The restrictions placed on the Barcelona test coverage limited threatens F1, and Motorsport Week can reveal that is the teams, not F1 that is responsible for the media blackout.
Formula 1 testing by its nature can be testing. Unfamiliar cars for both team and driver taking to the track are the first step in forging what will become a very intimate relationship over the year.
The car itself has a part to play. Its whims, quirks and unique characteristics will make it a colleague that either becomes a part of your success, or one that you hope has an unfortunate, humiliating accident involving the photocopier mysteriously falling on them.
First impressions are critical. A driver knows within the first five laps of testing a new car if they are in for a good year or a write-off. One can only imagine the understandable terror they must feel.
The entire season hinges on the first impressions of a machine that they will drive across 24 gruelling races. Imagine yourself getting a new car, only to discover the steering wheel is made of papier-mache consisting of your contract to buy it. Worse still, it’s on finance, and the cool-off period has gone. So now you are stuck driving a car that handles literally like the piece of paper you bought it with. An F1 driver with a bad car feels these emotions after only a few laps.
But testing rarely goes this way in the modern era. Teams focus on bulletproof reliability and spend hours, days even, testing their new cars on state-of-the-art simulators ahead of that first shakedown. This makes the Barcelona test blackout and restrictions placed on the first Bahrain test all the more surprising.
But as Motorsport Week can reveal, Formula One Management, (FOM) has not facilitated this test. The teams have, quietly, organised the test with the Circuit de Catalunya and left FOM to pick up the PR flack, opting not to correct those insinuating otherwise. The immense security at the track to keep out prying eyes has also been paid for by the teams.
Teams now suffering convenient PTSD from 2014
To understand why the teams have taken such an extraordinary move, it is necessary to revisit the last time brand-new engines were introduced to F1, back in 2014. The sport transitioned to the previous iteration of the 1.6-litre turbo V6 hybrids, a baptism of fire for those running Ferrari and, in particular, Renault power.
The complexity of the new power units kept many teams locked behind garage doors for hours during the tests, with Red Bull and Lotus (now Alpine) affected the most. Gone were the spectacular engine failures of old, replaced instead by cars grinding to a halt with sickening crunch sounds coming from their engine covers. Those present at the event recall cars sounding like a bucket with spanners rattling around in it when they regularly conked out. Think of running a 1970s supercar today as a daily driver and you are not far away from the reality of 2014 testing.
At least with an old engine failure, it was easy to understand where the issue lay. Smoke and flames indicated the gearbox, or a part of the engine, had gone kaput. In 2014, a failure could have been caused by the Motor Kinetic Unit Heat, Motor Kinetic Unit Kinetic, the list goes on.
Understanding the immensely complex power units is what kept the teams stuck in garages, very much a colleague that teams exasperated over due to their inability to fulfil a basic task: to run normally on track.
The result was a 26 per cent decrease in overall testing mileage, a disaster for TV audiences tuning in. Instead of seeing cars lapping the circuit, they were treated to reporters wandering up and down the pit lane, speculating about when the cars would return.
The teams did not care about F1’s image in 2014 in the face of this PR disaster. The catastrophe was simply accepted as a consequence of change. Yet, in 2026, this memory has conveniently triggered some sort of PTSD for the teams.
They now feel compelled to act as of the next generation of power units take to the track for the first time. The decision to limit testing coverage has been widely condemned by media and fans.
Explanation for this move has not been forthcoming. F1 is bearing the brunt of fan discontent on social media. When approached for comment by Motorsport Week, FOM respectfully declined saying that this test was not organised by them and therefore any comments as to the organisation of the event would not be appropriate.
The teams have clearly taken the view that a loss in commercial holdings from test coverage is a price worth paying vs the potential embarrassment of its much vaunted new cars breaking down. It is an act of self-preservation worthy of a movie villain sacrificing a fellow character to save themselves.
A ridiculously flawed plan
The teams seem to believe that by restricting the test coverage, any issues with the engine regulations or the new active aerodynamics technology will mysteriously go away. Needless to say, this plan is not only naive but has gaping chasm of a flaw in it.
If the issues are extreme, such as Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari breakdown after just one lap at Maranello, and cars continue to frequently break down in Barcelona, a week will not be sufficient to fix any substantial issues. Perhaps this is why the first test in Bahrain will now see its TV coverage also curtailed.
Testing TV rights are still relatively new in F1. In the UK, testing was not broadcast until 2012, as the sport entered the final years of the V8 era, during which it enjoyed bulletproof reliability. This made broadcasting survivable, if a bit dull in its early iterations, as the sport found its feet in this new world.
But the introduction of Drive to Survive placed even more eyes on all aspects of F1, including testing. Never before has the sport been under such scrutiny for every decision, every car upgrade, and, crucially, every aspect of a car being examined during testing.
A repeat of the 2014 regulations testing disaster are now not in the team’s best interests, given F1’s current immense popularity. But this decision must be one of the most self-destructive in recent memory.
Controlling the narrative in the media is a nigh on impossible feat in an era of “always online”. A quick search of Google reveals the details behind the breakdowns fans are not permitted to see, negating the point of the blackout.
Likewise, fans do not want to be told a select narrative from testing. To be told the sun is shining brightly outside while being able to see lashing rain hitting the window and thunder rumbles overhead is pointless, a situation that the teams have created, and is happy to let F1 take the fall for.
The take from fans on the Barcelona test being completely closed off, including all written and broadcast media, is that teams fear a worst-case scenario. It is an extreme measure, and fans will be alienated by the move. Limiting coverage of the first Bahrain test only compounds this.
Early warning signs – but trials are part of F1
But it seems these concerns are not without merit. Six teams so far have announced they plan to limit their running at Barcelona. One of these teams, Williams, will miss the test entirely. The warning signs are already flashing. Reigning champions McLaren will miss one day of the test, though the team says this is planned.
F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport. It is the extreme end of technological prowess and experimentation. Like all experiments, sometimes there are bumps in the road. Fans watch F1 for the racing and the cutting-edge technology on display.
Had the teams publicly said it envisaged a challenging start to pre-season testing due to the new regulations, fans and media would have understood, and expectations could have been watered down. But F1 teams rarely think outside the realms of self-interest.
Instead, they have chosen to put up a wall of secrecy to try to hide any embarrassment. By their own doing, the F1 teams have created the worst narrative possible for its new cars. Acting in self-preservation, they have caused the sport significant harm.
It seems that, on first impressions alone, this car is the worst type of new colleague imaginable – poor at their assigned task and unable to run on time, or in some cases at all. Let us hope this is just a case of teams getting off on the wrong foot with fans as well as their new cars.
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