Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

New Ferrari to run before first F1 test

Ferrari will run its 2016 car a day before the start of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Last year's constructors' championship runner-up will complete a filming day with its new car on Sunday February 21. The track time will also act as a shakedown for the 2016 car ahead of just eight days of pre-season testing this year.

In 2015 Ferrari opted to carry out its first filming day between the second and third tests at the same circuit, but the limited track time before the first race has led it to run before testing officially starts.

Teams are allowed two filming days - known as promotional events - with a current car per year, with the total mileage on each day not allowed to exceed 100km. The filming day must be "purely for marketing or promotional purposes" while running takes place on special Pirelli tyres designed to prevent teams from carrying out performance runs.

Mercedes is also expected to complete a shakedown of its 2016 car ahead of the first test, with previous filming days taking place at Silverstone.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.