Fans to be allowed to attend Bahrain pre-season test

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Fans will be able to attend the second 2022 pre-season test session, scheduled to be held at Bahrain International Circuit between March 10 and 12.

Organisers made the announcement on social media this week, with a tweet confirming that the sessions will be open for spectators.

"Ticketing arrangements and details to be announced over the next few days," said the official account.

It will be the first opportunity for members of the general public to see all ten of this year's car on track.

The first pre-season test, scheduled to take pace at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain, will not be open to the public because of current coronavirus regulations in the country.

While journalists will be present in the paddock to report on what happens, there will be no live television coverage for the first test. Instead, a 60 minute summary will be streamed online via F1 TV.

Cameras are expected to provide full live coverage of all three days of the Bahrain test via social media channels, and Sky Sports F1 in the UK.

Pre-season tests usually draw limited numbers of spectators. However interest might be stoked by the latest rule changes including the introduction of new 18-inch tyres.

It means that the cars are expected to look very different this season after a period of relative design stability.

Read also: Grosjean test with Mercedes F1 team 'still on the cards'

Some of the smaller teams had appealed to the FIA to extend the Barcelona test to five days, as they have less advanced simulators and fear they could lose out to the bigger squads in terms of preparation. However this suggestion was turned down by the governing body.

Attendance in Bahrain could also be boosted by a rise in popularity in the sport given the ratings impact of the season finale in Abu Dhabi last month in which Max Verstappen pipped Lewis Hamilton to the title on the final lap.

All cars will be sporting brand new liveries for 2022, with four teams including Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes having already announced which days they will be holding car launches to unveil the new look prior to the Barcelona test.

The teams also have the option to hold a 'filming day' at Barcelona before the official test. This allows them some limited track running in order to film the cars for sponsorship and PR purposes.

Teams are able to schedule two of these days per calendar year.

In a separate announcement, the circuit organisers confirmed that Grammy Award-winning producer, songwriter and DJ Afrojack will perform on Friday evening during the Bahrain GP weekend!

Entry will be free for all F1 ticket holders, with early bird tickets still available on the official website.

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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.