Only a few days after wrapping things up in Malaysia, the season moves on to Bahrain - out into the middle-eastern desert. A location that has come under so much protest in the past - such that it was cancelled back in 2011, and it was that cancellation that allowed this corner of the internet to come into being. So there you have it - an anti-government uprising is directly responsible for the amount of inaccurate nonsense that I continuously pour into cyberspace - so you know who to blame on that one. But Bernie does like going to places with a little bit of controversy behind them, every time we arrive in the Gulf we're reminded of the past conflicts, and made aware of potential human rights issues in China, economic difficulties in India and gang violence in Brazil. Wouldn't it be awkward if we were going to have a race anywhere near Crimea or the Black Sea...
Back to Bahrain and this next stage in the season represents a third unique challenge - replacing the humidity and monsoons of Malaysia with the sand and dry heat of the desert. Which again causes difficulties with anyone with reliability issues in the cooling department, further compromised by the sand drifting into the internal organs of the fragile racecars. However information coming through twitter from the teams setting up in Sakhir claims that the temperatures are much cooler than they'd expect - but still a lot more than temperatures here around Blog HQ. Cooler conditions will also be more of a factor this season as the race has now been scheduled as a night race for some reason...There were even some images from earlier in the week showing some rainfall in the area, although the race weekend as a whole looks to be the first completely dry one of 2014.
The Venue
The Bahrain International Circuit tends to divide opinions, because it is a very polarising layout some of it makes use of the limited amount of elevation that the barren desert provides, while other elements fall into the generic 'required elements' too many of the Tilke designs have. I refer to the spate of long straights feeding into hairpin corners - because at the time it was developed that was the recipe for overtaking... allegedly, which then conveniently played right into the hands of the evil force of DRS. But in Bahrain's most recent appearance on the calendar it produced arguably one of the best races of the season, including a superb intra-team battle at McLaren.
The layout of the track does consist of potentially one too many straights and hairpins, which only serve to break the flow of the lap. The start straight for example is longer than it needs to be - at one point holding the accolade for the longest straight all season - ending in a three part complex, initiated with the first hairpin of the lap. Turns 1-3 were engineered to allow cars to pass and immediately re-pass one another before exiting onto straight number two. Straight number two leads into hairpin number two at one of the higher points of the circuit.
On the descent down the other side, it feels like someone in the design office was allowed a faintest fraction of creativity unleashing a series of sweeping corners, which with the new downforce configuration should be a lot more interesting. But that creativity is cut short by hairpin number three pointing cars at straight number three. At the end of this latest straight we have the most interesting hairpin (to the extent to which a hairpin could ever be interesting...). It is hidden on the other side of a slight kink and a gentle descent, if any one corner in the world has burned through the most locked front tyres it's this one.
After an unnecessary sequence of corners - no matter how interesting they may be - that bloke who drew the initial sweeping corners was briefly let back into the room for a couple more additions to the layout. Taking advantage of the curvature of the land to build an ascending sequence of corners terminating in a blind sweeper at the highest point of the circuit. Just as the track curves back towards the end of the lap - the regular designer returned and deciced that the best way to take the track from the highest point back to the finish line is another long straight and a pseudo hairpin... such imagination...
The Form Guide
To be honest if we don't see at least one Mercedes on the podium - one of those on the top step - something miraculous will have taken place. It looked comfortable in Australia, but Malaysia was a display of unstoppable dominance - crushing the opposition while turning the engine down from about half distance. On top of that Red Bull seem to be alone in second place behind the all conquering Mercedes team - but Ricciardo will have to make up some ground after the stewards threw every volume of the rulebook at the Australian. We have to drop even further back to find the first does of competition, where Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Hulkenberg are in the same league, waiting for those ahead to retire or earn every penalty under the sun. In the dry, on a track with a lot of straights the gap between this group and Red Bull could be a lot smaller as the Mercedes engines claw back the aerodynamic advantage Newey's creations have. So Williams, McLaren and Force India could be a problem for Ferrari making the points positions very crowded.
The mid-field at the moment consists of Toro Rosso - armed with the frightening death stare of Daniil Kvyat - and whoever finishes out of Lotus and Sauber, both of whom have had questionable reliability thus far. It can be said that Lotus are slightly towards the back of the group on single lap qualifying pace, but in race trim, if the car survives, can run up with Sauber and well clear of the bottom two teams. In Malaysia Grosjean was able to hold off Raikkonen in a damaged Ferrari for the final phase of the race, so all is not lost for the Endstone team,.
We do have to consider what is going on down at the very back of the grid, and like so many seasons before neither Caterham or Marussia can compete with the cars ahead of them on a regular basis - Caterham tried in Malaysia. Kobayashi battled to hold off Grosjean and Raikkonen, but was outclassed by the superior machinery of those around him. Chilton retains his record of finishing every race of his career - albeit as the last classified runner of both races in 2014. As the season and development race continues, perhaps, just perhaps they can close the gap.
Just like Malaysia a few days ago Bahrain isn't noted as being as one of the highlights, the sort of race you circle in the calendar as being particularly exciting - last race didn't prove that theory wrong - but Bahrain has contravened that tradition before. Most notably last season, as noted earlier, it was unusually entertaining. The new downforce levels in those few corners that deviate from the strict diet of straights and hairpins, would make the track more challenging, and those hairpins aren't calibrated to the high torque turbo engines. So wheelspin under acceleration on an abrasive surface may turn this event into a tyre conservation event, as well as a high fuel consumption event... but we'll just have to see how it goes in Bahrain's first night race weekend.
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