Bahrain F1 pre-season test: Schedule and Driver line-ups

The Formula 1 2023 season will kick into gear on Thursday in Bahrain where teams are on site for three days of testing ahead of next week's opening round of racing at Sakhir.

Once F1's team presentations were in the rearview mirror, the sense of anticipation ramped up within the F1 community and among the sport's fans.

Now, the time has come for each outfit to put its new design through its paces.

There will be surprises, both good and bad, setbacks and struggles up and down the pitlane, and the odd chance of one big team getting it wrong and one lower tier contender getting it very right.

But there will also be those that will be reluctant to show their hand, with sandbagging the name of the game.

On the driver front, F1 welcomes among its ranks three apprentices – Oscar Piastri at McLaren, Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri and Logan Sargeant at Williams – and one returnee, Nico Hulkenberg at Haas.

Schedule:

The action at the Bahrain International Circuit will start every day at 07:00 GMT (08:00 CET) and drivers will run until 11:00 GMT (12:00 CET), after which teams will enjoy a one-hour lunch break with the running resuming at 12:00 GMT (13:00 CET) and concluding at 16:30 GMT (17:30 CET).

Where can I watch?

Fans in the UK and in Ireland will be able to watch the entire Bahrain test on Sky Sports F1, while F1 TV will stream the action in countries where the online platform is available.

Provisional Driver line-ups for Bahrain F1 pre-season test:

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