For most of the drivers in the formula one world championship, the Grand Prix of Bahrain is an event that has its roots from becoming a race with lots of heat, long straights and tight corners, and a long way to travel for most journalists. It also can be remembered for its citizens protesting against its government, which one year cancelled the race.
However, for this season, things might become hot in the desert, but in its ten year anniversary of the race, the circuit at Sakir will become only the second race to be run under the lights, next to the September event at Singapore. And with it comes a little bit of different strategy, now that that the conditions are being relied now on warm air and perhaps a cooler track temperature.
The whole concept of this race, as it could be in others coming up, is the ability of the new power units to see how they can be handled. At this moment, it is the Mercedes units which are recovering very well to the new regulations, could give them more of an edge with especially the works team rumored to have even more power saved for this race, in comparison to the previous ones.
Ferrari themselves are finding the competition rough going, although Fernando Alonso has placed fourth in two consecutive races. But many are thinking in the Ferrari camp that this must be improved in order to catch the top Mercedes works team, which have won the opening two events.
As for the Renault teams, Sebastian Vettel’s finish in third recently in Malaysia took a quick step in the right direction. But as the world champion has already mentioned “that the team has still a lot of work to do,” is well proven that little by little, his team can come around and just might close even by the time the European rounds begin in May.
However for now, many are still teething with their new rules, regulations and above all, how they are going to get used to driving the new engines as the season goes along. This weekend’s event is not a good place to have an easy challenge, but it is a good place to improve on what the teams have worked on.