Welcome to The Briefing, where we’ll be answering the key on-track questions ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Each week, powered by Google Cloud, we’ll be speaking to one of our trackside experts to walk you through the biggest talking points and provide you with a simplified guide of what you’ll need to know to jump straight into the action. This week, we spoke to Tom Stallard.

Just over a month on from official pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, we’re back in Sakhir for the fourth round of the season. It’s a circuit we know very well, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing for us to learn…

Tom will walk us through how the car has evolved since the test here and the decisions the team are facing this weekend, including the potential strategies and tyre choices. He’ll also explain how the team will cope with the extreme heat in the middle of a busy triple header.

Were you able to do much preparation for the Bahrain Grand Prix when the team was here for testing?

We did slightly less than we normally do, simply because it wasn't the first race. So, we focused more on general testing than Bahrain preparation. The assumption was that we would have learned a lot after three races, and so doing Bahrain prep at the test was less useful.

I think that has proved correct, because we have learned stuff. At the test, we didn’t optimise the car setup for Bahrain specifically. It wasn’t a million miles away, but there were things we chose not to do that would have helped with this race because we wanted better comparisons across test items.

Has the car evolved much since running here in late February?

We've got a few changes to the suspension, which should drag a little more performance out of the car. And since testing, we’ve got a new rear wing beam. That ran in Japan, so it’s not new on the car for this weekend, but it’s a step forward from what we had at the test, so the car should be a step better.

The other thing that’s effectively new is the expectation of ambient temperatures hitting 37°C in FP1. We’ve not run the car in these conditions. We have a high-cooling kit and have had it for a while, but we’ve not run it. There will be a bit of experimentation today to understand how much cooling we have.

We’ve found that the cooling performance on the tighter bodywork is better than expected, so we’re fairly comfortable that we’ve got enough capacity with this looser bodywork – but you never know exactly how much you’ve got until you get onto the track. We’re more concerned about keeping the drivers cool.

There is a new driver cooling kit for this year, but its use is optional. If the FIA declare a heat hazard, will it be worn by Lando and Oscar?

The FIA has now said that the drivers will not be required to wear the vests, but you still have to carry the extra mass if a heat hazard is declared, and you will still have to carry a system that could function. So again, we'll be fitting that on Friday to check it out and make sure it's all okay. The heat hazard declaration is based on the Sunday forecast, and currently that’s looking a bit cooler, so there’s a good chance it won’t happen here. 

In terms of the aerodynamic package, will the car be as it was in Japan?

It will be very similar: same rear wing main plane, same beam wing, probably a little bit more gurney. We do have other beam wings to choose from, but at this stage of the season we only have two types of rear wing main plane, and the lower downforce one is clearly wrong, so we’re fairly well set. Regarding the beam wing, this is the one we think is going to give us the right speed, and it’s efficient. If we see we’re massively out-of-bed for straight-line speed, we’ll have to look at other options, either to go faster or slower on the straight – but we’re expecting to be in the right place.

China and Japan were both one-stop races on tracks that have been traditionally two-stop venues. Could we see similar in Bahrain?

When we were here in February, and track temperature was 18°C, I think maybe a one-stop was possible but with the track temperatures we’ll have here, it looks much more like a two-stop race. What we're not completely set on, is which compounds to use – so we’ll be figuring that out today based on how the tyres perform in hotter conditions.

Winter was so cold, and the other tracks have been resurfaced, so there is a little bit of learning to do, because it feels like things have moved on a little bit more than they probably have… but we’re not completely certain.

Obviously, the compounds are new this year. We ran them at the Abu Dhabi test last year – but didn’t run a C1 because Yas Marina is very much a C3, C4, C5 track. So, we’ve only ever run the C1 and C2 in cold or smooth asphalt conditions – or both. 

Last year in Bahrain, everyone avoided the C2 Medium compound and it didn’t do a single racing lap – is the new C2 very different?

I think the C2 is the compound Pirelli have improved the most, and all it really shares with last year’s C2 is the name. So, I suspect that will lead to a different race. Both the C1 and C2 look better this year – but we have to investigate in these warmer conditions.

The longstanding characteristic of Pirelli’s tyres is that they work best on low-void, low macro-roughness circuits. Bahrain is an old, weathered, high macro-roughness circuit – 30 per cent higher macro-roughness than any other track on the calendar – which produces high degradation and, therefore, interesting, multi-stop races.

Traction tends to be very important in Bahrain, and the Shamal blowing out of the north tends to have a significant influence. What are you expecting this week?

The wind direction is a headwind on the main straight, coming slightly from the driver’s left, tailwind out of the exit of T1. That’s going to make traction very difficult out of T1. When we have this wind direction, it also makes T4 tricky because, going over the crest the car tends to wash-out, which in turn leads to people struggling with track limits on the exit of T4. It also makes T11 difficult because that will have a tailwind too and, again, people will struggle with track limits.  It is a difficult compromise to reach because anything we do to make rear grip better out of T1 is going to make the washout at T4 and T11 worse. It’s not all bad news though: when it’s like this, the drivers think the final corner feels great!

We’re in the middle of a long-haul triple header and it’s very hot today. As Director of Human Performance, what does the team do to make sure everyone is performing at their best?

Two things. The biggest performance factor in these conditions is hydration. If you keep people hydrated, that’s the most important thing, much more so than the lack of sleep: most of the team were able to take Tuesday off while we waited for the freight to arrive from Japan. The garage is already built by the early set-up crew, so there was some downtime before a busy Wednesday/Thursday.

So, the key thing is managing hydration in these temperatures. We have realised that it’s not something that you can leave people to manage themselves: everyone is focused on doing their job and only realises they’re thirsty when it’s too late. So, we have to keep bringing people drinks.

We also have to look after nutrition and support the crew with the right kind of food for the conditions. The calorie requirements don’t change but 38°C in Bahrain is very different to 14°C at Suzuka! With the latter, it’s nice if our excellent catering team bring out a warming shepherd’s pie, but it’s not what you want here! So, the task is to provide people with the food they can eat in an enjoyable way, without it making them feel lethargic.