The five-day event is taking place behind closed doors from January 26 to January 3o, with only the teams in attendance plus a small crew to record official F1 content.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So what should you expect and what are we keen to learn?<\/p>\n
An odd week<\/p>\n
Teams are only allowed to run on a maximum of three of the five days, which makes this week more varied in terms of runplans.<\/p>\n
Some teams are set up to maximise early mileage so they can validate systems and chase reliability straight away, then adjust the rest of their week depending on what they learn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Audi is ready to run at 9am on Monday, for example, to work out any problems early, then decide how to use the remaining two days based on variables like car reliability or the weather<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve heard one suggested optimal schedule is to run on days one, three and five. That gives you early learning, a day to fix any problems or run experiments on the simulator, then get back on track – and repeat over the final two days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But not everyone is thinking like that. For starters, with reliability set to be a big talking point, the first day of anyone\u2019s running is more likely to bring problems. So running on Monday or Tuesday could be disrupted by red flags.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McLaren and Ferrari have already committed to not running on day one and, for McLaren, potentially not even day two. Aston Martin has also been rumoured to be missing the first day at least.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Plus, every team has made different choices when it comes to tyres too. <\/p>\n
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This week will be fascinating for who runs when and what those plans give away about how a team\u2019s test is going.<\/p>\n
Restricted imagery<\/p>\n
The amount of genuinely clear detail we\u2019ve had from only a few \u2018launches\u2019 so far is limited. With most teams present, you would assume this first proper test means we will finally see everything clearly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There will\u00a0be a small highlights package from each day, and interviews over the week with drivers, team and tech personnel, all provided by F1. Which is good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the Barcelona running comes with restrictions on imagery and footage teams can publish. This is part of the clampdown on access and coverage, presumably to save the full reveal for the subsequent Bahrain tests.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bahrain pays to host pre-season testing, so it is not hard to imagine the commercial value in saving the biggest content moments for there. That is why Barcelona\u2019s recently been labelled \u2018Shakedown Week\u2019, even though it was always just stated to be – and\u00a0is\u00a0– a test.<\/p>\n
So what else will we actually get? Some teams are planning to release detailed renders, with a split expected between sharing them at the start of the week and later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And we might get spy photography from outside the circuit perimeter, or maybe even drone footage if anyone is feeling brave and has the equipment, but that brings a big warning sign with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Low-quality images invite artificial enhancement, overconfident interpretation, and outright fakes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We already saw how easy it was for people to be misled around the Audi shakedown imagery<\/a>.<\/p>\n Curated information<\/p>\n What comes out of the test will be carefully curated and that will make pecking order clues even harder to come by than normal in pre-season.<\/p>\n For example, we are not expecting access to live timing – but there is also no guarantee that laptimes will be shared at all, either on each day or at the end of the test.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond the restrictions imposed on still and moving imagery, the teams have discretion over some elements.\u00a0<\/p>\n If they want to put out daily updates, mileage counts and laptimes they can. Some are definitely planning to do so. But there is no obligation.<\/p>\n So it could be a case of putting together a puzzle at the end of the week, let alone each day, without having all the pieces.\u00a0<\/p>\n The real Audi<\/p>\n Though Audi has already completed a shakedown, and held its season launch showing images of the car on screens behind the stage, Audi hasn\u2019t properly put those images into the public domain.<\/p>\n We expect Audi to share something officially at the start of the week, though, and hopefully we\u00a0will then get a chance to see what it has done with a likely quite basic initial car.\u00a0<\/p>\n To get the first-ever Audi-branded F1 car on track early, it has an immature initial specification to validate systems, prove the fundamentals, and shake down reliability.<\/p>\n But we don\u2019t fully know how conservative it might have been with this preliminary design and how it compares to other cars.\u00a0<\/p>\n Red Bull clues\u00a0<\/p>\n Red Bull Racing\u2019s tradition is to keep its cards close to its chest, but it may surprise by sharing imagery of the RB22 proper.\u00a0<\/p>\n It did take an unusual and genuinely appreciated step by producing an interpretation of the 2026 rules alongside its livery reveal<\/a>, but that was not to be mistaken for Red Bull\u2019s actual 2026 car.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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