Although it will no longer be the opening race of the calendar, Bahrain will continue to host Formula 1 collective testing in the 2025 season. This morning, official confirmation arrived of what Motorsport.com had already anticipated a few weeks ago, namely that the teams will take to the track at the Bahrain International Circuit from 26 to February to prepare for the final season with the current technical regulations.
It will be the fifth consecutive year that the teams will meet in Bahrain for the “kick-off” of the season, even if only in the last two years it has been the only venue for the pre-season. Until 2022, when the generation of ground effect single-seaters debuted, in fact, the Circus also stopped in Barcelona, which has always been considered the track par excellence for testing.
However, this choice was made because, with the reduction of available test days, Bahrain guarantees a more stable climate and more suitable temperatures. However, even in Sakhir problems can arise related to the strong wind, which as a consequence also brings a lot of sand onto the track, favoring the degradation of the tires.
The strange thing is that in recent years it had also been the venue for the opening race of the season, instead in 2025 the Bahrain Grand Prix was moved to April to avoid a clash with Ramadan. The same thing was also done with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The next World Championship, therefore, will open with a triptych composed of Australia, China and Japan.
The tests will therefore end two weeks ahead of the first day of testing for the inaugural race in Melbourne. It should also be remembered that, if in 2025 there will be only three days of testing, in 2026 they should return to six, given that the single-seaters based on the new regulations will be introduced, which will clearly require greater understanding and knowledge.
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