Taking a step closer to Europe we next see ourselves at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Situated on the south of the main island, the complex opened in 2004 and features 6 individual tracks including a drag strip and an oval.
Apart from a few exhibition races in Dubai in the 1980's this was the first time the Middle East started hosting F1 races.
Designed by Herman Tilke the track is quite tight and technical rather than fast and flowing. Believe it or not a sprinkler system is in place around the track attempting to keep the sand off the track. 12,000 tonnes of stone were used making this track, one third of it Welsh granite, chosen for its excellent surface adhesive qualities.
The spring weather seems to be pretty good, dry and hot without the opressive humidity we saw at Sepang. Average temperatures for April is around 28 degrees C.
Having said that we saw in pre-season testing that sand storms can ravage the place!
The long range forecast is no rain for Fri, Sat or Sun, with a high of 37 degrees C on Friday dropping to 34 for Sat and Sun. A nice dry race at last!!
The track itself is 3.4 miles long with 12 turns; 7 left handers and 5 right handers. At four points we reach 7th gear, at the other end of the extreme we also have two 1st gear corners. This years race length is 57 laps.
The lap record is currently held by Michael Schumacher with a 1:30.252.
Previous winners, Massa, Massa, Alonso, Alonso and Schumacher. No prizes for working out that neither Massa or Alonso will get the hat trick this year unless several cars go for a spot of destruction derby!
Coming off the back of China it would appear that Red Bull are the ones on form having secured a 1-2. BrawnGP are still no slouches though, McLaren seem to have developed some pace and Renault will have some data now about their diffuser.
The big question will be will anyone else introduce a new diffuser by next weekend and who will run KERS?
In the future it will be worth keeping an eye on Red Bull and Williams.
If Red Bull are this strong without a diffuser it shows than Adrian Newey has indeed worked some magic once again. If he manages to incorporate a double decker diffuser into that Red Bull, Vettel and Webber will more than likely be locking out the top podium steps quite often.
Williams have themselves a flywheel KERS system to introduce at some point. They have been pretty quick with Rosberg in particular impressing in free practice. It will be interesting to see how the flywheel system delivers its power once its fitted and running.
I think that Bahrain will be the maybe the last opportunity for Brawn, Red Bull and Toyota to perhaps maximise points before the European season comes into play and the rest of the teams start to fit their new diffusers and aero modifications.
F1 TIMETABLE. Times shown are our times:
Fri 24 April 2009
Friday Practice 1 08.00 - 09:30
Friday Practice 2 12.00 - 13:30
Sat 25 April 2009
Saturday Practice 09.00 - 10.00
Qualifying12.00
Sun 26 April 2009
Race13.00
Here's an onboard view of the lap from 2004 with Sato. Just listen to that V10 scream!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpf6LiRK37o
Off season saw the teams test here so they all have plenty of data on the track so set ups should be fairly quick unless Bridgestone throw a spanner in the works and bring the wrong tyres!
The Red Bull has been fantastic in the wet, lets see how they compare to Brawn GP in the dry.
Away from the track we have a few things brewing up:
The spat between Flavio and Ross Brawn linky
McLaren team furious with Hamilton linky
Lastly, I apologise for the images below. I attempted to put them into the article but they ended up below!
Situated on the south of the main island, the complex opened in 2004 and features 6 individual tracks including a drag strip and an oval.
Apart from a few exhibition races in Dubai in the 1980's this was the first time the Middle East started hosting F1 races.
Designed by Herman Tilke the track is quite tight and technical rather than fast and flowing. Believe it or not a sprinkler system is in place around the track attempting to keep the sand off the track. 12,000 tonnes of stone were used making this track, one third of it Welsh granite, chosen for its excellent surface adhesive qualities.
The spring weather seems to be pretty good, dry and hot without the opressive humidity we saw at Sepang. Average temperatures for April is around 28 degrees C.
Having said that we saw in pre-season testing that sand storms can ravage the place!
The long range forecast is no rain for Fri, Sat or Sun, with a high of 37 degrees C on Friday dropping to 34 for Sat and Sun. A nice dry race at last!!
The track itself is 3.4 miles long with 12 turns; 7 left handers and 5 right handers. At four points we reach 7th gear, at the other end of the extreme we also have two 1st gear corners. This years race length is 57 laps.
The lap record is currently held by Michael Schumacher with a 1:30.252.
Previous winners, Massa, Massa, Alonso, Alonso and Schumacher. No prizes for working out that neither Massa or Alonso will get the hat trick this year unless several cars go for a spot of destruction derby!
Coming off the back of China it would appear that Red Bull are the ones on form having secured a 1-2. BrawnGP are still no slouches though, McLaren seem to have developed some pace and Renault will have some data now about their diffuser.
The big question will be will anyone else introduce a new diffuser by next weekend and who will run KERS?
In the future it will be worth keeping an eye on Red Bull and Williams.
If Red Bull are this strong without a diffuser it shows than Adrian Newey has indeed worked some magic once again. If he manages to incorporate a double decker diffuser into that Red Bull, Vettel and Webber will more than likely be locking out the top podium steps quite often.
Williams have themselves a flywheel KERS system to introduce at some point. They have been pretty quick with Rosberg in particular impressing in free practice. It will be interesting to see how the flywheel system delivers its power once its fitted and running.
I think that Bahrain will be the maybe the last opportunity for Brawn, Red Bull and Toyota to perhaps maximise points before the European season comes into play and the rest of the teams start to fit their new diffusers and aero modifications.
F1 TIMETABLE. Times shown are our times:
Fri 24 April 2009
Friday Practice 1 08.00 - 09:30
Friday Practice 2 12.00 - 13:30
Sat 25 April 2009
Saturday Practice 09.00 - 10.00
Qualifying12.00
Sun 26 April 2009
Race13.00
Here's an onboard view of the lap from 2004 with Sato. Just listen to that V10 scream!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpf6LiRK37o
Off season saw the teams test here so they all have plenty of data on the track so set ups should be fairly quick unless Bridgestone throw a spanner in the works and bring the wrong tyres!
The Red Bull has been fantastic in the wet, lets see how they compare to Brawn GP in the dry.
Away from the track we have a few things brewing up:
The spat between Flavio and Ross Brawn linky
McLaren team furious with Hamilton linky
Lastly, I apologise for the images below. I attempted to put them into the article but they ended up below!
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