Formula 1 is go! Tyre testing explained

The 2021 Formula 1 season gets underway at the Bahrain International Circuit this morning for three days of testing, before the first race of the year at the same venue from March 26-28.

In total, each team will have 30 sets of 2021 slick tyres from the entire P Zero range at their disposal for the test, with each team running one car. On top of that, each team will also have two sets of intermediates and wets available: but these will only be counted within the allocation of 30 if they are fitted. No more than 30 sets of tyres per team are allowed to be used throughout the three days, from Friday to Sunday.

There will be two extra sets of prototype tyres supplied to each team: identical in every way to the standard C3 but produced in Turkey rather than Romania. These are being run simply to benchmark products from the back-up factory against the standard tyres, both during performance and longer runs. They can be recognised as they are plain black, with no markings at all.

The test will run from 10:00-19:00 (local time) each day, with a one-hour break for lunch between 14:00-15:00. Weather conditions are expected to be consistently warm and dry.