F1 links: Bahrain to begin 2010 season

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Sneak preview: Bahrain kicks off 2010 F1 calendar

“It’s an 18 race calendar and it starts with Bahrain because Australia needs to be scheduled for a date after the clocks go forward to shorten up the time difference and make the race time in Europe later.” Bahrain first on the calendar? It wasn’t a great way to start 2006, just can’t rival Melbourne for the atmosphere.

Williams-Renault? That has a ring to it…

"If the BMW Sauber team does survive it is expected to use Ferrari engines, while potential newcomers Epsilon Euskadi is also expected to run Ferrari engines if it gets an entry."

Belgian Grand Prix: Kimi Raikkonen ponders his future at Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen: "If for some reason I am not at Ferrari next season I know I'll have a seat at another team in the paddock. It's not a problem. Other teams want me."

Q & A with Luca Badoer

Badoer syas he didn't mean to let Grosjean past at Valencia: "The team called me on the radio. They told me: 'traffic, traffic' and it was a mistake. I was surprised. It was the first time for me , and I lifted the throttle and let him past. It was just this."

Q & A with Jarno Trulli

Janro Trulli on Toyota not deciding on its 2001 budge tuntil November: "This means that they cannot decide for anyone until then – drivers, on the engineering side or the technical side. It is not an easy thing to handle for a team. Obviously we have got a lot of people working here and it is important to keep the team alive. I'm concerned – in F1 anything can happen. We have to be ready for any kind of opportunity."

Hamilton ‘happier than expected’

Lewis Hamilton "We don't have as much downforce as some of the other teams, so we're not as quick as we'd like to be, especially in the middle sector. Fortunately, however, we have KERS and can use it to our advantage in the first and third sectors. The car didn't feel fantastic today – but we only really had one session to find a set-up so we've got some changes to make overnight. Still, this is a massive improvement compared with Turkey or Silverstone, and we look competitive, which is important, so we're not unhappy."

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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23 comments on “F1 links: Bahrain to begin 2010 season”

  1. Great work Bernie. Now we get to start and finish the season on a soulless, boring track.

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      29th August 2009, 1:36

      Don’t discount Abu Dhabi just yet. At least not until it’s been raced on. If you check out James Allen’s F1 Blog – yes, I know it’s Allen, but he’s actually pretty insightful and sensible about it all when he doesn’t have a microphone – there’s an interview with Bruno Senna who visited the circuit and seems pretty impressed with it. He reckons there’s a few places where the carsare going to get very close to the walls ChampCar-style, plus there’s been the annoucement that the race will start in daylight and finish at night. And then there’s the third turn, which has been built on an artificial hill and was conceived as a “reverse Eau Rouge” with the cars going over a blind crest instead of down through a gully. There’s three very distinct sections to it – a fast driver’s section, a high-speed Mulsanne-like back straight complete with slow chicane that will stress the engines – and a technical section through the final sector. Yas Island could be the equivalent of a “Greatest Hits” compilation of Formula One circuits …

  2. gay. bahrain is just another turkey- no fans, no atmosphere. why not use Malaysia as the opener?

  3. Grace Lovvorn
    29th August 2009, 4:56

    Great way to get pumped about the 2010 season…Bahrain?! Why don’t they have a race where there might be some turnout? And then ending it at Abu Dhabi? Seriously. Bernie needs to rethink those “exotic” places on the calendar.
    …Well, glad to see Montreal back on the calendar. Transatlantic flights are too expensive now, so that’s the only chance I have of going to a GP anytime soon.

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      29th August 2009, 8:20

      Like I said: don’t judge Abu Dhabi until after the race. It might just be a hidden gem, especially with that reverse Eau Rouge. After all, no-one expected much of Istanbul, and we got Turn Eight …

  4. I’m a bit sceptic with the concept of making a race-track made out of best corners from other tracks. If I’m not mistaken that is how they made Magny-Course… It is better to be original and use the landscape as much as possible as was done in the Turkey – turn 8 there is a great and challenging corner which rewards those who can take it better then others, just like the great corner should do.

    What I don’t get in Abu Dhabi is that tunell at the exit of the pitlane – why don’t they just make cars join at the left side of the track? Is there a regulation for that somewhere? Montreal, Interlagos and Istanbul tracks all have pit-lane exits on the left-hand side…

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      29th August 2009, 11:46

      I didn’t mean Abu Dhabi was a “Greatest Hits” in the sense that they’d pilfered bits and pieces from the best circuits in the world to make this one venue. Rather, I meant it in the sense that there are three distinct section to it: a driver’s section, the long straights that will test the engines and driver fatigue, and a tecnical section.

      As for th pit lane exit, it was probably decided that it was too dangerous to have the cars coming out on the outside of the circuit. The driving line though the first corner places the cars on the far right of the circuit as they go through, and that is where the pit lane exit would be: right on the racing line. By dipping under the circuit, the designers have a lot of freedom over the shape of the corner, and with the white line coming just before it, the drivers can get up to speed and rejoin in a safe place, something they couldn’t do on the outside.

      As for why they didn’t just put the pits on the other side of the circuit, well, why not have the pit lane go undr the circuit? It’s not like the drivers are idiots and they’re all going to park it in the tunne wall, is it? It’s only a minor detail, but it could just be one of those things that gives the circuit a bit of extra character in its own way. Kind of like the way the run-off areas go under the grandstands to bring fans closer to the action without compromising safety.

  5. Still no US or French GP.

    I thought the rumours were that Valencia would be moved to October, it is quite close to Barcelona on that draft calendar and you would have they might want to have a bigger gap between the two.

    With this twilight GP in Abu Dhabi I assume there won’t be the problem of the glare from the sunset affecting vision as this was a problem in Australia earlier this year.

    1. Why do you think it won’t be a problem? I’m concerned it will be a big problem…

      1. Before they confirmed the twilight race I thought it could be a big problem as well, but that The FIA etc wouldn’t sanction a twilight race if it had not been proved to be safe especially after Australia.

        On second thoughts with The FIA’s history I am probably giving them too much credit.

        1. They said they will have the lights on whole time but I think the problem will be with the sun setting and ”blinding” the drivers. Unless there is some natural obstacle at the west side of the track of course…

          1. there’s always so much dust in the air that the sun will go down into an orange haze, and not so much glare I think.

  6. What ever happened to the Korean Grand Prix, it’s meant to happen in 2010.

    1. It was originally meant to happen in 2009! I think it’s been put back to 2011 alongside India, but I’m not sure.

      The other thing no one has picked up on yet is that there is a German GP listed on that calendar at Hockenheim. But Hockenheim confirmed earlier this year that they would be unable to hold a race in 2010. So will we have a gap in the calendar or will some other race fill the breach?

  7. For myself, I’m so happy that Istanbul Park’s in the calender as it suppose to be until the contract ends. I was worried about after this year. I hope Turkish promoters find a way to advertise this year’s race.

  8. This is the provisional calendar – on this link there is an analysis on possible changes it could happen to it.

  9. Although it’s no Albert Park, I don’t think Bahrain is that bad a circuit. There’s often a good amount of overtaking and it’s probably going to give us a better idea of form than Melbourne.

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      29th August 2009, 11:55

      I agree. The Turn 9/10 complex at Bahrain is actually pretty demanding, because it’s one of the few places on the calendar where drivers have to brake and turn at the same time. They have to do it through 9 to get the most out of 10; it’s designed in such a way that sacrificing 10 to be better through 9 isn’t worth it.

      I know the drivers like Albert Park as the season opener because the turns are all evenly-spaced. I mean, there’s not a hell of a lot of difference between the first complex and the second. Both are right/left combinations fed into by a quick straight that open out in time for another right-hander. It’s good so that they can get a feel for the car under raceconditions and see how everyone else is doing. It’s always stuck me as a bit too much like testing the water with a toe before diving headlong in, the way it should be (not that you should ever dive headfirst into a body of waterwithout checking the depth).

  10. I like Bahrain, it just lacks atmosphere. I feel that the first 3 races at Bahrain were very good, but the last 3 were not.

  11. I like Bahrain track, it has some nice elevation changes and first corner after back straight (and alternative starting position) is quite challenging as it is ”blind”.

  12. I don’t think Bernie gets the fact that Europe don’t give a hoot if the first race of the season is shown early in the morning. We managed for a decade that way. I’m pretty sure another wouldn’t hurt.

  13. I have never been a fan of the Bahrain circuit. David Coulthard was right when he said that ‘it feels weird to drive around and there is suddenly no spectators’. For the life of me I cannot fathom the decision to run the Bahrain and Abu Dhabi grands prixs when they are so close in terms of distance. The same can be said of Sepang and Singapore!
    One would think that one devalues the other, when we only have one grands prix in South America and non in North America. That in itself is a disgusting decision, and a huge marketing blunder on the part of Bernie Ecclestone. Its almost as if he does it just to p### people off.
    F1 = glamour. Where’s glamour in an Arabian desert? A second race in South America would be better, or a race in the USA again. Maybe try an oval circuit for one year, see how it goes? City to host it, Miami.
    Simple reason. Glamour, sun, sand, good looking people, and a huge latin American population who would embrace F1 asmuch as the Paulistas do.
    Forget Indy, Watkins Glen. Make a bigger splash that that.

    1. For the life of me I cannot fathom the decision to run the Bahrain and Abu Dhabi grands prixs when they are so close in terms of distance. The same can be said of Sepang and Singapore!

      Only one reason, money.

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