The new cars have been launched - and now it's time to put them to the test; watch and follow Test One live with Sky Sports F1
Wednesday 19 February 2020 07:15, UK
Formula 1's teams will start to put their new cars to the test from Wednesday as official pre-season track action begins at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.
After three months off track preparing their all-new cars for the challenges that await in 2020, the shortest-ever pre-season - six days - commences at 8am for all 10 teams.
All six days of testing are live on Sky Sports F1 for the very first time.
Most teams have already got their new challenges up and running in shakedowns at various circuits across Europe in recent days, but the three-day opening test presents them with their first true opportunities to put them through their paces.
Having spent many months planning, designing and simulating the performance of the 2020 cars behind-closed-doors at their factories, teams' main focus across the first week of running is validating that work in real life.
Systems checks and initial aerodynamic evaluations, when cars are equipped with many weird-and-wonderful-looking measuring rakes, go hand-in-hand with crucial reliability tests and early performance runs.
Tyre assessments also feature heavily on job lists, as does acclimatisation work for the drivers to the cars they'll be driving for the next nine months.
Lap times therefore - particularly in week one - are less important with teams trying out different fuel loads, tyres and car settings. For example, Renault were the 'quickest' team at Test One last year - and they went on to qualify 1.5s adrift of pole position at the first race a month later.
All 20 of F1's class of 2020 will appear at least once during the three-day test.
New Alfa Romeo signing Robert Kubica is the only non-race driver scheduled for track time, with the team's 2020 reserve the first to drive the new C39 on Wednesday morning.
Most of the teams are giving each of their drivers one full day in the car apiece - eight hours of potential track time either side of the daily lunch break - and then splitting the other day's running between them.
Out-of-the-box reliability is now such in Formula 1 that teams now routinely clock up more than 100 laps per day on their new cars.
Last year's best for a single day was Mercedes with 182 laps, while there were 4,270 laps completed across the opening test.
Sky Sports F1 is showing all of testing live for the first time ever this winter, with 48 hours of track action across the two weeks.
There are two sessions - 8am to 12pm and then 1pm to 5pm UK time - each day, with the action live on the Sky F1 channel and the Sky Sports app. Wednesday's first show starts at 7.55am just before the green light.
The app and website are also the home of the Live Blog - with updates, analysis, and video clips through the day.
The wrap-up show, The Story So Far, begins after the track action finishes at 5pm.
Wednesday, February 19
7.55am-12pm: Day One, Morning Session
1pm-5pm: Day One, Afternoon Session
5pm-6pm: The Story So Far
Thursday, February 20
8am-12pm: Day Two, Morning Session
1pm-5pm: Day Two, Afternoon Session
5pm-6pm: The Story So Far
Friday, February 21
8am-12pm: Day Three, Morning Session
1pm-5pm: Day Three, Afternoon Session
5pm-6pm: The Story So Far
Watch all six days of F1 Testing live on Sky Sports F1 - for the very first time. Test One begins on February 19, with eight hours of daily track coverage underway from 8am. Subscribe to F1 on Sky Sports here.
