Yes, here we go! We have a green light at the end of the pit lane and cars on the track already. The sole preseason test for Formula One in 2025 is up and running.
This is three days of running for the teams, before they tackle free practice ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Friday, March 14.
Over the course of today, tomorrow and Friday at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, track running starts at 10am local time (7am GMT, 2am ET) and runs for nine hours through to 7pm local (4pm GMT, 11am ET).
The test days will be used primarily to help teams, drivers and engineers understand their new cars in real life, rather than the numerous computer simulations they would have been running for months on end.
But there is also the opportunity to run as many tires, setup changes, new parts and potential future upgrades as possible.
There will be long spells fixing broken new cars and other obstacles preventing them from racking up the lap count — the real currency of these testing days — and no one will truly know each other’s pace until qualifying in Melbourne.
But getting ready for that opening race weekend in Australia will owe much to how well these three days go at Sakhir.
