries on Saturday, rather than Sunday. The start of operations at Albert Park had, however, taken place question the possibility of holding the traditional three-day pre-season test in Bahrain.

Spain no, Bahrain yes

According to what was reported by the German newspaper Auto Motor und Sport Indeed, at least three teams would have welcomed a return to Europe for the pre-season sessions‘dusting off’ the Barcelona hypothesis, for a long time in the past an essential center of tests at the beginning of the year. In fact, the tests in Bahrain would lose their convenience without the possibility of keeping the team members in Sakhir for the first GP of the year. The costs incurred for a trip to Catalonia would be significantly lower than those needed to go filming in the desert.

Pushing for the Spanish solution would have been Red Bull, Racing Bulls and Sauber. The other teams, however, would be ‘loyal’ to Bahrain. A final decision has not yet been made, so much so that there are no official announcements on the matter yet. The final opinion will come from the next F1 CommissionBut it seems it is unlikely that the balance will tip on this point. The dates hypothesized at the moment – from 26 to 28 February – would be ideal so as not to overlap in any way with Ramadan, which formally begins on the evening of 28 February.