The race before the test: Why F1 teams have been running old cars

It will come as little surprise – not least to those chuntering about the show’s inadequacies – that the cars displayed at this week’s F175 livery launch were mostly showroom dummies.

Except one.

The Red Bull, while definitively not the RB21 due to race this season, was unique in that it actually had an engine in the back. Before the 2025 decals were slapped on, Liam Lawson had been pounding around Silverstone at the weekend under the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) protocols.

All the teams have been doing this before shaking down their 2025 cars. Even the ones who, up until a couple of years ago, didn’t have two pennies to rub together.

Many teams have also now got those shakedowns in the bag ahead of next week’s official pre-season test in Bahrain.

There are two key motivations for getting all this work in early, and they both feed in to the same goal. The drivers want to shake off any lingering winter ‘rust’ (even though the last race was only a little over two months ago) and the teams want their launch-spec cars ready to gain maximum mileage at the test, so the first batch of performance upgrades can go on as soon as possible.

Williams, for instance, ran both Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon in an FW45 at Barcelona 10 days before sending them out again in the FW47 at Silverstone. Speaking at the launch of the new car, Sainz was emphatic about the need to be in a state of maximum readiness for the season ahead – a process which for him includes assimilating himself into a new team environment.

Sainz, like all F1 drivers, has been getting in as much mileage as possible before pre-season testing

Photo by: Williams

Lapping Silverstone’s ‘International’ circuit (ie going straight on at ‘The Loop’ rather than turning left) in 3C ambients on dummy tyres wasn’t going to tell him or the team much about performance but it was all about maintaining momentum. In Sainz’s words, “riding the wave”.

Ultimately the desired outcome is to maximise the points gain from the opening rounds before pivoting towards 2026 development and leaving the ’25 cars essentially in a frozen spec. The timing of these decisions will vary according to how the opening rounds pan out for specific teams, but they will have to be made early – likely well before round nine, when the FIA’s technical directive on flexi-wings comes into force.

“It is a gamble for everyone,” Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur told select Italian media in a briefing during Wednesday’s shakedown at Fiorano. “At some point in the season a choice will have to be made between the 2026 project and the development of the 2025 car, a choice that will be dictated by where we are in the championship standings. After the first four or five races we will evaluate the situation and choices will be made on how to distribute the available forces.”

Teams therefore can’t afford to start this season with cars which need extensive conceptual debugging. Performance-critical components often have long lead times

It will not be a binary process of switching off one project and starting another, since all the teams have already embarked on 2026 development. It’s a question of resource allocation and operational priorities, but there will come a point where, given budget cap and resource restrictions, the 2025 project begins to drag on momentum for ’26.

Teams therefore can’t afford to start this season with cars which need extensive conceptual debugging. Performance-critical components often have long lead times.

“Certainly if we’re called upon to react we will not be able to do so after June,” Vasseur said. “The time needed to study and implement important pieces is not short, and probably in the summer we will all be focused on 2026.

Targeting the early rounds of 2025 before teams switch development focus is also a factor this season

Photo by: Pirelli

“If we remember the end of the 2021 championship, when there was the head-to-head between Mercedes and Red Bull, both teams were able to bring upgrades in the last two events, which means still being operational in the tunnel in September.

“So, the situation in which we find ourselves is the initial phase of the championship will be decisive. If you’re a second behind your opponents, there is no point in continuing to develop.”

Famously, Ayrton Senna would spend the northern hemisphere winter relaxing on the beach in his native Brazil before checking back in on development progress come spring, consigning the test drivers back to the bench. That approach no longer cuts it: this week Charles Leclerc landed at Bologna via private jet at 4.30am after the F175 event so he could be with his engineers at Fiorano for the SF-25 shakedown by dawn.

Not far away, at Imola, Yuki Tsunoda was getting ready to shake down the Racing Bulls VCARB 02 - with Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad in the garage next door aboard a 2023 AT04 in TPC spec. An interesting variation on the theme of getting a flying start in preparation for the new season, but entirely in character for an organisation that likes to keep its race drivers on their toes…

Who will benefit the most from the early legwork in 2025?

Photo by: Pirelli