It’s been a while, but Formula One is back with the official pre-season test in Bahrain.
Over the next few days, the ten teams will let their new challengers take to the Bahrain International Circuit as they fine-tune everything they need to ahead of next weekend’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
This year, teams will only get three days of track compared to the six that they got last season. There will be two sessions a day, 4 hours and 15 minutes each with an hour break in the middle of the day for lunch.
Here are the confirmed line-ups for the 2023 Pre-Season test:
Thursday AM/PM
Verstappen (Red Bull), Sainz/Leclerc (Ferrari), Zhou/Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Drugovich/Alonso (Aston Martin), Hulkenberg/Magnussen (Haas), Tsunoda/de Vries (Alpha Tauri), Albon/Sargeant (Williams), Piastri/Norris (McLaren), Russell/Hamilton (Mercedes), Gasly/Ocon (Alpine)
Friday AM/PM
Perez/Verstappen (Red Bull), Sainz/Leclerc (Ferrari), Zhou (Alfa Romeo), Magnussen/Hulkenberg (Haas), Tsunoda/de Vries (Alpha Tauri), Sargeant (Williams), Norris/Piastri (McLaren), Hamilton/Russell (Mercedes), Ocon/Gasly (Alpine), Alonso (Aston Martin)
Saturday AM/PM
Perez (Red Bull), Leclerc/Sainz (Ferrari), Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Hulkenberg/Magnussen (Haas), de Vries/Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri), Albon (Williams), Piastri/Norris (McLaren), Russell/Hamilton (Mercedes), Gasly/Ocon (Alpine), Drugovich/Alonso (Aston Martin)
One name missing from pre-season testing is Lance Stroll, who has been ruled out following a “minor accident” while cycling. He will be replaced by Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich, who won the Formula 2 title last season.
With only three days of testing, no other team has opted to allow a rookie or reserve driver time in the car, something that has been met with some criticism. All teams will be required to run a rookie in two Free Practice One session over the course of the season
Testing begins at 7 am UK time each morning and will conclude at 4.30 pm and is available to watch in the UK on Sky Sports F1.
We will have coverage throughout the test both here on the website and across our social media accounts.