Shakedown, doors closed… or almost: live timing working in the morning of day-1

F1 Shakedown, (almost) completely armored On the occasion of the debut of the Formula 1 cars in 2026, the Circus wanted to “protect” day-1 of the new era by armoring the shakedown underway at Montmeló. Liberty Media and the teams, on the other hand, had no interest in exposing themselves, considering the foreseeable numerous technical problems that the 11 teams in the championship could run into. In Catalonia, therefore, the shakedown is behind closed doors. Or rather, it should have been. In fact, throughout the morning today, the live timing of the circuit became available to the public due to a technical problem. The FIA, probably under pressure from the teams themselves, solved the problem and from 1.05pm it was no longer possible to have “official” times. Although access to journalists and photographers was denied, several colleagues showed up in Barcelona in the hope of secretly obtaining some information. During the day, however, the security measures around the circuit were tightened: not only are the times no longer accessible, but the shots “stolen” from the track have practically disappeared. Throughout the afternoon, the only updates from Catalonia were provided by the Spanish newspaper SoyMotor, which indicated some times. Regardless of how day-1 ends, in terms of communication the FIA ​​and Formula 1 have left something to be desired, both for having missed the times of the first morning and for having demanded closed doors in the social era, in which information is conveyed immediately from one part of the world to another.