Welcome to The Briefing, where you can get a jumpstart on the Bahrain Grand Prix with our guide to the key topics.

Every race weekend, we’ll speak to one of our engineers to discuss the key talking points ahead of the upcoming Grand Prix and simplify them so that you can dive straight into the action with a better idea of what to expect and what you should be looking out for.  

This week, powered by Google Cloud, we spoke to Adrian Goodwin, where he explained the impact of pre-season testing on our practice plans, why we’re focusing on long-run pace and how the cooler temperatures will make a difference.

1. Pre-season testing gives us a base to work from

Last week’s test seemed to go by in a blur, and then jumping straight from that into race preparation has ensured everyone is very busy. Bringing the race forward a day may not sound like a huge change, but from within the team, it really feels like the timescale has been compressed quite a bit.

Having had the test, much of the typical FP1 and FP2 work has already been covered. Of course, the cars are all-new but there is a sense of continuity for this season. The main change for us is our references: It’s 12 months since we last raced in Bahrain – but the MCL38 has a lot more in common with the car that finished the 2023 season than the one that started it, so for the test, we’ve been basing our set-up more around that car.

Even with this, our understanding of the car at the start of the test felt pretty reasonable, and we could spend our time at the test getting into the detail, looking at the pros and cons of the Soft, Medium and Hard tyres.

2. Tyres are a big factor this weekend

The tyres we chose to use at the test – C1, C2, C3 – were those that we’ll be racing this weekend. After testing new tyres at various points last season, Pirelli have elected to stick with the 2023-spec tyres. We knew from last year that the C5 didn’t last very long at all on this circuit. Beyond doing just a single lap headline run, the value was pretty limited. The C4 was similar, and so ultimately, we decided to spend our time with the C3 that we’ll qualify with, which we know is a reasonably robust tyre at this circuit, especially within the heat of the day.

Tyres are a big factor this weekend. Last year, the race was a two-stopper for most people and we’d expect similar in 2024. Degradation might be a bit lower because car performance around the grid has moved on – but we’d still expect two stops. Three stops looks a little bit too far away in terms of numbers – but we’ll not be making any assumptions and today’s running will provide valuable insight for the strategists.

We have the usual Bahrain concerns: managing thermal overheating of the tyres is a big issue. The track is very rough and rather than struggling with wear, you hit thermal limits and that is what determines grip limitation and traction.

3. There remain some questions around set-up

The car won’t be in exactly the same spec we had at the test as there are a smattering of updates to prove-out today – but the main focus is going to be getting the drivers back-up to speed after a few days out of the car, rather than running a comprehensive test programme.

Without any major aero tests to perform, the priority is dialling in the set-up that little bit more, working on tyre management for high-fuel running. We’ve pretty much settled on the rear wing level we want to run, based on looking at our own performance and the straight-line speed of competitors at the test – but we can always see how the track grips-up and what others are doing, before making a final decision.

4. The temperature isn’t what we’re used to in Bahrain

One thing to note in that is that it’s expected to be unseasonably cool. Peak temperatures are going to be around 20°C, with evening temperatures around 16°C – which is four or five degrees cooler than what we usually see at Sakhir. That tends to move you towards the lower downforce levels of what you have available at this early point in the season. So, we'll probably stick with that and then just look to start dialling in the setup.

5. Why we’re prioritising long-run pace

The priority for us is working on the long-run pace, and understanding the tyre degradation. There’s a strong race-bias at this circuit, and we’ll focus our efforts on that, rather than qualifying performance.

We might run the two cars in slightly different specifications today. Around this circuit, it’s important to get the ride-height low, which means you need to run the car stiff – but it’s very bumpy. This means there’s a trade-off to be made, with driver comfort being very important.

With the amount of track-warp, you want to run low roll-stiffness – but for Turn 12, you need high roll-stiffness, so there’s lots of different set-up compromises to be made, and we might use different set-ups on the two cars to find out as much as possible. Even though we’ve already done a lot of work at this track, there’s always a bit more to do.

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