This article could well have been entitled “show me the money!”, the famous phrase from the movie ‘Jerry Maguire’, starring Tom Cruise & Cuba Gooding Jr (1996). Unexpectedly, the first pre-season test of 2022 at the Barcelona Circuit, scheduled for February 23 to 25, will now be held behind closed doors.

And there is more. Not only fans will fans not be allowed to attend but also the winter test will not be given television coverage nor will the usual official F1 timetable be released. Only some photos and selected information on each team’s activity will be provided at the conclusion of each day. 

In sum, Spanish fans have been left wanting to witness the most awaited test of recent times, a once in a lifetime occasion to see the F1 single-seaters of the revolutionary new era running for the very first time. To add insult to injury, the test is now being treated as nothing more than a shakedown run and teams are even being prevented from showing their official liveries in Barcelona but rather hold on for a big reveal in Bahrain instead. 

The only official pre-season test, which is scheduled to take place from March 10 to 12 at the Sakhir Circuit, will keep all of the features which have been removed from the Spanish event. 

The epic fight for the title of the previous season attracted millions of fans, raising the popularity of Formula One worldwide. Prior to the unforgettable 2021 World Championship, initiatives such as the Netflix series on F1 or the increased social network activity has brought the sport to a much younger audience, notoriously hard to reach before. 

It is apparent that steps are being taken in the right direction to transform F1 into a more global, and more profitable, product. On this occasion, however, the company that owns Formula 1 has made a serious mistake. 

If it is true that Liberty Media needs to recover from the economic debacle of 2020, when the COVID pandemic emptied both the circuits and the bank accounts of the American company, the decision to downgrade the Barcelona test does not seem like the best way to help balance its accounts. The unfortunate agreement has been taken on purely financial grounds, as understandable as it is regrettable for such a multinational. 

Bahrain, a matter of money

It is clear that Bahrain, the country that will host the second winter test, has driven a hard bargain with the aim to hoard all of the media attention to its own racetrack. Being the country that first reveals to the world the racing cars designed under the new regulatory framework, will give it the coveted international projection that it seeks. 

The problem comes when their agreed ‘solution’ involves a prejudice to a large part of the fan base –many of which had already booked their trips to Barcelona– and to a venue that has been in the World Championship circuit since 1991. The blatant preferential treatment that Sakhir has been given over Barcelona is alienating, to say the least. 

The new F1 chief executives that came to replace F1 father Bernie Ecclestone, should realise once and for all that their greatest assets are their fans. It is only F1’s colossal audiences that attract sponsors with exorbitant budgets. Since its inception, Formula One has shown no qualms about designating venues without a motorsport tradition or racing on empty circuits if it made financial sense, but this time they have gone a step too far. Seduced by succulent economic offers, Formula 1 has turned its back on its fans. 

Images: Barcelona-Catalonia Circuit.