Following the spectacular season opener in Australia, the teams are ready to race at the Bahrain International Circuit is Sakhir for the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix. All eyes will be on Mercedes and Ferrari, as we hope for a continuation of their close battle in Australia.
The Bahrain International Circuit is memorable for the spectacular battle between the two Mercedes drivers in the 2014 event. The circuit is located in a desert and the race is held at night, under the lights. Weather isn’t expected to be a factor, as rain isn’t too common at the circuit, although some teams have reported that the track temperatures aren’t as high as they have been in past events.
As for the layout of the circuit itself, it’s fairly fast. There aren’t too many sharp corners, as the circuit consists of four high speed straights and a number of sweeping corners that can be taken at a fairly quick pace. The cars can reach a top speed of 335km/h and the brakes receive a lot of wear because of the temperature and the high speed at which the cars enter the corner. Statistically, the driver on the pole has a great chance of winning the race, as nearly half of the race winners started on pole. If the pole position doesn’t take the victory, the driver from second on the grid has a good chance, but don’t expect anyone from outside of the first two rows of the grid to take the victory here because that has never happened.
This plays greatly into the hands of Mercedes, as they locked out the first row of the grid. Lewis Hamilton has the pole position, with Nico Rosberg alongside. Which Mercedes driver will lead the way to the finish line? I’m thinking that Rosberg has a great chance of taking a second victory this season. He was faster than his teammate in every session, expect for qualifying, where he was narrowly beat by his teammate. Although many are concerned about another poor getaway off of the grid, like we saw in Australia, I’m sure that the team have made adjustments and done some work on the simulators to ensure that this was only a one off.
I get the feeling that Ferrari is pretty much playing for the second best team in this race. Although they were very close in Australia, I’m just getting the same vibe this weekend. The only thing that may help Ferrari during the race, is Toto Wolff’s promise before the season began, when he said that the Mercedes teammates were allowed to race. Of course, it would be crazy to believe that Mercedes would allow their drivers to race to the point where they are taking each other out or even to the point where they are allowing Ferrari to catch them. However, Rosberg and Hamilton are two drivers with fairly big egos, so they will not like it when the other tries to pass them.
As for the order of the two Ferrari drivers, I think that Kimi Räikkönen will do a bit better at this circuit because he has more experience and success here. Many people seem to rule out Räikkönen, but it’s important not to underestimate him. Surely he won’t try to make an overtake and jeopardize the team’s result, if he finds himself in front of his teammate because of pit stop strategy, then perhaps he could stay there.
For the final position in the top five, I’m expecting that it will still be Daniel Ricciardo. Although the Red Bull’s pace is very good this season, they are no match for the Ferrari. Their competition behind is Williams, a team which hasn’t been as impressive as they were in 2014.
Hopefully Bahrain can provide us with another great battle, like we saw in the 2014 event. Best of luck goes to Stoffel Vandoorne, as he makes his race debut in Fernando Alonso’s car. Also best of luck to the Haas F1 Team, who are looking to repeat their Australian Grand Prix pace and get some more points. Of course, the focus will probably be on Mercedes and Ferrari, as we wait to see which team has the pace this season. The red flag caused a lot of strategy issues for Ferrari in the previous round, so it will be interesting to see what will happen without those types of issues in Bahrain.
