Keeping the first F1 2026 testing session private may protect appearances, but it also deprives the series of a rare opportunity to show how a new era truly begins
The Barcelona test in February will be behind closed doors
When Formula 1 announced that its first 2026 pre-season test, at the end of this month, will take place behind closed doors, there was no official explanation about the reasons, but it is reasonable to speculate that factors such as logistical complexity, competitive secrecy, and the risk of early technical problems played a role.
With brand-new cars, new engines, and a radically different aerodynamic formula, the concern is understandable: there will be failures, garage-bound drivers, and long stretches without any meaningful laps.
But those very reasons are precisely why keeping fans and media out of Barcelona during the January 26-30 test is a mistake.
Modern Formula 1 is no longer just a championship made up of races. It is a championship of stories that unfold over the course of months, both on and off the track.
Unless something sensational happens during a race, the post-weekend talk quickly pivots from the racing itself to very different narratives, few of which are usually connected to the on-track action.
The new era of media, not to mention Netflix’s Drive to Survive, has trained a generation of fans to care not only about who wins, but everything that happens in between the races themselves.
Regular media as well as social media have made the behind-the-scenes world of engineering, strategy, and development part of the spectacle itself.
By closing its first test — at the behest of teams — Formula 1 is taking a step back from the very transparency that has helped expand its global appeal.
The first 2022 test was private, but with content and laptimes at the end of each day
Grand Prix Photo
The championship’s popularity has never been higher, as revealed by F1 itself at the end of last year.
In 2025, total season attendance hit a record 6.7 million, up from 6.5 million in 2024, with 19 of 24 events completely sold out and 11 new attendance records set.
Four race weekends drew more than 400,000 fans – including Australia (465,000) and Great Britain (500,000) – while 10 others surpassed 300,000 attendees, from Monza to Canada.
These numbers underscore that the global audience is not only vast but intensely engaged, hungry to experience the spectacle firsthand.
Digital engagement has similarly exploded. F1’s social media following now exceeds 114.5 million, a 19% increase year-on-year, while platforms like TikTok (+91%) and YouTube (+53%) show extraordinary growth.
F1 content outperforms major sports leagues in engagement, and highlight videos continue to attract millions of views. TV audiences have also grown steadily, with an average global weekend viewership of 70 million and live viewership growth across 18 of 24 races. Even in key markets like North America, the championship broke all-time single-season viewership records.
Taken together, these figures show that Formula 1’s reach and influence are at an all-time high. Fans are not only more numerous than ever, they are also more informed, digitally connected, and eager for insight into the cars, teams, and drivers they follow.
Against that backdrop, keeping the first 2026 test behind closed doors is a missed opportunity to share one of the most compelling moments of the year with the very audience that has propelled the series to unprecedented heights.
The value of the first look
There is a long and compelling precedent for why early tests should be open, or at least visible to the media.
The 2026 rules overhaul is one of the biggest in recent history
FIA
In 2009, Brawn GP’s first pre-season laps revealed little of the championship-winning potential, but they gave fans and journalists a sense of the engineering challenge teams faced.
In 2014, the first hybrid cars sputtered and stalled as they kicked off testing, giving everyone an early glimpse of reliability issues and performance disparities.
In 2022, porpoising dominated the headlines because cameras caught cars bouncing violently across circuits during early runs.
In every case, the early, sometimes chaotic moments became essential narrative anchors for the season. That is exactly what the 2026 cars’ first runs should represent.
Teams’ fears of a messy first test is understandable. Radical rules resets, new power units, revised energy deployment regulations, and tight cost caps mean the first few days will likely be dominated by cars sitting in garages and drivers getting only handfuls of laps. To an outsider, that could look embarrassing.
To conclude that the test should be secret, however, is misreading the lesson: messiness is the story.
It shows how complex these cars and engines are and why incremental gains matter so much. It also helps humanise the engineers and drivers, and it frames the season’s story in a context that polished launch videos cannot replicate.
No spectators, no media and no social media for the first test
Red Bull
The secrecy undermines the media ecosystem that makes modern F1 sustainable. Journalists and content creators rely on early testing to analyse, speculate, and explain – to make sense of the complexity of new cars and regulations. A closed first test shifts the discussion, and instead of building excitement, it feeds rumour and misinformation.
There is also a broader cultural point. F1 is at one of the peaks of its global popularity in decades, and fans are not passive; they want to understand development, see trial and error, and be a part of the journey. To deny them the first public glimpse of the 2026 cars is to suggest that fans can only enjoy the series once it is ‘ready’, as if their excitement depends on perfection rather than the struggle to achieve it.
A better way to go about testing?
Public testing could be staged in a way that balances exposure with real competition: timed sessions, partial media access, or curated visuals.
The choice to be entirely closed is less about protecting intellectual property and more about controlling the look of early development, and that is a mistake.
The contrast is stark when we consider what a first test can provide.
An open session gives fans a first taste of the regulatory reset, a sense of each team’s approach, and context for early-season performance. It transforms potential embarrassment into storytelling.
At its core, the decision reflects a subtle shift in the identity of Formula 1 and its teams, which are behaving as if they need to present a perfectly polished product rather than embracing the inherent uncertainty of new technical rules and the issues that come with it.
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But regulation changes are meant to be messy, and occasionally uncomfortable. Reliability issues have always been one of F1’s most intriguing features, and something that has been dearly missed during the past years.
The story of 2026 will inevitably unfold on the track and in the garages, but by choosing secrecy, the series is managing perception to avoid short-term blemishes. Whether that comes at the cost of long-term engagement and understanding remains to be seen.
None of the big manufacturers in the series wants to look like it doesn’t know what it’s doing but the illusion is unnecessary. One of the things that has always made Formula 1 compelling is that it exists at the intersection of extreme precision and inherent fragility. These cars are technological marvels, yet they are constantly one minor miscalculation away from failure. That duality has long been central to the championship’s appeal – and it is precisely what is being hidden by a closed first test.
Ultimately, the decision to hold the first 2026 test behind closed doors feels less about protecting the integrity of the championship and more about protecting the interests of its teams and manufacturers at a vulnerable moment. There is a clear desire to avoid early embarrassment, to shield complex new projects from scrutiny before they are fully understood. But in doing so, Formula 1 risks overlooking the audience it now serves.
This is a disservice to fans who have been encouraged, for years, to care about development, experimentation and the realities of engineering at the limit. They understand that new eras begin imperfectly. They accept that failure is part of progress. By denying them access to the first, formative moments of the 2026 rules cycle, Formula 1 is withholding some of that magic.
In choosing to close its doors at the very start of a new era, the F1 paddock is turning away from one of its greatest strengths, and leaving its audience on the outside at the moment they most want to be let in.
