As the lights went out to signal the start of the first round of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen pulled away from the field cleanly. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc sneaked by Verstappen’s team mate Sergio Perez in pursuit of the world champion. .
Red Bull would be aiming to win at Bahrain for the first time since 2013 while Lewis Hamilton would hope that he could add one more win to the five previous ones that have made him the most successful driver at this circuit.
Although Fernando Alonso started from P5 and his team mate in the Aston Martin team was in P8, they somehow came in contact as the pack went through Turn 4. It appeared that Stroll was eager to get past Mercedes-AMG’s George Russell who had started from P6 but instead caused Alonso to drop to 7th. The Stewards considered the Aston Martin incident and decided that no action was necessary.
After much anticipation over the past few months, a new Formula 1 season has started. Bahrain again has the honour of being season-opener where it used to be towards the end of the season and it was Australia that started the season.
Apart from the new cars, there are also three new faces – Oscar Piastri with the McLaren F1 Team, Logan Sargeant with Williams Racing, and Nyck de Vries with Scuderia AlphaTauri. While the first two drivers are making their debut in F1, de Vries (who also raced in Formula E) actually made his unplanned debut last year at the Italian GP. He took over Alexander Albon’s place in the Williams team when the Thai driver had appendicitis and could not race. 27 years old then, the Dutch driver did well to ninth position, scoring points on his first F1 outing.
The first race of the new Formula 1 season started as the sun disappeared and the lights came on around the Bahrain International Circuit in the Sakhir Desert. Unusually, there was no car with the Mercedes star at the front row, and it was a red Ferrari with Charles Leclerc in it occupying pole position. Alongside Leclerc was Max Verstappen, the World Champion, and his arch-rival was further back in the fifth spot – ironically alongside his former team mater, Valtteri Bottas who is now in Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN.
As the lights went green for the first time in the 2022 season, Leclerc used his position to sprint forward ahead of Verstappen as the rest of the pack followed. While Hamilton managed to move up a couple of positions, his old buddy Bottas lost ground and fell further back before Turn 2.
The two Haas drivers were not having an easy time getting into the ‘groove’ as Kevin Magnussen locked up his tyres and Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, who had fallen down to seventh (due to a poor start), got past him, while Mick Schumacher had an ‘incident’ with BWT Alpine’s Esteban Ocon which got the attention of the Stewards. The latter was given a 5-second penalty but both cars were able to remain in the race.
By the time the first tenth of the 57-lap race had passed, Leclerc and Verstappen were steadily pulling away from the rest, separated from each other by about 2 seconds. Third place was being contested by three drivers – Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Hamilton and Perez, while Geroge Russell was pushing hard to get closer to his new team mate in the Mercedes-AMG team.
On lap 8, it appeared than McLaren’s Lando Norris was pushed wide by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll (which also caused Daniel Ricciardo to have to go wide) and after the Stewards looked into the incident, it was decided that no action or penalty was necessary.
By lap 13, Verstappen and Hamilton were frustrated with quickly diminishing grip from their tyres as degradation was faster than expected. Hamilton chose to come in for a change to Hards. When he rejoined, he was down to 11th and then 12th when the Alfa Romeo of newcomer Zhou sped past him – but he was ahead of the 7-time World Champion only briefly.
Other drivers began to come in after that, with Leclerc – still leading – coming in on lap 16 together with Perez. However, where the Ferrari driver switched to Softs, Perez got Mediums. Leclerc’s departure from the track was short and quick and he kept his lead position but with less than a second’s separation from Verstappen as he rejoined.
Once Hamilton got his tyres warmed up, he began to move up but it was a long way to the leaders who were about 18 seconds away. He made it up to fifth and then there was a 5-second gap to Perez which was going to need a lot of effort to close. Russell was next in line but 7 seconds behind and steadily working his way forward, mindful of Magnussen pursuing.
On lap 19, Verstappen made a strong effort going into Turn 1 but miscalculated and locked up, not making t pass the Ferrari. In the process, he flat-spotted his tyres and had to back off a bit to let the brakes cool down as well. While he was doing that, the other Ferrari driver, Sainz, was moving closer but had to watch out for the other Red Bull as well.
As the race reached the halway point about 50 minutes after the start, Hamilton came into the pits to switch to Mediums. As he rejoined, he slotted between Pierre Gasly and Ocon to take eighth place. The other drivers who had also come in a second time to change tyres were Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda.
Verstappen came in on lap 31 and Ferrari brought Leclerc in right after that. The pitstops dropped the Dutchman to fourth and Leclerc to third, while Sainz inherited the lead with Perez about 3 seconds behind.
On lap 34, Sainz and Perez departed from the race to get their tyres changed and Leclerc got back his lead, with Verstappen 2 seconds behind and told by his team that he could go all out.
By lap 38, the frontrunners were encountering the slower cars and Sainz had a scare as he passed Alexander Albon and the Williams driver almost collided with him. Actually, the Thai driver was not up to speed as he had just come out from the pit lane. However, no contact occurred and the Ferrari managed to quickly speed away.
The two McLarens were way down the field (almost at the end), unable to move up and Lando Norris tried to do with just one stop but couldn’t, while Ricciardo was having problems with his radio. Tsunoda was trying his best to keep his tenth place as Alonso kept trying to take it from him.
Magnussen was showing that Haas should never have dropped him and given his place to Nikita Mazepin who didn’t do anything positive for the team in 2021. On his first race back with the team, he was able to move into a secure seventh by 15 laps from the end, almost certain to collect points that Haas never saw at all last year.
On lap 46, as Verstappen was reporting steering problems, Gasly’s car suddenly caught fire and he quickly pulled to the side and managed to get out safely. The Safety Car was quickly sent out to lead the racing cars and Leclerc took the opportunity to get into the pits, switch to Softs and have fresh tyres to fight better in the remaining 11 laps. As he sped back to take his place, he almost rammed into the Safety Car! Unhappy that the Mercedes-AMG was not going fast enough, Leclrc complained to his team, hoping they would pass on the message that it must go quicker and not cause him a ‘big disadvantage’.
The Safety Car came in on lap 50 and Leclerc was ready to slingshot away from the Red Bull which was just behind. However, Verstappen could not focus too much on the car ahead as he had another Ferrari in his mirrors as well. Perez and Hamilton were also jostling for fourth and perhaps in desperation, Hamilton almost collided with the other car.
Verstappen’s race ended suddenly as he pulled into the pits on lap 55 and the last conversation heard over the radio was something about the battery, which his engineer said was not the problem. He had been having steering problems but was not informed what exactly was the fault.
The departure of Verstappen left the way open for Sainz to close in on his team mate and give Ferrari not just its first win since September 2019 but also a 1-2 finish. Perez also began having loss of power and before he could get around Turn 1, his car spun and the other cars had to avoid it. For Hamilton, at least the sudden retirement of the Rd Bulls allowed him to get onto the podium, while Russell finished just behind in fourth. That’s racing… it isn’t decided till the finish line is crossed by someone.
The 2022 Formula 1 World Championship starts a new season this weekend in Bahrain which, as in 2021, was the venue for the season-opener and replaced Australia (which had complications due to its pandemic restrictions and requirements). This is the 18th time Bahrain has hosted a round of F1 and has done so every year since 2004, except in 2011.
Although the last race at the Bahrain International Circuit was at the end of March last year, the drivers have fresher memories of the track as they had test sessions there just last month. The circuit at Sakhir is located in the middle of the desert (on what was formerly a camel farm) and has no less than 1,120 palm trees around the site. But while it may be located in a desert, sand doesn’t present much of an issue for the teams and cars, and the track surface cleans up quickly.
The majority of the F1 races held in Bahrain have used the 5.412-km Grand Prix layout, but on one occasion in 2010, the 6.299-km Endurance layout was used. It was not a popular switch as drivers found that the additional corners did not offer passing opportunities, so the GP circuit was used thereafter up till today.
The Bahrain Grand Prix is a twilight race, starting at sunset and finishing after dark when 495 lighting posts are switched on to bring daylight onto the track. Despite the new F1 weekend format, FP1 and FP3 still take place in daylight, while FP2.and qualifying take place in the evening. FP2 is therefore a crucial session for all the teams as it is the one chance to run the car in similar conditions to those experienced in qualifying and the 57-lap race.
Because of the various changes to the weekend format, there is less time for mechanics to work on the cars and less engineering time, due to the earlier curfew. So, more emphasis is put on hitting the ground running with good preparation and simulation work, hence more emphasis being on the pre-weekend preparations.
By now, racing fans will know that this year sees major changes in technical regulations to the extent that even wheel sizes have been increased. So this first round will be very interesting, and everyone will be watching to see how the changes affect performance. Toto Wolff, the Mercedes-AMG team boss, expects the performance of the cars through the corners will change. “For example, we expect the cars to take Turn 4 in Bahrain at 115 km/h in 2022, compared to 135 km/h last year. Similarly, a high-speed corner like Turn 12 will now be taken at 240 km/h, compared to 265 km/h,” he said.
“The teams had the chance get familiar with the 2022 18-inch tyre range, having spent a total of 6 days of testing with all the compounds, although not always in representative conditions. We know from the past that track temperatures can play an important role in Bahrain, affecting tyre degradation, and that’s something we noticed at the recent test as well. During the race temperatures should be milder compared to FP1 and FP3, so the teams will have to focus on their data from FP2 and qualifying. It’s still hard to predict the race strategy as, in the past, Bahrain has been a multi-stop race, but it will be interesting to see if anyone will try something different this year,” said Mario Isola, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director.
The official tyre-supplier has chosen the hardest compounds in the new low-profile range. Removing the requirement for the top ten to start the race on their Q2 rubber will, however, alter the established pattern in which the teams choose their tyres during the weekend.
The No. 5 Aston Martin won’t be in the race and instead, you’ll see No. 27 which is the number for Nico Hulkenberg. He takes over Sebastian Vettel’s place as the German driver tested positive for COVID-19.
Zhou GuanYu, the first F1 driver from China, will be racing for Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, alongside Valtteri Bottas.
2022 sees former driver Kevin Magnussen returning to take Nikita Mazepin’s place in the Haas F1 team, while Thai-British Alexander Albon gets another go at F1 with Williams Racing, along Nicholas Latifi. Joining Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN is Zhou GuanYu who is the first F1 driver from China, and he will partner Valtteri Bottas who has moved over from the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Team. You’ll notice Nico Hulkenberg listed with the Aston Martin Aramco COGNIZANT Team and that’s because Sebastian Vettel cannot take part due to being tested positive for COVID-19.
Sebastian Vettel (with Aston Martin this year) had a bad start to the first race of the season as he was hit with a grid penalty for not giving attention to yellow flags during the qualifying session. As a result, he was demoted to start from the last position on the grid, after Nikita Mazepin (Haas F1).
For Sergio Perez, with Red Bull Racing this year, it was even worse as his car developed a problem on the formation lap, almost resulting in another formation lap being run. But he managed to restart the car and rushed back to the pits from where he started.
As the light went green for the first race of the season, Max Verstappen had a good start but Russian driver Mazepin, who had spun during qualifying, went into a spin and ended his race. The Safety Car (and Aston Martin Vantage) was deployed right away to lead the cars around for 3 laps while the Haas racing car was cleared.
When the Safety Car exited, Verstappen made a quick start to start extending his lead. Behind hi, Pierre Gasle and Mick Schumacher had some drama on Turn 6, while Vettel managed to move up 5 places but had some contact with Yuki Tsunoda. Debris on the track activated the Virtual Safety Car, which slowed things down for one lap.
At the 10th lap, Verstappen was being pursued by Lewis Hamilton who was about 1.5 seconds behind, with Valtteri Bottas 5 seconds further back.The Red Bull driver was having problems with his car, but he held a consistent pace and Hamilton just kept him in sight… waiting. The general order of the field was roughly what it had been on the grid at that point.
Just before the 20th lap, Verstappen came into the pits for a tyre change and Hamilton surged into the lead. When Verstappen rejoined, he was quite far down and had to work hard to get back up front again.
And what of Fernando Alonso, back in F1 again with the Alpine team? He was somewhere midfield, constantly dicing with his old rival, Vettel and also Carlos Sainz. SDergio Perex and even Kimi Raikkonen.
Two laps after the halfway point, Hamilton returned to the pits for another set of tyres, allowing Verstappen to take the lead. When he rejoined, he was in third. Bottas was then asked to come in, but his stop was delayed up to 10 seconds as the tyre removal was funbled.
Alonso’s race came to an end on lap 35 as brake issues forced him back to the pits where the car stayed. A rather disappointing return for the Spaniard who was twice World Champion.
On lap 40, Verstappen rushed into the pits to have tyres changed to hards and when he got back out, Hamilton was trying his best to stretch the lead, But calculations shows that the Dutchman could close in on the British driver within 10 laps.
As lap 45 started, Vettel locked his brakes at Turn 1 and bumped into Esteban Ocon, and both cars came to a stop for a short while. But then they managed to restart and continue, so the Safety Car was not called out.
With 10 laps remaining, Hamilton had a lead of just under 3 seconds from Verstappen, while Bottas was 16 second behind the Red Bull car. Tsunoda was in 10th place and if he could maintain his pace, he would get his first F1 point in his first ever race.
As the remaining laps counted down, all eyes were on Hamilton and Verstappen closing the gap. Hamilton had older tyres but as he had shown before, he could make sure that he would make it to the end – in the lead.
4 laps from the end, Verstappen finally got past into the lead as Hamilton went wide, partly due to his rear tyres starting to lose grip. However, the Red Bull driver slowed down inexplicably and Hamilton grabbed back the lead with 3 laps to go. By the time the 56th lap ended, the separation was under a second and it was Hamilton who took the first victory of the season. A fantastic duel to the end which hopefully will be seen in coming races.
Race starts at 5:10 pm in Bahrain | 10:10 pm in Malaysia
The disrupted 2020 Formula 1 World Championship enters its closing phase this weekend with the first part of a Middle East triple-header. It will certainly be gruelling for the teams who have endured a compressed calendar that only started in the second half of the year after the COVID-19 pandemic forced postponements and cancellations as countries tried to get the pandemic under control.
The first of the final three rounds will be the Bahrain Grand Prix at the circuit in Sakhir. It has been the venue of the Bahrain GP since 2004 and only in 2011 was the event not run due to domestic problems.
There are a few circuit layouts and for this weekend, the GP Circuit will be used. This has 15 turns and a lap length of 5.412 kms. Regardless of which circuit, the conditions are tough and the surface is highly abrasive. Despite the track’s rural location, surrounded by sandy desert, the sand does not actually present the cars with any major issues and the circuit surface (surrounded by 1,120 palm trees) can clean up very quickly.
One of the key considerations will be traction coming out of slower corners and protecting the rear tyres. Pirelli is offering the C2, C3 and C4 tyres this weekend at Sakhir, one compound softer than used in 2019 when most drivers opted for a 2-stop strategy.
Turn 10 is one of the trickiest corners because it has a long, combined corner entry that gets tighter towards the apex – which is blind over a crest. Drivers begin to apply the brakes while also negotiating the wide corner arc of Turn 9 and the track drops away at the apex. All of these factors cause the front-left tyre to go light and increase the risk of a lock-up. The balance is on a knife-edge through this sequence, as drivers battle cornering and braking, so you may see mistakes at this point on the track.
The Bahrain Grand Prix is always punishing on the brakes, with 7 braking events and 3 of those being classified as ‘heavy’ by engineers in the Mercedes-AMG team. Mechanical grip is also an important area in Bahrain, to propel the cars out of the slow turns. This is in stark contrast to the set-up approach for tracks like Silverstone and Mugello, where high-speed corner performance is the priority.
The 57-lap race starts at twilight; as the light dims and temperatures fall to around 26 degrees C., the drivers will be circulating in lighting from 495 posts. Over the projected two hours of the race, they should cover 308 kms, averaging 58 gear-changes on each lap.
Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari have had the most victories at this circuit, the driver having won 4 times and the team having won 6 times. Lewis Hamilton has won 3 times so a win tomorrow will bring him equal to the German driver.
The 2020 Formula 1 World Championship, disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic just as the opening round was to take place in Australia in March, will end the season with a toral of 17 races. Following the announcements regarding the initial thirteen races of the revised 2020 calendar, 4 additional races have been confirmed which will take place in the months of November and December.
While it was already expected that Bahrain and Abu Dhabi will host the last rounds (the former running two races), a newcomer is Turkey which will have the Formula 1 DHL Turkish Grand Prix 2020. The race will be held at the Istanbul Park Circuit which was opened in 2005 when the first Turkish F1 GP was held. The venue was included on the F1 calendar up to 2011 and then left out over the past 8 years.
The Intercity Istanbul Park Circuit last had a F1 race in 2011.
Familiar circuit to top drivers
The circuit, also designed by Hermann Tilke, the F1 track specialist, has a length of 5.34 kms and 14 turns. Past races have been run for 58 laps with the lap record still held by of 1:24.770 still held by Juan Pablo Montoya when he was driving a McLaren in 2005. Drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel would be familiar with the circuit as they have raced and won there before.
“We can confirm that a number of races in the revised 2020 season will be open to a limited number of fans, including hospitality, and we are working with each promoter to finalise the details. While we want to see as many fans as possible return as soon as it is safe to do so, our priority remains the safety of the Formula 1 community and the communities we visit, and we review fan access on this basis,” said Chase Carey, Chairman & CEO of the Formula 1 organisation.
Strict SOPs still applied
This means that the races will continue to be held without spectators and with a minimum number of participants allowed into the circuit. So far, the strict measures taken have ensured that there are no COVID-19 infections spreading and when the health authorities are more comfortable with the situation, perhaps there will be an opportunity for spectators in the stands.
“Sadly, we will not be racing in China this season and want to thank our partner Juss Sports for their support and engagement in recent months and hugely look forward to returning to Shanghai next year,” Carey said.
The opening round of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship will, as usual, be in Melbourne, Australia and it will go ahead next weekend despite concerns about the COVID-19 epidemic. Australia has not forbidden large-scale events (yet) unlike Switzerland which has stopped events with over 1,000 people. The Geneva International Motor Show was a ‘victim’ of the decree, having to be cancelled at the last minute.
However, for the second round in Bahrain on March 22, spectators will not be allowed into the circuit. Yes, you read that right – no spectators. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, it will be a ‘closed-door event’ which will only rely on live internet and TV broadcasts. It’s not clear if the public will be allowed to attend the planned concerts which this year have Afrojack, Don Diablo and Khalid performing.
The Bahrain International Circuit at Sakhir
The statement from the organisers today said: “In consultation with our international partners and the Kingdom’s national health Taskforce, Bahrain has made the decision to hold this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix as a participants-only event.”
“As an F1 host nation, balancing the welfare of supporters and racegoers is a tremendous responsibility. Given the continued spread of COVID-19 globally, convening a major sporting event which is open to the public and allows thousands of international travellers and local fans to interact in close proximity would not be the right thing to do at the present time. But to ensure that neither the sport, nor its global supporter base, is unduly impacted, the race weekend itself will still go ahead as a televised event.”
“Bahrain’s own early actions to prevent, identify and isolate cases of individuals with COVID-19 has been extremely successful to date. The approach has involved rapid, proactive measures, identifying those affected by the virus, of which the overwhelming majority of cases relate to those travelling into the country by air. Aggressive social distancing measures have further increased the effectiveness of preventing the virus’ spread, something that would clearly be near impossible to maintain were the race to have proceeded as originally planned.”
The statement went on to acknowledge that many will be disappointed by the development, especially those planning to travel to the event, ‘but safety has to remain our utmost priority’. Up till today, data from the WHO and Malaysian Health Ministry shows that Bahrain has 85 cases of COVID-19 infections with no deaths (Malaysia has 93 cases, no deaths).
On its part, the FIA has not yet made any changes to the F1 calendar other than to cancel the Chinese GP scheduled in April (at the request of the organisers). Professor Gerard Saillant, President of the FIA’s Medical Commission, said an FIA Crisis Cell has been established and convenes every second day to consider the latest developments around the world.
“The FIA continues to closely monitor the situation and its implications, together with its Member Clubs and Promoters, and follows the advice of relevant authorities including governments and the World Health Organization (WHO). The FIA will evaluate the calendar of its forthcoming competitions and take any action required to help protect the global motorsport community and the wider public, including the postponement of competitions where necessary,” he said.
Support teams, especially tyre suppliers Pirelli, may be hampered by strict regulations that prevent them from entering countries where races are held.
There is also growing concern in the F1 community as Italy’s northern region goes into lockdown to try to prevent further spread of the virus. Pirelli, the tyre suppliers, are located in Milan which is within the lockdown area while teams from Italy – Scuderia Ferrari and AlphaTauri F1 – are monitoring the situation. It is hoped that Australia, Bahrain and Vietnam, where the first three rounds are to be held, will be flexible on allowing personnel from Italy to enter.
Ross Brawn, F1’s Managing Director for Motorsport, feels that if any team is prevented from entering a country to participate in the race, then there should not be a race. His remarks to Reuters suggested that the race might still be run but ‘it won’t be a Formula 1 championship race’ because it would be unfair to the teams affected.
