The Chinese Grand Prix has come and gone. Mercedes responded in superb fashion from their Sepang troubles with a controlled win over Ferrari who seemed to have no answer. However, although it seems that Hamilton destoryed Ferrari’s advances, there is no cause for concern for neutral and indeed Ferrari supporters out there. Bahrain is a different world from China. The early weather forecasts have indicated that air temperatures will soar near or even above thirty degrees centigrade. What does that indicate? The more keen-eyed Formula 1 fans will have noticed that Ferrari like warm temperatures and certainly that is going to have implications this weekend.
In brief, a warm air temperature heats up the track and that in turn heats up the tyres to a great extent causing them to wear faster. Pirelli, who supply the tyres for Formula 1, have predicted warm track temperatures yet have opted to go with the soft and medium compound tyres again—the same pairing from China. This may seem like a strange choice but considering the race progresses from the afternoon sun into the late evening darkness it’s a good call by Pirelli. As the light descends into darkness in Sakhir track temperatures will decrease rather rapidly and so the need for the hard orange wall P-Zero tyre is lost. This probably benefits Mercedes, who lacked pace on this tyre back in Malaysia, but the long session practice runs will evidently show which teams have the pace on which tyres at the Bahrain circuit.
The circuit itself is an interesting one. At 5.4km it’s nothing other than average in terms of length. The interesting element to the track is its design. The track consists of fifteen turns with a fair balance of left and right-handed corners. The long pit straight where the second DRS zone lies is where the majority of overtaking will be done with the straight ending in a tricky hairpin where more overtaking can be attempted. The first corner is notoriously difficult; the cars bunch up on the first lap as they head down off the grid which can often lead to incidents. The circuit also contains three other straights and the drivers will find themselves on the throttle for large parts of the lap. Bahrain throws up some other tricky turns. A flat out S-section makes up turns 5, 6 and 7 with turn 10 being another very technical corner. The first of the two DRS straights on the lap follows turn 10.
Bahrain is very tough on rear tyre wear and with an even balance of both left and right hand turns this applies to both rear tyres. Bahrain is hard on the brakes too and this will be a cause of concern for Red Bull who have been struggling with brake temperatures recently. This might also make sister team Toro Rosso sweat but we will have to wait and see. A three-stop race is the most likely scenario unless teams can stretch out the medium compound tyre as we head into the dark half of the race.
Last year, Lewis Hamilton just pipped Nico Rosberg to victory and he will be looking to back that up with another win at Sakhir. Don’t discount Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari, however. Ferrari will like the warmer track temperatures as previously mentioned as well as the fact that Vettel is a previous two-time winner at Bahrain. He will be looking to equal Fernando Alonso for the most ever race wins in Sakhir.
Alonso likes it around Bahrain but has not won here since 2010 and don’t expect him to change that this weekend either. Yes, Alonso and Mclaren are improving, but Bahrain requires good straight-line speed due to the four straights which is something their Honda engine really lacks. Force India got on the podium here last year with Sergio Perez finishing third but don’t expect a repeat of that performance either as the Force India VJM08 has so far struggled this season. A good midfield battle is expected between Sauber, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and possibly Williams who may not like the warmer Bahrain track temperatures. As for Manor Marussia, they will be happy to bring both cars home at the end of the 57 laps. It is worth mentioning that it’s very, very unlikely to rain and Pirelli have acknowledged that fact.
It promises to be an intriguing Bahrain Grand Prix where Mercedes will be hoping for their third one-two finish of the season and the Ferrari team will be looking to upset the Silver Arrows again and cause a Desert storm in the Middle East.
