Everything you need to know about 2025 F1 pre-season testing

The 2025 F1 season is nearly here as the field heads to Bahrain for pre-season testing. 

Over three days on the grand prix track in Sakhir, all 20 drivers and 10 teams will find out the secrets of their new cars, and if they are in for a good or tricky season.

Below, RacingNews365 has rounded up some of the biggest questions you need answers to ahead of the on-track action!

How long is pre-season testing?

Pre-season testing takes place between Wednesday 26th-Friday 28th February from the Bahrain International Circuit. 

The on-track running takes place from 1000-1400 and from 1500-1900 local time across the three days, with lunch set for 1400-1500. Bahrain is three hours ahead of the UK.

It means there is a total of 24 hours on offer for every team, and except in extreme cases of force majeure, such as an F1 systems failure, there will be no extensions to the time. 

Therefore, any red flags for mechanical gremlins or crashes will simply see the timing clock continue to tick down, just as it does during Free Practice at grand prix weekends.

Why is pre-season testing in Bahrain?

Barcelona in Spain used to be the favoured venue for F1 testing, but since 2021, it has been in Bahrain.

The reason for this in 2025 is mainly down to the environment. 

Weather conditions in Bahrain are predictable, stable and give teams the consistency they crave as they try to understand their new machines as opposed to roulette of weather found in Spain at this time of year. 

Snow famously hit Barcelona in 2018, wrecking running, whilst the biggest problem in Bahrain is a sand-storm. 

Since 2021 and until 2024, Bahrain also held the season-opener, making it an ideal candidate for testing for logistical reasons, although Australia has the honour of the first chequered flag of 2025.

How much time does each driver get?

The teams will divide their 24 hours of running equally between their two drivers, meaning both get a maximum of 12 hours in the car.

This can be divided any way a team wants, with rotations either happening at lunch-time every day or a driver being given a full day in the car, as Red Bull is doing with Liam Lawson getting Thursday all to himself whilst Max Verstappen waits until Friday for his full day. 

Any time lost through a mechanical breakdown or a crash, even for a rival, is taken out of that driver's time and it won't be given back. 

How does testing work?

Essentially, every team and driver can do exactly what they want whilst their car is out on track. 

If a team wished, it could simply drain the tanks of fuel, turn the engines up to 11 and go for banzai-style qualifying laps for the entire test, but they wouldn't learn that much about their cars in race trim.

Conversely, brimming the tanks full of fuel, sticking the hardest tyres on and sending a driver out for four hours will get crucial race pace data, but the team won't know about how its car reacts on low fuel. 

It is a balancing game with the sweet spot somewhere in the middle. 

Teams might deploy aero-rakes on the side of the cars to collect crucial data or smother the car in flow-vis paint to see where the air-flow is going and if it is doing what the team want. 

How can I follow 2025 F1 pre-season testing live?

Live coverage of the action will be broadcast on Sky Sports F1 in the UK. 

RacingNews365 is on-site in the paddock in Sakhir, and we will be bringing you live blog updates, session reports, incident updates, full results as well as the latest news, analysis and technical secrets as and when they come in.

At the end of each day, Nick Golding and Ian Parkes, out in Bahrain, will be doing their ever-popular F1 Update videos, breaking down the on-track action of the day!

Make sure you are subscribed to the RacingNews365 YouTube channel not to miss any videos!