This year F1 pre-season testing has been cut from eight days down to six, spread across two weeks. But what will this mean for the teams and the season as a whole? F1 technical expert Mark Hughes explains...

The reduction this year of the two pre-season Barcelona tests from four to three days each is just the latest in a quest to reduce costs. There have been regulation restrictions on testing since 2003, regularly tweaked and with further limitations ever since. The tradition of Barcelona hosting the only pre-season testing began in 2016, placing increasing focus on those two weeks of intense activity. Now the total test programme has been reduced from a total of eight days to just six, before the cars are packed up and shipped to Australia for the first race.

What will be the competitive and operational effects upon the teams of this change? Broadly, the lower priority tasks will simply fall off the lists and ways will be found to either accomplish them at the factory or in general running on Friday practice in Melbourne.

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There are basically two elements to the pre-season tests: validation and performance. Before serious performance testing begins, teams will perform several tests confirming the car works as suggested in simulation, that there are no mechanical, cooling or bodywork issues. Beyond there, they will be taking aero rake readings of the car at set speeds and attitudes, checking that the aerodynamic map is as it was designed to be, that the reality matches the simulation.