Formula One Vault

PRIXVIEW – Bahrain Grand Prix

Round four of the season sees F1 return to Bahrain for the Grand Prix following Radman and the first three flyway races in Asia for the first night race of the season. The Sakhir Circuit was one of the new generation of circuits which joined the calendar in 2004 and has been a staple on the calendar every year except 2011.

The circuit features many of the characteristics favoured by its designer Herman Tilke but this is one of the better circuits designed by the German as it mixes three straights with a twister infield section around an oasis in the centre of the circuit. That means for the race weekends race teams need to find a balance between the two, high speed that matters on the three straights and that means that good downforce and speed are very important, as well as breaking at the end of the straights.

The infield middle section is the more technical and twisty sector, which will be an interesting section to watch over the coming weeks as it will give us an idea of how closely cars will be able to follow each other. The circuit normally favours cars which are good at high speed and high downforce, Mercedes being strong through most of the hybrid era.

The Sakhir circuit is one the drivers know well having been hosting races since 2004 as well as several tests, it is a high-speed and downforce circuit with a technical infield so gives us a good idea of a car’s performance. This means that it tends to favour the teams at the front.

McLaren, who are partly owned by Bahraini investors, have never won what you could call a home Grand Prix. They have won two of the three opening Grands Prix in quite a strong way at circuits which have been about straight-line speed, they certainly have the advantage.

In testing however while it was a good guide this weekend offers a good opportunity to see how good cars are in warmer conditions as it was unseasonably colder and wet in February, though it was always going to be warmer given we are later into the spring when it gets warmer.

Teams will have gathered some data from testing at the end of February,  however that will be slightly useless as in mid-April it is a lot warmer than teams would have got use to over the last five years. This is also a night race which effectively makes it like a sprint weekend with only one hour of representative practice before qualifying though they had a bit of night running in testing.

The race takes place in the evening meaning that the track will cool down throughout the day, meaning setup during FP1 and FP3 the teams need to be careful not to react to the changes to the car in the warmer conditions.

Michael Schumacher won that race, until Max Verstappen beat it in 2023, won all but one race during that 2004 season. In the midfield we have seen really close racing in recent years as the circuit allows drivers to follow close through the middle sector allowing for possible overtakes at twelve and thirteen.

2010 season opener saw the race take place on the Endurance Layout, on his debut for Ferrari Alonso led his teammate Felipe Massa, in his first race following a head injury at the previous season’s race in Budapest. Sebastian Vettel had looked on course to win that race until lap 34 when a gearbox problem forced him to concede the lead to Alonso.

This meant that he was eventually overtaken by Massa and Hamilton too, meaning that he finished in fourth place, on his return to the sport, Schumacher finishing sixth, one place behind teammate Nico Rosberg. Reigning world champion Jenson Button completed his first race for the McLaren team by finishing seventh.

However, this race isn’t without controversy, the 2011 race was postponed and later cancelled due to what’s known as the Arab Spring which caused problems during testing. In 2012  Force India mechanics had been involved in a petrol bombing.

Since 2014 this race has been a night race, the beginning of the night race era began with a bang that has become known as ‘the first dual in the desert’ between Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg would define the sport and see three seasons. Hamilton winning two and Rosberg one.

Vettel took the first of two consecutive wins in 2017, he passed Valtteri Bottas after Max Verstappen retired with brake failure and Hamilton took a five-second penalty after holding up Daniel Ricciardo during the pit stop. Vettel eventually passed Bottas, who released Hamilton with ten laps to go. The German’s win from pole the following season made him then the most successful driver in Bahrain.

Charles Leclerc looked on course to win from pole in his second start for Ferrari, until an engine cylinder failure caused him to slow by several seconds and be overtaken with ten laps to go before being overtaken by both Mercedes, but hung on to score his first podium.

2020 saw the race postponed again because of Covid with a double header in November. Hamilton won the first race one which was defined by a huge firey accident where Romain Grosjean escaped his Haas with only severe burns to his hands after he clipped the rear of Daniil Kvyat sending him into the wall.

The race is colloquially known as “the miracle in the desert”. At the second start, Kvyat crashed with Lance Stroll and collided at turn eight. Stroll’s car was flipped upside down but he was not injured in the crash. Kvyat was able to continue but was issued a ten-second time penalty, sending him down the order. Stroll’s flipped car brought out a safety car, during which Bottas’s car developed a puncture, forcing him to pit for new tyres.

The following weekend with Hamilton testing positive for Covid, George Russell was given his Mercedes debut. It was all going well with Russell on course to follow in Alonso and Verstappen’s footsteps by winning on debut for a team, but that came undone when his Williams replacement Jack Aitken spun and crashed at the final corner.

Mercedes reacted bringing Russell in from the lead, but wrongly fitted Bottas’s tyres to his car meaning he had to stop again. That dropped Bottas to fourth and Russell to fifth. Gifting Sergio Perez his maiden win and saved his career after being dropped by Racing Point/Aston Martin.

Three months later it was Verstappen took pole for the 2021 race from Hamilton, setting the season up to be a clash between them. At the start, Verstappen was able to hold off Hamilton in the opening phase of the race before holding off the Mercedes, the battle would continue all race long. In the closing stages, Verstappen was told to give the position back, as he ran wide giving Hamilton the lead and victory.

2022 saw Leclerc redeem himself by winning the race from pole thanks partly to Verstappen losing the lead and retiring in the closing stages because of a steering issue which allowed Perez briefly into third before spinning out because of a fuel pump failure. That moved Hamilton into third and Russell fourth despite them struggling for pace.

Verstappen and Perez locked out the front row in 2023, before dominating the race from pole. But it was a case of Deja Vu for Leclerc, he had been comfortably third for most of the race then a sudden loss of power on lap forty which led to him stopping on track and bringing out the virtual safety car. A perfect strategy call by Alonso allowed him to take third and his first podium since Shanghai in 2014.

Race & Circuit Guide

Fast facts

• Less than half of the races held at Bahrain International Circuit have been won from pole. Just nine of the 20 races at the track have been won from the very front of the grid. The furthest back win here was for Sergio Perez in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix. He started fifth.
• In 2022, Charles Leclerc took Ferrari’s seventh victory in Bahrain. The Scuderia have held the record for most Bahrain Grand Prix wins since the inaugural event in 2004.
• Bahrain is one of only a handful of current F1 circuits at which McLaren has not yet recorded a victory.
• Kimi Raikkonen finished on the podium eight times in Bahrain but never won the race.
• After the 2007 Bahrain Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton were all equal on points at the top of the championship. The last time that three drivers had been tied at the top of the Drivers’ Championship was in 1950, after the Indianapolis 500.

Event timetable

What happened in 2024?

FP1 saw RB’s Daniel Ricciardo top the times with a 38.254, which put him ahead of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, however, are unrepresentative of qualifying and the race. Norris split the two Australians after he was almost two-tenths faster than his McLaren teammate.

FP2 saw Lewis Hamilton lead a Mercedes one-two with a 30.374, two-tenths faster on the oft tyres than his teammate George Russell. Fernando Alonso was third eight hundredths behind the two Mercedes, with less than a second covering the top ten.

FP3 was topped by Carlos Sainz with a 30.824 going just under a tenth and a half ahead of his fellow Spaniard Alonso. Although the session wasn’t reprehensive of qualifying the times backed up the feelings of many of an extremely tight qualifying. Alonso was just under a tenth faster than the current champion Max Verstappen, the favourite for pole once the teams go into the first meaningful session of the year.

Qualifying saw Verstappen beat Charles Leclerc by two-tenths to take pole. However, it was tighter as Red Bull didn’t appear to surge ahead of Ferrari and Mercedes. Russell was third for Mercedes just under eight-thousandths of a second behind the Ferrari, which underlines how close it has become behind Red Bull. The Englishman going two hundredths faster than the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz

Verstappen took dominant victory in driving another smooth race making it look easy as he beat his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez by twenty-two seconds as he took a clean sweep this weekend.  Verstappen made a brilliant start as he fended off Charles Leclerc into the first corner. He steadily opened the gap from the off another leaf out of the Verstappen textbox as he sailed off into the distance. Sainz eventually finished third, two and a half seconds behind Perez, beating his teammate Charles Leclerc by fourteen seconds after overcutting him at the first stop.

Championship Standings

What to watch for?

F1 returns to Bahrain with things looking a bit different than before last weekend with Max Verstappen taking pole and the win in Suzuka. The question is was that a one-off, as to me that’s a real outlier in these opening five races given it is more technical or is this the kickstart he needed to his championship defence? I think he got a bit lucky as McLaren messed up on strategy last weekend, and Verstappen took advantage of that.

All the teams will have some data on testing, though conditions are very different and we had unusual conditions at the end of February. But as we have seen in the opening races and the analysis of testing suggests that McLaren are going to be the strongest though we didn’t see performance running in testing.

This circuit is similar more to Melbourne and Shanghai than Suzuka, given it basically three straights and an infield section. We know that overtaking is good but not easy this race isn’t so dependent on strategy and safety cars as we have seen great battles over the years, but I think tyres could be key as it’s going to be warmer and this is hard on tyres, meaning multiple stops.

Red Bull I think aren’t there yet, but they could be heading in the right direction, as I think Verstappen proved why he is a four-time champion with the way he won last weekend. They will be there, but we need to see McLaren’s response as well as Ferrari and Mercedes as there is a long way to go in this championship, but teams will want the momentum over the next fortnight.

I think Ferrari needs something to kick start their season, I don’t think they have had a major in race mess up with the technical disqualification in Shanghai, rather they have not got the most out of the car. Lewis Hamilton took half a season to win a Grand Prix for Mercedes and so did Charles Leclerc, but we need to see them get some momentum.

We are also seeing a very tight midfield and it was very close in testing, but as with all the teams I expect the first raft of upgrades and see how much progress the teams have made from testing. As this is a twilight race, I suspect the FP1 session to be used as more as a test session as this is the fourth race of the season and somewhat comparable to testing.

2024 vs 2023 Race Data

20xx Lap time comparison

Tyres