Pre-season Testing will allow us to see all our new cars for 2025 on-track for the first time! But why do we test at all, and what's involved? Alex Jacques rips through the rulebook ahead of our three days in the desert.
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#F1 #F1Testing
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00:005, 4, 3, 2, 1.
00:06The 2025 Formula 1 season is almost upon us.
00:1024 Grand Prix lie ahead, spread across the globe
00:14on circuits built to test the world's best drivers to the maximum,
00:19in cars producing speeds and G-forces that would put an astronaut to shame.
00:25But before the lights go out in Australia for the first race,
00:28there's the little matter of testing three days of track action
00:31during which this year's F1 challengers will be put through their paces.
00:38All ten teams will have refined, revised
00:41and possibly even reimagined their cars for the coming season.
00:46Formula 1's regulations dictate when and where teams can and can't work on their development.
00:52Time spent in wind tunnels and out on track are regulated and monitored,
00:57an attempt to create a more level playing field.
01:01So, after many months of painstaking preparation,
01:04designs have been implemented and cars have been constructed,
01:08it's time to get down to the testing on track in full view of the world.
01:16In recent years, the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir
01:20has played host to F1's official three-day testing event.
01:24Here, the teams should experience dry and fairly consistent conditions,
01:29including twilight periods under the floodlights with cooler temperatures.
01:33The sessions start at 10am local time each day
01:36and run through to 7pm with an hour's break in the middle.
01:40Teams are permitted to run just a single car across all three days,
01:44meaning their drivers have to share.
01:47Some will opt for a full day in the cockpit,
01:49leaving their teammates to rest and prepare,
01:51while other teams will split the days between pilots,
01:55meaning engineers will have to grab food on the go
01:58as they switch seats and tweak set-ups for the incoming driver
02:02during the lunch break.
02:03Speaking of drivers, we've had a couple of seat switches
02:07and a raft of new arrivals during the break.
02:10If you happened to miss the email,
02:12seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton
02:14has moved to Formula 1's most decorated team, Ferrari.
02:18Carlos Sainz, out of a seat at the Italian Giants,
02:21was consequently snapped up by Williams.
02:24Nico Hülkenberg has left Haas for Kick Sauber,
02:27with Esteban Ocon taking the German's place at the American team.
02:31Liam Lawson, who at the end of the season took over Daniel Ricciardo's seat
02:35as the team now known as Racing Bulls,
02:38has been rewarded with a Red Bull drive.
02:41Five very capable rookies join the fray.
02:44Andrea Chimiantanelli has been given Hamilton's vacant chair at Mercedes,
02:49and Alpine Academy driver Jack Dewan gets a promotion to a race seat.
02:54The top duo in Formula 2 last year get their chance to step up.
02:58Champion Gabriel Bortoletto joins Kick Sauber,
03:01and runner-up Isaac Hadjar goes to Red Bull's sister team, Racing Bulls.
03:06One of the breakout young stars of last year was Oliver Behrmann,
03:10who competed in three Grand Prix for Ferrari and Haas,
03:14while their regular drivers were sick or suspended.
03:18He'll join the latter team.
03:20Some new head honchos to mention, too.
03:22Extremely experienced engineer Andy Cowell takes over the top job at Aston Martin,
03:28and former Ferrari and Red Bull rivals
03:30Matteo Bonotto and Jonathan Wheatley will join forces at Kick Sauber,
03:35before the team makes its transformation into Audi F1 for next year.
03:39There'll be a new voice coming over the airwaves at Haas,
03:42as Laura Muller becomes F1's first full-time female race engineer,
03:47hopefully helping ease Esteban Ocon into his new role.
03:52With regulation changes set to come in for next season,
03:55this year's challenges are likely to be evolutions of the existing cars.
04:00But even if we're not expecting any radical redesigns,
04:04don't rule out someone going rogue.
04:06In the past, we've seen teams heading back to the drawing board
04:10and turning up with a machine that looks totally different.
04:13Thinking outside the box doesn't always pay off.
04:16See Mercedes' so-called podless design for a recent example.
04:21But for those who found themselves at the bottom end of the standings last year,
04:25trying something new might be a risk worth taking.
04:29Testing is all about the teams and drivers getting to know their cars
04:32in various modes and set-ups.
04:35The aim is to iron out any bugs or issues before the season gets underway.
04:39Simulator and wind tunnel data is one thing,
04:42but only when the cars are physically out on track,
04:45putting rubber to tarmac and moving through real corners,
04:49can the teams properly understand them.
04:52They have a multitude of tools at their disposal,
04:55ranging from the incredibly small and prosaic,
04:57such as bits of string hanging from the floor skirt,
05:01to old-school techniques like the brightly covered paint known as Flovis,
05:05that's sprayed on the aerodynamic surfaces,
05:07the movement of which illustrates the airflow both around and through the car.
05:14I got full of the green stuff from the McLaren. How do you call it?
05:18It's Flovis, yeah.
05:20There are more technically sophisticated devices, such as aerorakes,
05:23which send incredibly precise data,
05:25crucial for understanding the car's performance,
05:28back to the engineers in the paddock and back at base.
05:31For a car to succeed in Formula 1,
05:33there has to be a trade-off between two fundamental factors,
05:37speed on the straights versus downforce in the corners.
05:41Put simply, you can build a machine that goes like a rocket in a straight line,
05:45but that speed won't help it at the bends.
05:48To manage the car through the twists and turns,
05:50you need to add downforce, helping it stick to the track surface.
05:55However, more downforce equals more drag, and therefore slower speeds.
06:00Get the right balance between these two elements,
06:03and you've got yourself a potentially title-winning challenger.
06:06Each team will execute run plans for their sessions,
06:09designed to gather as much data as possible.
06:12It's normally here in testing
06:14where we get to see who has made the right and wrong design choices.
06:19Some cars will be quick out of the box
06:21and could go on to dominate the early rounds,
06:23as seen 12 months ago with the Red Bull RB20.
06:28Verstappen won eight of the first ten races after going well in testing.
06:32However, the team's in-season development struggles
06:35saw them leapfrog later on.
06:37Ferrari looked in pretty good shape too,
06:40and were very competitive over the opening races,
06:43but then suffered a mid-season slump as others developed around them,
06:47before coming back strongly in the final rounds.
06:51Lando Norris was also mixing it with the best on day one of testing,
06:55and McLaren's challenge only really came alive
06:57after an upgrade at the Miami Grand Prix,
07:00which propelled the papaya cars to the fore.
07:03In testing, looking flashy and fast
07:06may not necessarily show a fair representation of a team's competitiveness.
07:11Some squads like to disguise their true performance from the opposition
07:15by running cars with heavier or lighter fuel loads than expected,
07:19or with the engine set to a different mode.
07:22This is known as sandbagging, and can be quite misleading.
07:26Don't be surprised if a team that looks off the pace in Bahrain
07:30suddenly makes a great leap forward in Melbourne,
07:33and, of course, vice versa.
07:37So, the 2025 Formula 1 season is almost upon us.
07:42Last year, we saw some of the closest qualifying times in the sport's history,
07:47followed by incredible races with amazing overtakes and battles for the ages.
07:53Seven different drivers won Grand Prix,
07:56and all of them more than once.
07:59We can't guarantee that last year's winners
08:01will replicate their success in the season to come,
08:04but we can say with some genuine authority
08:07that this year's championship will be thrilling, spectacular and unpredictable.
08:13We can expect closer running, surprising performances,
08:17fierce fights and plenty of entertainment
08:20across 24 action-packed Grand Prix.
08:23You won't want to miss it.
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