Formula 1 2025 fires up tonight

The 2025 Formula 1 season officially begins tonight with pre-season testing, which once again will be broadcast live in Australia.

For the third year in a row, all three days of pre-season testing will be shown live on Fox Sports and Kayo, having first arrived in 2023.

The opening session begins at 17.55 AEDT tonight and fans will be given a treat straight away with both Australians Oscar Piastri and Jack Doohan getting the opening morning running where all eyes will also be on Lewis Hamilton in the #44 Ferrari, while Kiwi Liam Lawson is driving the Red Bull.

With the highly anticipated 75th anniversary Formula 1 season starting at Melbourne, it will give fans an early glimpse of the new cars and drivers, plus an insight into the possible form guide.

Each day consists of two four-hour sessions where one driver is on track for each team.

Whilst the morning session is at 17.55 AEDT and offers perfect prime time viewing, the evening session takes place at 22.55 AEDT.

Pre-season Formula 1 testing is a key part of setting up title assaults as teams soak up every hour to getting a deeper understanding of their respective 2025 cars before the 24-race season.

Whilst the timesheets may not offer the truest reflection of how the results will appear in Melbourne, they can provide deep clues into the state of teams ahead of the big year.

The fastest in testing does not always mean they will win the opening race.

However, milage can be the deepest insight with many struggling to log laps in testing during the first season of the current V6 turbo hybrid era in 2014.

Mercedes four teams racked up 17,994km, while the three Ferrari squads crept over 10,000 and the four Renault squads could only manage 8,743km.

This proved to be an early insight into the Mercedes domination as it went unbeaten from 2014-2021 in the constructors title.

But it is very rare that the eventual champion ends the test with the fastest time, with the only such instance in the last decade taking place in 2021 when Max Verstappen topped the times.

In addition, 2020 is the only time in the last decade the fastest driver in testing has won the opening Grand Prix when Valtteri Bottas won the Austrian Grand Prix five months later.

Whilst testing has previously been held at Spanish circuits such as Catalunya and Jerez, this year it will just be the three days at Sakhir, which is the last step to Melbourne.

2025 Formula 1 pre-season test driver schedules

Day 1 morning: Liam Lawson (Red Bull), Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), Jack Doohan (Alpine), Oliver Bearman (Haas), Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), Yuki Tsunoda (VCARB), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Alexander Albon (Williams), Nico Hülkenberg (Sauber)

Day 1 afternoon: Max Verstappen (Red Bull), George Russell (Mercedes), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Esteban Ocon (Haas), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Isack Hadjar (VCARB), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Lando Norris (McLaren), Carlos Sainz Jr. (Williams), Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)

Day 2 morning: Lawson, Russell, Gasly, Ocon, Tsunoda, Alonso, Piastri, Sainz, Hülkenberg

Day 2 afternoon: Lawson, Antonelli, Doohan, Bearman, Hadjar, Stroll, Norris, Sainz, Bortoleto

Day 3 morning: Verstappen, Antonelli, Doohan, Bearman, Hadjar, Stroll, Norris, Albon, Bortoleto

Day 3 afternoon: Verstappen, Russell, Gasly, Ocon, Tsunoda, Alonso, Piastri, Albon, Hülkenberg

Image: Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

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