Sandstorm Bahrain causes flagged afternoon F2 winter test session

The afternoon session of the Formula 2 winter tests has been cancelled. A severe sandstorm would make it impossible to drive on the Sakhir Circuit anymore. As a result, the sandstorm seems to be more severe than the one that occurred during last year's F1 winter tests.

Formula 2 will miss the final test session of 2022. A sandstorm has ensured that the afternoon session of the final test day will not be run. As a result, the teams will miss a good portion of their testing time, which has already been drastically reduced in recent years anyway. It is not yet clear if all teams will get an extra moment to test; it looks like this was the end and the teams will have to make do until the start of the season with the data they now have.

In less than a week, Formula 1 will also head to Bahrain to hold its second week of testing for 2022. Formula 1 also had to endure a sandstorm at times during an official session at the track. This was also the case during last year's test days. However, no decision was made to flag or cancel the session. So it seems that the sandstorm at the moment is a severe one.

If there are also sandstorms next week, it will be very interesting for the drivers in the new cars. The visibility from the cockpit seems to be less good this year than previous years. With a lot of sand blowing across the track, it may be possible to choose to pause or cancel the session for safety reasons as well. In addition, the teams will be able to investigate what strong sudden winds may do to the new aerodynamic package.