2010 Bahrain Grand Prix preview

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Ferrari's long-run pace marks them out as candidates for victory

The off-season finally draws to a close and the teams have assembled at Bahrain for the first round of 2010.

After little to no testing the 12 teams have to tackle one of the most punishing tracks on the calendar in the first race of the year.

With Michael Schumacher returning, exciting new driver pairings at McLaren and Ferrari, new teams and more this is one of the most highly anticipated Grand Prix seasons I can remember. Who will start the year with a victory?

Practice clues to form

Pre-season testing has been even more difficult to read than usual now that the cars can have much greater differences in fuel loads.

That will also make practice tricky to suss but with 24 cars all on-track at roughly the same time we should have a much better idea of form by Friday evening.

Many teams will be running their latest aerodynamic upgrades for the first time, including Ferrari and Mercedes. McLaren already ran theirs at the last test session at Barcelona and are only bringing minor developments to Bahrain.

McLaren will also learn whether the stewards approve of their design of rear wing, which has been challenged by Red Bull among others. They have brought alternate parts if it is deemed illegal.

We also expect to see the first appearance of the HRT cars in practice, with Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok at the wheel.

High temperatures and high brake wear are the two greatest demands at Bahrain. Although we have already seen the teams testing their cooling solutions they haven’t been able to simulate the consistently hot 30C-plus temperatures forecast for this weekend.

Changes to the track

Bahrain International Circuit track map (Click to enlarge)

For the seventh running of the Bahrain Grand Prix the race will be held on the longest of the track’s configurations, which is now called the ‘new Grand Prix circuit’.

At a whisker under 6.3km this is the second-longest track on the calendar. Only Spa-Francorchamps is longer, but the two circuits couldn’t be more different. The new section at Bahrain adds even more slow corners to a track which had a lot of tight bends to begin with.

The extra section itself isn’t new, but it isn’t used much, so the teams will find it has even less grip than the rest of the circuit. It’s also quite narrow – as little as 11m in places whereas parts of the original track are 16m wide.

This all adds up to a section which is not likely to produce much overtaking but could provoke errors from drivers. Locked wheels and flat-spotted tyres could prove especially costly in the new refuelling-free era so drivers will have to exercise caution in the curved braking zones.

Drivers to watch

You could pick any of them, really, but here’s the four I’ll have my eye on the most:

Michael Schumacher – Obvious, really. Mercedes aren’t far off the pace and their upgrade could bridge the gap. Can he win on his return to F1?

Fernando Alonso – Finally back in a top team but the balance of power between him and Felipe Massa will be crucial.

Jenson Button – The other driver who’s made a big off-season move. We’ll get our first glimpse of how the two most recent world champions compare head-to-head in identical cars.

Bruno Senna – Both Senna and Karun Chandhok face daunting challenges in getting the HRT up and running. Will the car run? How far off the pace will it be?

Remember to join us for the F1 Fanatic live blogs during every session of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Keep an eye out for the live blogs on the site during the free practice periods, qualifying and of course the race itself.

Predict the pole sitter and top five finishers in the Bahrain Grand Prix for your chance to win F1 tickets, DVDs, books and more

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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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64 comments on “2010 Bahrain Grand Prix preview”

  1. Wow, looking at the racing line for the new section has made me decide that this will be one of the worst Opening rounds of Formula 1 ever! I just hope that it is then dropped and the old circuit is re-instated.

    1. Why? It looks challenging.

      1. as challenging as Valencia… :P

        and still doesn’t guarrantee a good race :P

        I think we’ll all enjoy it anyway :D

    2. everyone is hoping some from bruno but hes a disgrace to sennas name he really only knows how to crash le manns cars

      1. So that’s why Ross Brawn very nearly put him in a Honda last year…

      2. relax….

      3. I don’t think, he is that bad. Only the name makes him have to live up to quit a level!

        His largest problem will be to get the car through the training and qualifying in one piece. If they make it to the start, then hold on for as many laps as it goes, trying not to be to much in anybodies way.

      4. Mark Hitchcock
        11th March 2010, 14:28

        I dunno about everyone else but while I think Bruno is good, I’m not expecting anything from him this year.
        He’s in what will probably be the worst car on the grid by miles, in which a race finish will be as good as a victory.

  2. I can not wait for it…
    Bring it on !!!!

  3. Florida Mike
    11th March 2010, 1:24

    Looks as “busy” as Hungary; not my favorite speed. Hoping for a clean race with few DNFs or penalties. I’m most interested in seeing the relative performance of the teammates; the rivalries this year are the big story for me.

  4. Is it true that the 2010 F1 season starts tomorrow?

    Driver to watch
    Kamui Kobayashi-can he show his pace again as he did in the last two races in 09?

    1. lol yes it really is true… can you believe it? A loong boring 3 months is FINALLY over.. Turn up the volume!!!! The race is about to start!!

      1. looong??
        They went really quick with me for some reason!

  5. Cacarella a vento
    11th March 2010, 1:59

    I have set up two PVR’s just to make sure that
    I don’t miss the practice sessions! I think Massa will also be one to watch as he’ll have a few things to prove to his team, fans, and management. He Always runs well at Bahrain.

    1. wots a pvr?

      1. i think he meant dvr

        1. PVR – Personal Video Recorder same as a DVR (Digital Video Recorder). We use the term PVR in Canada. Not sure where else in the world they call it that.

          1. PVR in Australia as well. Maybe the rest of the world use TiVo?

          2. It’s PVR in the English speaking world and DVR in the USA.

    2. Sky+ is what I call it, even though my recorder is a freeviwe DVR box

  6. So, what channel can you record?

    1. In Canada, I can record two of the three practice sessions on the speed network.

  7. OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!!

    1. i second that

  8. Prisoner Monkeys
    11th March 2010, 4:36

    I’ve been looking forward to this race for along time. For a while now I’ve felt Formula 1 has been lacking something, and that that something was a grid that was too small. I’m disappointed that USF1 can’t make it a full twenty-six cars and that Stefan won’t be standing in for them, but twenty-four is more than we had last year, so I’m not feeling short-changed.

    Of all the races in the calendar, I’d say it’s the first round that is most likely to produce a surprise result (that and Hungary, which has the distnction of producing seven different winners in seven years). Nobody really knows where they ar relative to everybody else, and an extended off-season usually makes the juices flow. Add to that the fact that Bahrain is almost always hot and that there’s a new section of track and we could be in for a race of attrition.

    I’m really hoping the new section can produce some fun and games. Bahrain might have had a high number of slow crners to begin with, but the new section adds a high frequencey of corners. In fact, if you look at it, there’s ten corners in the space of a kilometre – the next most-frequent occurance of bends is just five over the same distance. The frequent changes in direction should have some influence on setup, because the new section really breaks up the rhythm of the old circuit.

    In the same vein, I’m very curious about turn nine. It looks like it’s about to become as important as turns seventeen and eighteen (already one of the most difficult corner complexes in the championship) when it comes to nailing a good lap. A mistake as early as turn six is going to have huge consequences through seven, eight and nine. But the reason I’m most interested in nine is the apex: in almost every video I’ve seen, the drivers are putting the inner wheels on the sand. Graned, most of these have been rFactor laps where the sequence is not prperly rendered, but Webber came exceptionally close to doing it in the Red Bull walkthrough. I think it’s because of the combination of the corner’s camber and a low ripple strip. We could be seeing a lot of cars – particularly in the early sessions – picking up sand and dragging it onto the circuit at the corner’s exit. Even if the sand is sprayed with adhesive, that will only cause problems with it sticking to tyres.

    1. Even if the sand is sprayed with adhesive

      According to preview information issued by the circuit, it isn’t:

      Despite rumours, sand around the BIC has never been glued to stop it blowing onto the track.

      1. Prisoner Monkeys
        11th March 2010, 9:43

        Well then, that will create an interesting situation. Especially if thecars ar cutting through urn nine; they’ll be dragging sand onto the racing line.

    2. Nice take on the new section. To me, turn 7 looks like it could produce some interesting moments.

      1. Your Hungary observation only holds true if you ignore the 2009 result in which Lewis repeated his 2007 victory ;-) Still, it’s a good spot that one. I hadn’t realised how varied Hungary is compared to other tracks.

  9. The new section will be boring I guess, but it will change the setups of the drivers the way that it will be easier to overtake!

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      11th March 2010, 6:05

      I wouldn’t bet on it. Difficulty in overtaking has more to do with overly-sophisticated aerodynamics thansetup. If someone really bothces their setup, they’ll be passed very quickly at the beginning of the race.

      1. Andrew White
        11th March 2010, 8:11

        I think it’s more a case of setting your car up for top speed to aid overtaking, or for high downforce in the corners. If the cars take a mixture of setups and a car set up for overtaking comes up behind one that isn’t, then it will make a pass more likely.

        Brazil is another track where this happens.

  10. I wish all the best to Bruno Senna, but I think he is in the sport only because of his last name, not the skills. That’s not enough to really compete in Formula One. Remember Nelsinho Piquet? I think we will se something similar here.

    1. I believe not. You see, even Ayrton Senna himself said that Bruno will be better than him (And I believe Ayrton is not lying about it). And since Ayrton’s death, Bruno haven’t race in an single seater for a long time (unlike Nelson Piquet jr I believe).

      But, amazingly he finished 2nd (if i remember correctly) in the 2008 Gp2 series without the experience of a single seater. So you can imagine how good/fast he can be if his career is not interrupted by his family.

      1. When Ayrton died, Bruno was eleven years old. Ayrton was a great racing driver, but he wasn’t a fortune teller :)

        The thing with imagination is that you can imagine anyone to be insanely fast. We will see, and I really hope to be wrong on this one.

        1. Although he had an unspectacular time of it in F1, Nelson Piquet Jnr didn’t get in just because of the name. He also got in because he came second in GP2 in 2006.

  11. Today there will be the first conference press with Drivers.
    11 WDC in the conference room plus Felipinho. Looking forward to read what they say… I would like ro be there!

  12. I don’t know why people think we’ll have a boring race – as far as I recall a season opener in 2006 was quite good.

  13. This season and specially this race we will see a lot more DNF’s than we are used to the last years.
    For the new teams it will be very hard to get to the finish. Alguersuari always had a trouble to get to the finish. On the other side we don’t have the DNF of Nakajima.

    Is it me or is the time slowing down? Still one more day to go for the free practice.

    1. Eje Gustafsson
      11th March 2010, 15:20

      Ohh this week been going really really slowly…

  14. FOM have rejigged the website it seems, my old username and pass for live timing don’t work now and you need to be regged and logged in even to look at their streaming vids from last year.

  15. Just knocked this up:

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/ajokay/bahrain_circuit_2010.jpg

    Surely this would be a better use of the additional track. It makes the new wiggle a lot faster, plus you get a parabolic final corner!

    1. A much better layout!

    2. I like it. ;)

    3. Hermann Tilke had better watch his back! :P

  16. To any of the people that do karting in the United Kingdom, has anybody noticed how similar the new track looks to Whilton Mill’s full configuration? Haven’t noticed it up until now.

  17. I think that with a lot of new spec cars – low practise hours and relatively – except in some cases – michael low experience of F1 racing there may be more incidents of turning into another car failing to see an ovetaking car etc – I also think that ant car that hasnt been driven before should be withdrawn on safety grounds at least but heh ho – lets see if I’m wrong – ps I hope I am – roll on practise day

  18. sorry for ant read any? – whoops!!

  19. I cant wait anymore..Its killing me….Bring it on 2010 F1 season

  20. The winner of the first grand prix generally goes on to win the WDC, History has shown.

    I have put down Massa as my pick for the winner in the predictions page. Lets hope he doesn’t disappoint.

    The new section I think reduces the chances of overtaking. Downforce will be only slightly lower than in Monaco / Hungary / Singapore.

    Drivers will have to be careful at Turn 1 though. It is the longest breaking zone, any lock-up / flat spotting there, and you are looking at a really slow and long lap to the pits.

    1. Eje Gustafsson
      11th March 2010, 15:23

      My bet is Hamilton will flat spot his tires on the first corner. Expect at least 3 cars out during first lap 2 of those the new cars.
      Unless 2 or more of the new cars starts from the pitlane. I would expect you will see at least one of the new cars to start from Pitlane.

  21. I think Alonso will be up front, but never forget Schumacher. I think Mercedes expect to really be there with their new floor and diffusor.

    Massa has a good score on this track (without the extra bends) and Button has nice memories about the last time he was here as well.

  22. Early to bed tonight. Up early tomorrow, full pot of coffee on the go and the live timing screens, now working again, up and running. BBC TV on the red button, Radio Five Live for the commentary. Bliss! Only twenty one hours to go now. Get that green light on.

  23. Penelope Pitstop
    11th March 2010, 10:17

    Out of the hospital just in time! I just hope I’ll have the energy to stay awake through everything (I think the excitement will keep me up–I felt giddy yesterday after nothing more than setting my DVR)!

    1. Nice to see you back on here Penelope and hope you’re feeling better soon :)

  24. I’d say watch Massa and Hamilton too. Massa’s only just returning and he generally does pretty well at this track. Hamilton should cope with the rules fine but if he’s too aggressive (perhaps especially at the end of the track) he could get into trouble with tyres or even brakes. I think he will be fine for it-and any driver could really make the mistake-but he’s probably the most aggressive driver on the grid so there is a bit of room for some action or mistakes from him.

  25. Does anyone know if it’s possible to pick up live English-language commentary on the Continent (Germany)? I’ll take anything – radio, web — as long as I can mute the German on RTL, which you can bet will be 83.5% about Schumacher.

  26. Prisoner Monkeys
    11th March 2010, 12:34

    Mark Webber has reportedly groaned after samping the circuit extension. He says it’s just a load of tight corners, but some of the other feedback on it has been positive: Adam Cooper points out that the new section is almost constantly climbing or dropping, and that the sequence of bends from five to nine get progressively tighter, so there’s a lot of lateral changes in direction.

  27. I wouldn’t bet on Hamilton, he is rubbish here!

    1. apart from last year

  28. I don’t know if others knew but after looking at the FIA website it seems Alain Prost is going to be a steward for the Bahrain GP

    Pre Event Information

    http://www.fia.com/EN-GB/MEDIACENTRE/F1_MEDIA/Pages/pre_event.aspx

    Stewards’ Biographies – Prost

    http://www.fia.com/EN-GB/MEDIACENTRE/F1_MEDIA/Documents/bhn-steward-prost.pdf

  29. hasn’t Hamilton had consistent problems w/ tire wear? trying to recall specifics…

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