Formula 1 is full of complex lingo and circuit-specific narratives that can confuse and baffle the occasional viewer or new fan. Why is the Hungarian Grand Prix known for its quali bias? What makes the Singapore Grand Prix the most physically challenging race? And why do teams use different rear wings for the Monaco Grand Prix?

With 23 circuits, there can be a lot to take in, so we’ve organised for you to join us in Lando and Oscar’s engineering briefings, where we’ll walk you through this weekend’s key trackside topics so that you can enjoy the Bahrain Grand Prix to its fullest.

Lando’s engineer Will Joseph is leading this weekend’s engineering briefing. And even after three days of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, there’s plenty to get our heads around. With the race taking place at sunset, the changing track temperatures play a significant role in our decision-making, with tyre choice, the number of pit-stops and how low we run our cars all affected by the heat. With the help of Will, and in partnership with Google Chrome, we’ll explain and simplify all of the above and more.

Time to begin. Grab a coffee and follow us through the glass doors and into the Paddock Performance Centre. Take notes if you need them, but please keep them to yourself.

Engineer: Will Joseph
Event: Bahrain Grand Prix
Circuit: Bahrain International Circuit

Background

From a race engineering point of view, Bahrain is unique. Less so for being the first race, and more for being the only race with a three-day test beforehand. Therefore, we go into this weekend with a lot of data – but that doesn’t fundamentally change what we’ll do today, and the sessions here will look similar to what they’ll be elsewhere.

There are two main reasons for that. The first is that we didn’t get as many laps completed during the pre-season test as we would have liked, so there are still some unanswered questions – though there always are – and we will have experiments to answer those.

The second is that analysing data will inevitably generate new hypotheses, and more questions to answer, which shape our run-plan for today. We do have lots of data, and our car set-up is fairly well understood, so the questions the run plan will answer are more concerned with fine-tuning than usual.

We all have new cars for this race, and Pirelli’s tyre range is also new – but the changes are not dramatic, and we wouldn’t expect the nature of the Bahrain Grand Prix to be much different to how it has been in previous years.

Tyre choice and pit-stops

That would mean a two-stop race is likely, but a three-stop can’t be ruled out. Figuring out what tyres we want to use will be very important. We’ll be paying close attention to them in FP1 to make sure we make the right decisions for FP2 onwards. No one wants to use a tyre in FP2, only to confirm it’s the one you wish you’d saved for the race!

It’s particularly relevant at Sakhir because the tyres do take a beating. It’s always been regarded as one where low-speed traction is a problem for the rear tyres, with lateral traction zones out of the first corner complex, then Turn 4, Turn 8, and Turn 10. That’s generally the limitation – though the front-left also takes a pounding.

Changing temperatures

The complication is that the temperatures are quite different from the afternoon sessions to the evening, with FP1 and FP3 being a lot warmer than FP2, qualifying and the grand prix. You’ll never extract the ultimate pace from the car in the afternoon, and the balance is in a different place – but there is still to learn from driving around.

Deciding how low cars can be run

Aerodynamic testing, for instance, is still just as relevant on a hot track, and you can do a lot of work on ride. The latter will still be a very big topic this year, with the cars generating load by getting as low as possible.

Last year, discovering how low we could run the car was critical – but the limitation would be different from track to track. It might be limited by wear to the plank, or the heights of the floor edges. The latter shouldn’t be a problem with the new rules. Here, it’s likely to be the bumps around the track, particularly a big one into Turns 9-10.

Free practice plan

Because we’re chasing the same information as last year, we’d expect the shape of our practice programmes, here and elsewhere, to follow similar patterns to what we saw last year. We’d expect to start FP1 with two low-fuel runs with a test item, and then high-fuel at the end of the session.

FP2 might see a little more variation, with teams deciding whether they’ve done enough high-fuel work at the test, and so concentrating more on low-fuel qualifying pace – or if they still want to simulate race conditions with a heavy fuel load. That could go either way.

What is the likely pecking order?

While we’re doing that in race engineering, up and down, the pit-lane strategists will be trying to figure out the same thing as everyone at home: where is everyone on pace? After three days of testing, no one really knows. We’re assuming it’s a very tight midfield, but we’ll find out as practice progresses. Interesting times.

Briefing complete. Time for Lando and Oscar to head out onto the track so we can collect some data and put our hard work to the test.

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