Feb.28 (GMM) Barcelona is hoping to make a return to Formula 1’s official pre-season testing schedule in 2026.
For the mere three days of group running this year, the teams opted to head to Bahrain – in the hope of predictable, sunny weather.
However, despite its desert location, the Sakhir track has – in Dr Helmut Marko’s words – been “colder than Europe” and particularly windy, and a power outage on day one was “something I’ve never seen in modern Formula 1”.
Not just that, Bahrain is a unique stop-start track, unlike the much more representative curves of the Circuit de Catalunya.
“We won’t be able to tell the order at a cold, wet Bahrain,” said Williams’ James Vowles after rain actually fell on the track on Thursday.
Bild newspaper reports that only Aston Martin and Haas had actually ordered any wet-weather Pirelli tyres ahead of time.
It’s unclear whether the teams are regretting their decision to head to Bahrain, but Barcelona could be back on the menu anyway for 2026.
Many insiders are predicting that, coinciding with the all-new chassis and engine rules, Formula 1 will allow the teams to do three full tests early next year.
Some believe Barcelona could actually host more than one of those tests.
“Sources at the circuit deny that there is already an agreement with F1 in this regard,” the Spanish newspaper Diario Sport reports.
The source at the Circuit de Catalunya explained: “We are in talks and at the moment we only know that teams will come here at the end of January, but it is obvious that we would like to be able to return to the pre-season calendar.”
Indeed, although excluded from the official schedule, Barcelona has this year privately hosted Ferrari for Lewis Hamilton’s run in the 2023 car. A few days later, Ferrari and McLaren helped Pirelli with 2026 tyre development at the same Spanish venue.
