All eyes will be on Bahrain in the coming days, with it being the venue for the Formula One final pre-season testing on 10 – 12 March.
F1 pre-season testing for 2022 has been divided between Barcelona and Bahrain, with the Spanish events occurring in late February. However, those events didn’t have live TV coverage, and weren’t open to fans.
The Bahrain events will employ the traditional format; with fans in attendance, and live TV coverage. The test will run during the week before the 2022 F1 opener, the Bahrain Grand Prix on 18 – 20 March.
So far, Mercedes has been gaining attention after coming out on top in the Barcelona test, with Lewis Hamilton setting the fastest lap. Ferrari has also been performing strongly in latest statistics.
However, one major upset has been that the Haas Formula 1 Team is set to miss the opening of Bahrain’s pre-season testing after their freight arrived late.
The Ukraine crisis has also had an impact here, with several teams, including Haas, announcing that they would drop Russian sponsors, and with the Sochi race kicked off the 2022 race calendar altogether.
Bahrain motoring events tend to be distinguished by a later starting time, to benefit from the cooler weather, occurring under floodlights at the Bahrain International Circuit.
For Bahrain, a hugely celebratory atmosphere is expected as the world finally puts Covid behind it and gets back to normal. The Formula One is always a big event for Bahrain.
The 2021 events succeeded in going ahead in front of motoring fans, with attended needing to show proof of vaccination or recovery from Covid when purchasing their tickets.