Formula 1 and its brand new 2022 cars are unleashed in anger for the first time for testing in Barcelona today, curtain-raiser to the new season.
Barcelona today, at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, for the first pre-season testing session of the season. Here are some details on the test.
As it has been long known, today's test session will be held behind closed doors unfortunately, with F1 releasing end-of-day updates and information.
The test will be held over three days with each day having two four-hour long sessions, one in the morning, and another in the afternoon.
The morning session starts at 8:00am GMT and ends 12:00pm GMT, with the afternoon session commencing at 1:00pm GMT to be concluded at 5:00pm GMT. These timing apply for all three testing days.
Who will be driving?
Mercedes announced that Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will be sharing driving duties on the first day, Wednesday. Russell will be in the W13 in the morning session, with Hamilton taking over for the afternoon.
Red Bull confirmed that Max Verstappen will drive on Wednesday, with Sergio Perez on driving duty on Thursday, the two sharing the RB18 on Friday.
Red Bull's sister team, AlphaTauri, also announced its driver plans for the Barcelona test session. Yuki Tsunoda will be in the team's AT03 on Wednesday, as Pierre Gasly gets to drive it on Thursday.
On Friday, Gasly will drive the morning session, with Tsunoda taking over in the afternoon.
Aston Martin's drivers will split driving duties on each day. Sebastian Vettel will be in the AMR22 first on Wednesday's morning session with Lance Stroll driving in the afternoon. The roles will be reversed on the Thursday, with Friday's driving duties being the same as the first day.
Williams followed the same driver plan as Aston Martin, with Nicholas Latifi and Alex Albon splitting driving duties on the three days of the test. Latifi will be running on Wednesday morning with Albon in the afternoon.
Albon will kick off Thursday's running, with Latifi completing the next day, with the final day, Friday, having the same arrangement as day 1.
Haas also adopted a split-driver concept, with Nikita Mazepin the first of the team's drivers to be running on Wednesday, with Mick Schumacher driving the VF22 in the afternoon. The roles will be reversed on Thursday, then restored for Friday.
Alfa Romeo who are yet to reveal their 2022 F2 car, will be fielding three drivers for the Barcelona pre-season test session, with the team's reserve driver Robert Kubica in the car on Wednesday's morning session, before handing over to Valtteri Bottas in the afternoon.
Bottas will be at the wheel on Thursday morning, with Guanyu Zhou driving in the afternoon. The teammates will switch roles on Friday.
McLaren will have Lando Norris in the MCL36 on Wednesday, with Daniel Ricciardo driving on Thursday. The drivers will split duties on Friday with Norris running in the morning.
Alpine will have Fernando Alonso in the A522 on Wednesday. The Spaniard hands over to Esteban Ocon on Thursday. Alonso will be back in the car Friday morning with Ocon rounding off the test for the French team.
Ferrari have not yet confirmed their drivers' schedules.
The tyres brought by Pirelli
Pirelli have announced the tyres that will be available to the teams for the Barcelona pre-season testing session, with a plan to have an artificial wet test on Friday, unless rain hits the track on any of the other days.
There will be a total allocation of 35 sets of slicks, out of which the teams can only choose 30. There will also be three sets of intermediates and wets each at the teams' disposal.
The Italian tyre supplier also specified the pressures, temperatures, heating times, and maximum cambers the teams need to abide by.
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