So far, only Scuderia Ferrari and Panasonic Toyota F1 Racing have announced their desire to take part in the Bahrain testing, but it is expected that the other teams that didn't get to thoroughly test their 2009 challengers at Algarve this month to join in. The testing sessions on the Manama-based track are to commence on February the 10th.
BMW Sauber were actually the only team that had properly conducted their first testing session this year, as they chose Valencia as their January testing location. Both Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld got to drive the BMW Sauber F1.09 and were quite enthused with the results. The latter admitted the new car drives very different as compared to its predecessor (the F1.08) and praised its reliability.
Despite pulling out of the group test in Algarve earlier this month – due to weather forecast indicating a rainy week – Ferrari still didn't manage to get away from the bad weather. Their entire testing session at Mugello was affected by rain, as neither Kimi Raikkonen nor Felipe Massa managed to run the Ferrari F60 on slick tires.
Other teams whose testing programmes were affected due to the bad weather at Algarve are Williams F1, McLaren and Renault, while Toro Rosso chose to run their 2008-spec car. In Bahrain, however, the weather is expected to be as sunny as ever, giving the teams the possibility to test the new slick tires at a different temperature (as higher temperatures are expected in the first 3 races of the season) as compared to the European tracks.
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