The **Official** 2023 Pre-Season Test Thread

[Pflanzgarten]

No Barcelona this year so all the teams are off to Bahrain, also the location of the first race...



Onboard 360 lap;



2022 Pole Lap



Weather;

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/forecast/theu...


UK Times;

Thursday the 23rd, Friday the 24th and Saturday the 25th of February

07:00am to 16:30pm

In the UK, coverage has been confirmed to be broadcast live on Sky Sports TV channels on all three days, from 6:50am. Sky Sports subscribers can watch F1 live via the Sky Go app. F1TV Pro also streamed testing in 2022, but a 2023 broadcast on that platform still needs to be confirmed officially.

For those not watching live, www.the-race.com will be having live updates on their homepage, as will autosport.com

F1s official page is found here;

https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2023/Pre-Season...

As well as on the F1 homepage there will be videos on F1s YouTube page every night as a highlight package;

https://www.youtube.com/@Formula1/videos

Pre season news on the official F1 page is here;

https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2023/Pre-Season...

Lance Stroll has just been announced as injured (bike) so unclear if Alonso will take over all the duties.

[ajprice]

Yeah I just saw that Stroll was injured in training https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breakin...

So does a reserve driver take up the testing time, or does Alonso do all of it?

[gt_12345]

Could they really not have done more than 3 days? Surely most of the costs are logistics, not per-day costs?

[Sandpit Steve]

Has anyone found a later version than Issue 3 of the F1 sporting regulations, published on 19th Oct 2022?

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/fia_2023_f...

That’s the latest one I can easily find on the crap FIA website.

[Pflanzgarten]

Sandpit Steve said:

Has anyone found a later version than Issue 3 of the F1 sporting regulations, published on 19th Oct 2022?

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/fia_2023_f...

That’s the latest one I can easily find on the crap FIA website.

You deserve credit for just finding that one, is there a holding page for official decisions for testing you’re aware of?

[Sandpit Steve]

Pflanzgarten said:

Sandpit Steve said:

Has anyone found a later version than Issue 3 of the F1 sporting regulations, published on 19th Oct 2022?

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/fia_2023_f...

That’s the latest one I can easily find on the crap FIA website.

You deserve credit for just finding that one, is there a holding page for official decisions for testing you’re aware of?

In a word, no.

The holding page for the race events is still there at https://www.fia.com/documents/championships/fia-fo... which we’d expect to update when the season starts.

At the testing, there’s no race director, no scrutineering, no stewards, no meetings etc, so it’s difficult to see what they would publish. I’m not even sure there’s an official timekeeper there to report, although the equipment will be there feeding to the media.

[BrettMRC]

I wonder how much porpoising we will see on day 1?

[davidd]

Sandpit Steve said:

In a word, no.

The holding page for the race events is still there at https://www.fia.com/documents/championships/fia-fo... which we’d expect to update when the season starts.

At the testing, there’s no race director, no scrutineering, no stewards, no meetings etc, so it’s difficult to see what they would publish. I’m not even sure there’s an official timekeeper there to report, although the equipment will be there feeding to the media.

There won't be anything published live although the document system updates are being tested as they always are at this test.

[Muzzer79]

gt_12345 said:

Could they really not have done more than 3 days? Surely most of the costs are logistics, not per-day costs?

You could make the test 5 days long, but don't forget that the teams are out in Bahrain from now until after the race next week. Some will stay in the area for another 2 weeks to go to Saudi Arabia. The longer the test, the longer people are away for.

There's also the question of what 5 days gives you over 3. You get more data, but if you find a problem it doesn't help you fix it, being stuck all the way out in Bahrain.

Finally, they are essentially forcing testing into the races, which creates more jeopardy and more unpredictable results. I'd be surprised if all 6 of the top cars finished.

[entropy]

Is it just one pre-season testing this year?

[Fundoreen]

Anyone who thinks they are missing out not seeing the cars circulating is not losing much. The updates you will see on the race.com and other sites will give you as much if not more info.
The TV is just routine circulating and thats it. Its not qualifing laps. you are not in with the teams and there is no interviewing them live. Boring after a few hrs.

Edited by Fundoreen on Tuesday 21st February 17:30

[Pflanzgarten]

Drugovich in at Aston Martin for the first morning at least.

[vaud]

entropy said:

Is it just one pre-season testing this year?

Yes

[Mark-C]

Can't see any sign of the BBC covering this with live updates this year. I usually get through testing with that and PH for updates - will try the-race.com instead.

[vaud]

Mark-C said:

Can't see any sign of the BBC covering this with live updates this year. I usually get through testing with that and PH for updates - will try the-race.com instead.

I was amused when I looked back at the 2022 report "Red Bull unhappy with Mercedes upgrade"...

[Mark-C]

vaud said:

Mark-C said:

Can't see any sign of the BBC covering this with live updates this year. I usually get through testing with that and PH for updates - will try the-race.com instead.

I was amused when I looked back at the 2022 report "Red Bull unhappy with Mercedes upgrade"...

Had forgotten all of the concern that Mercedes had pushed\bent the rules when the car was first released. I guess it wasn't long before Red Bull were very happy with the Mercedes upgrade!

I don't suppose we'll have anything that radical but it's always good to see the real cars out so track so we can see what's really new this year.

[Piginapoke]

Thanks for the thread OP, it will be an interesting three days. I thought it might be useful to have last year's final Bahrain testing times to hand, to see how much faster the cars are (even with the revised floor regulations):

[thegreenhell]

Mark-C said:

Can't see any sign of the BBC covering this with live updates this year. I usually get through testing with that and PH for updates - will try the-race.com instead.

Pre-season testing will take place in Bahrain from 23-25 February - which you can follow live via text commentaries on the BBC Sport website
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/64373016

[davidd]

Mark-C said:

Had forgotten all of the concern that Mercedes had pushed\bent the rules when the car was first released. I guess it wasn't long before Red Bull were very happy with the Mercedes upgrade!

I don't suppose we'll have anything that radical but it's always good to see the real cars out so track so we can see what's really new this year.

I don't think we have seen the Red Bull yet, I know there was the reveal earlier in the month but that was just livery, I wonder if they are going to reveal something exciting.

[Piginapoke]

davidd said:

Mark-C said:

Had forgotten all of the concern that Mercedes had pushed\bent the rules when the car was first released. I guess it wasn't long before Red Bull were very happy with the Mercedes upgrade!

I don't suppose we'll have anything that radical but it's always good to see the real cars out so track so we can see what's really new this year.

I don't think we have seen the Red Bull yet, I know there was the reveal earlier in the month but that was just livery, I wonder if they are going to reveal something exciting.

The RB19 is will be the biggest news of tomorrow I should think. If they can make it more on the nose, and take more weight out, it could be a sobering year again for everyone else.