And although there were some rumors that the F1 teams might head to Abu Dhabi for testing purposes in early March – since the weather conditions would have been similar to the ones in Bahrain – the FOTA eventually decided to rejoin on March 8, when the Bahrain GP was scheduled in the first place, in Barcelona.
The test will happen between March 8-11 and will count as the last running available for the F1 teams before the new season opener in Australia. The race at Melbourne Park is scheduled between March 25-27, two weeks after the test in Barcelona.
Before we hear anything more from the F1 teams' representatives, it's quite easy to figure out that the reason why they chose Barcelona as their next test location was because some other hot-weather venue was not available in such short notice.
Before the decision was made, some members of the FOTA insisted that the teams need to go to a country that can offer them the same hot temperatures as Bahrain, in order to test the new Pirelli tires under such conditions. With the test moving to Barcelona, the F1 field will head to Australia – where temperatures are pretty high this time of year – without any prior knowledge of the tires' behavior in hot-track conditions.
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