© Vladimir RysJust Desert: 7 Things You Need To Know About The Bahrain GPSlightly later than advertised, F1 is heading to the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix – here’s our lowdown to what’s going on at Sakhir this weekend.
Nine months ago, in the middle of March, the odds of having a Bahrain Grand Prix in 2020 appeared infinitesimal.
In Albert Park, on the Friday morning of the Australian Grand Prix, when the first race of the year was formally cancelled, no mention was made of the Bahrain Grand Prix to follow – but it was understood that the paddock would be heading home to Europe rather than to the island kingdom in the Arabian Gulf.
Over the next few weeks, as more races were called off, Bahrain made a point of saying its race was not cancelled but merely postponed. At the end of August, it was officially resurrected, and given a double-header as part of the season-ending tour through the Middle East.
The Bahrain International Circuit provides a fascinating venue and a fascinating racing experience.
A Light Show Of Our Own© Getty Images
Ask teams at which FIA Grade 1 circuit they would most like to conduct winter testing and they’ll say… Barcelona. Offer to cover their logistics costs and more than a few will revise their opinion and go for the Bahrain International Circuit instead.
Bahrain offers a similarly eclectic variety of corners to Barcelona, with a similarly useful length of straight and the sort of abrasive tarmac that doesn't take long to find-out a car that isn’t looking after its tyres. What it has that the Circuit de Catalunya lacks is the sort of climate that provides a suitable simulation of what the teams will face during the racing season. It also has the floodlights, which means more bang for the buck if a full day of testing doesn’t require the programme to halt at sunset. In recent years, it’s become a popular spot for an in-season test after the grand prix, but has in the past hosted winter testing – and may do so again next year.
F1 doesn’t provide for a great deal of leisure time, and even less when the track action takes place in the evening, but one of the perks of going to the Bahrain International Circuit is the Bahrain International Karting Circuit, located behind the main grandstand concourse.
It’s an absolute belter and a firm favourite with garage crews after work – if they can fight their way through the queue of drivers keen to have a crack at it themselves. Serious bragging rights are established out in the desert – though there’s generally a few sore bodies in the garage the next day.
Bringing The Evening Entertainment© Getty Images
Even in normal years, the Bahrain Grand Prix tends to be one of the more low-key races on the F1 calendar, without the enormous crowds that throng the track in countries with bigger populations or longer-established tourism industries.
Bahrain does, however, pull out all of the stops for those that do attend with the main concourse behind the start-finish grandstand turned into a carnival, complete with fairground rides and circus acts. It generates a great atmosphere – and while it’s a bizarre experience, there’s something very cheery about walking into work alongside a stilt walker and the back-end of a pantomime horse.
On the normal F1 calendar, Bahrain is one of three night races – but the phrase ‘night race’ is one of those guaranteed to antagonise pedants everywhere (but mostly those within the F1 paddock).
Singapore is a genuine night race; Abu Dhabi is a day/night race as it starts in daylight and Bahrain… well, Bahrain is usually somewhere in between. The Bahrain Grand Prix is timed to begin at sunset. It’s the right time of day to keep F1 in its usual Sunday afternoon slot in the big TV markets of Europe – but it also produces a wonderfully dramatic TV image of the cars going to the grid with the huge orange disc of the sun sinking to the horizon.
But ‘sunset’ isn’t the same thing as ‘night’. In astronomical terms, sunset is followed by twilight, dusk and then night, with the first part of the race usually held in the phase of evening called ‘civil twilight’, where the sun is between 0°-6° below the horizon and there’s still sufficient daylight for people to conduct outdoor activities (for example, racing Formula One cars) without the aid of artificial light. The floodlights will be on at this point in Bahrain – but it always seems odd to be at a ‘night race’ taking place in daylight.
On Track At The Bahrain International Circuit© Getty Images
The lap record in Bahrain is an oddity. It was set in 2005 by Pedro de la Rosa for McLaren. The eagle-eyed, will notice that de la Rosa’s lap is over a second slower than Michael Schumacher’s fastest lap set at the first Bahrain Grand Prix a year earlier. So why is the record de la Rosa’s 1:31.447, rather than Schumacher’s 1:30.139?
The answer is to be found at the top of the hill, where turn four was realigned between 2004 and 2005 with the kerbs moved. The changes have actually made the track a little shorter – to the tune of about five metres – but technically it’s a different circuit configuration. It’s not particularly unusual to have lap records reset because of something like this – it’s just unusual for the disparity to be in effect for so long.
Until this year, Bahrain has always hosted its grand prix in the opening cluster of races, including the season-openers in 2006 and 2010. For teams still learning about their new cars, it has often proved to be a fairly brutal experience. It’s tough on brakes, tough on tyres, the high ambient temperatures challenge cooling packages, and the amount of dust blowing in off the desert can do very unpleasant things to the moving parts of engines and gearboxes.
We’ve had four mechanical DNFs in Bahrain but the failure that hurts the most is Sebastian Vettel’s fourth place in 2010, when a broken spark plug saw him lose both a cylinder and a comfortable lead. There was, however, restitution in 2012 and 2013 when he gave us victories at the Bahrain Grand Prix. His second place in 2009 is our only other podium at Sakhir.
Lights Bring Bahrain To Life© Vladimir Rys
What geological curiosity links the Bahrain International Circuit with the rural English market town of Shrewsbury? It is not the particularly tasty biscuit occasionally served in the Energy Station but rather aggregate used to create the track in Sakhir.
The circuit uses a type of crushed rock called Greywacke in its asphalt composition, favoured in Middle Eastern circuits (it’s also used as Yas Marina) for its ability to cope with the very high temperatures experienced by the circuit in the summer months, without the track surface deforming. Using this particular variety of very dark sandstone creates an abrasive surface that makes the Bahrain Grand Prix a tough proposition for the tyres. And the connection with the Shropshire County Town of Shrewsbury? The Greywacke used in Bahrain was quarried on its outskirts and shipped 7000 nautical miles to the island nation in the Arabian Gulf…
