Date of final pre-season test session in Barcelona likely to be changed – Formula 1 news
Since the final pre-season’s venue changed from Bahrain to Barcelona, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) has recently revealed that the date of the final test session has also been ‘tweaked’ from March 8-11 to March 9-12, 2011.
The venue had to be changed since the current political scenario in Bahrain has caused a lot of unrest among the people there and as a result, for the safety of the people involved in the event, the FIA had to change the venue for the final pre-season test
session.
As a result, the FIA revealed a couple of weeks ago that the season opening race that was also expected to take place in Bahrain has been postponed as well and announced that the 2011 Formula 1 season would begin on March 27, 2011 instead of March 13.
“We will be returning to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona for a final four-day test starting on Wednesday 9 March and concluding on Saturday 12 March. Nico is scheduled to drive the MGP W02 on the Wednesday and Saturday, with Michael driving on the
Thursday and Friday,” Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn confirmed the change.
It is obviously going to affect the teams’ respective strategies a lot but one has to admit that the FIA had no choice but to postpone the Bahrain Grand Prix. At first, it was revealed that the Bahrain Grand Prix had been cancelled but it seems that the
FIA is now interested in ‘squeezing’ the race in the 2011 Formula 1 calendar according to some rumours.
The 2011 Formula 1 season was expected to be the first ever Formula 1 season to host 20 races in a single season. The 2010 Formula 1 season held 19 races and a Korean Grand Prix was introduced back then and in 2011, it is expected that the first ever Indian
Grand Prix would also become a part of the Formula 1 calendar.
Rescheduling the Bahrain Grand Prix is also becoming quite difficult for the FIA as the 2011 Formula 1 season is already ‘jam packed’ but there is a possibility that the FIA reschedules the race as the final race of the season after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The organisers of the Abu Dhabi GP have stated that they do not have any problem if the Bahrain Grand Prix takes place after their event as the grand finale.
Nevertheless, the teams will now meet at the final pre-season test session in Barcelona once again from March 9-12, 2011 and it is going to be interesting to see how each team performs at the final session before the season opener in Australia.
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