Formula 1 pre-season testing in 2019 will take place at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya with two four-day meetings, as the first on-track outings for this year’s new cars will take place on Monday February 18 (when Alfa Romeo Racing’s official 2019 F1 car launch is also scheduled to take place in the morning), with the first test finishing on Thursday, February 21.
The second test will take place from Tuesday February 26, ending on Friday March 1 – precisely two weeks before first practice for the season-starting Australian GP. 2019’s earlier start for testing reflects the season itself commencing earlier: the Australian Grand Prix, the season’s traditional curtain raiser has been brought forward for March 15-17.
The Circuit de Catalunya has become F1’s established winter base over the past two decades and every team and driver will already be minutely aware of its challenges and variations.
Situated on the northern outskirts of Barcelona, the circuit’s location is one of its most attractive qualities. Relatively cheap and accessible, the teams can easily ship in spare parts overnight to be ready for the next day’s running without undue hassle. But it’s the circuit itself which perhaps offers the single most powerful reason for its ubiquitous presence on the winter calendar.
Although notoriously lean on overtaking opportunities when it hosts the Spanish GP, the Circuit de Catalunya is recognised as offering an all-round test of a car and its aerodynamic prowess with a mixture of left- and right-handed corners alongside a range of slow- and high-speed corners and a long start-finish straight.
Kimi Raikkonen will be the first to drive Alfa Romeo Racing’s 2019 car at Barcelona next week (Monday and Wednesday), while teammate Antonio Giovinazzi will drive on Tuesday and Thursday.
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