{"id":393341,"date":"2026-01-05T15:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/393341\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T15:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:12:08","slug":"when-is-f1-2026-pre-season-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/393341\/","title":{"rendered":"When is F1 2026 pre-season testing?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first collective on-track running of Formula 1&#8217;s 2026 season is just around the corner, with three multi-day pre-season tests planned ahead of the Melbourne season-opener. <\/p>\n<p>With all-new chassis and engine regulations for 2026, the 11 F1 teams (don&#8217;t forget Cadillac has joined the grid!) will have more testing time compared to the last few years, to help them get to grips with their new cars. <\/p>\n<p>Test 1 &#8211; Barcelona (January 26-30)<\/p>\n<p>The first 2026 pre-season test will take place in private in Barcelona without TV crews or fans. <\/p>\n<p>Teams can pick any three of the five days at the circuit across January 26-30 to complete their vital first proper 2026 running.<\/p>\n<p>Test 2 &#8211; Bahrain (February 11-13)<\/p>\n<p>The teams will then head to Bahrain for the first of two tests on February 11-13. <\/p>\n<p>This is the first public test, which will be broadcasted and allow fans to attend. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s expected the Bahrain tests will follow a similar timing schedule to 2025 &#8211; 10am-7pm local time (7am-4pm UK time). <\/p>\n<p>Test 3 &#8211; Bahrain (February 18-20) <\/p>\n<p>The final pre-season test will also take place in Bahrain, several days after the second test and two weeks prior to the start of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix (March 8). <\/p>\n<p>Just like test two, the final test will be broadcasted live. <\/p>\n<p>F1 2026 pre-season test dates<\/p>\n<p>Test 1 &#8211; Barcelona (January 26-30) <br \/>Test 2 &#8211; Bahrain (February 11-13) <br \/>Test 3 &#8211; Bahrain (February 18-20)  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first collective on-track running of Formula 1&#8217;s 2026 season is just around the corner, with three multi-day&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-393341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}