F1 News
F1 is going to change test schedule: Fewer test days and different test location
- GPblog.com
Next year F1 will run a record 23 races in one season. This will put a lot more pressure on the team members, who will travel even more to make sure cars are ready to go on the track every weekend. Formula 1 will therefore have to make a decision to make the pressure a little less intense and they will do so by reducing the number of test days.
The number of test days was already a lot less than in previous years, but according to F1 it can be even less. Motorsport.com is in fact able to report that in 2021, the teams will only be testing for a week and, moreover, will no longer be testing in Barcelona. Next year the teams will travel to Bahrain to have a single test week of three days.
Still unclear
Guenther Steiner confirms in Turkey that at least things are going to change in the current format. "It will be a test week of three days, but we do not yet know where or when."
If F1 chooses to test in Bahrain, this will also have consequences for the length of the winter break. The travel time between Bahrain and Australia is a lot less and therefore the winter break will take a little longer.
In 2020, six test days were organized, spread over two weeks. According to Andrew Green of Racing Point, it is good that the test format is being adapted. "I think it fits in with F1. Does everyone want very reliable cars at the first race," he wondered in Barcelona in February. So F1 has listened to that and will probably hope to create more excitement around the F1 and the first few races.