F1 stats and F1 history buffs: Has there been any Grand Prix run a week after Testing before? There are normally a few weeks after Testing before the season starts that teams use to make changes and tweaks based on their Testing data.
Either way, it is Round 1 Race Week for the 2023 Formula 1 Championship season. Here’s a nifty calendar (thank you r/Formula1) for the year showing all the races this year, and the gaps in between them all. It shows just how packed the 9 months of racing this season will be. Other than the “no Chinese GP” break in April and the short Summer Break in August, there is going to be very little respite for the teams, drivers, and cars this year.
Excellent profile on Jody Scheckter on the F1 site. The first of a new series of articles.
Lights To Flag is a new series that explores the challenges that drivers overcame to reach Formula 1, how their careers unfolded and ended, and – crucially – what retirement from F1 held in store for them. Jody Scheckter, 1979 world champion, tells us how he went from racing Renault saloons to taking on the likes of Gilles Villeneuve, before finding his feet in the world of firearms and farming.
Lap record – 1m 31.447s, Pedro de la Rosa, McLaren MP4-20, 2005
Most pole positions – Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel (3)
Most wins – Lewis Hamilton (5)
Trivia – Turn 1, ‘Michael Schumacher’, is the only corner on the circuit with a name
Pole run to Turn 1 braking point – 353 metres
Overtakes completed in 2022 – 131
Safety Car probability – 63%
Virtual Safety Car probability – 38%
Pit stop time loss – 22.56 seconds (including 2.5s stationary)
Last 5 Bahrain GP pole-sitters
2022 – Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
2021 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2020 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2019 – Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
2018 – Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
Last 5 Bahrain GP winners
2022 – Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
2021 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2020 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2019 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2018 – Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
The Schedule
Time, time, time is on our side, yes it is, for this weekends’ events. With Sakhir just one hour ahead of us, the evening race start should coordinate perfectly with the Sunday braai.
When was the track built?
Ground was broken for the Bahrain International Circuit in December 2002. Like the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, the developers had a blank, sandy canvas to work with, and with that fashioned the technical, 5.4km track designed by Hermann Tilke.
When was its first Grand Prix?
It was 2004 when the drivers first lined up under an unusually cloudy sky for the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix. The race was dominated (like many in 2004) by the two Ferraris, with Michael Schumacher winning out from Rubens Barrichello, while the crowds were also treated to a fantastic dog-fight between the Jaguar of Mark Webber and the Renault of Fernando Alonso.
What’s the circuit like?
You can usually expect great racing and decent amounts of overtaking in Bahrain, while the drivers have to contend with wind, racing under floodlights and the difficulty of finding a decent set-up with the wide temperature fluctuations between sessions. The track’s most challenging point is the tight, downhill, off-camber Turn 10 left-hander, while the fast run through Turn 12 is another highlight, allowing the racers to really feel their cars coming alive.
The new C1 makes its debut at the first race of the season in Sakhir. This year, Pirell has expanded the range of available compounds to six, with three still chosen for every race. The brand new C1 compound fills the gap between the hardest C0 (used as the C1 in 2022) and the C2, which is unchanged from last year.
At the Bahrain Grand Prix, C1 will be the P Zero White hard, C2 will be the P Zero Yellow medium and C3 will be the P Zero Red soft. The teams will have at their disposal two sets of hard tyres, three sets of mediums, and eights sets of soft per car, as well as the usual allocation of Cinturato intermediate and full wet tyres.
The Bahrain International Circuit features some of the most abrasive asphalt of the year while the track – consisting of low to medium speed corners – mainly places traction and braking demands on the tyres. The layout also requires a good level of stability at the rear of the car.
Make like a fancy eco warrior and stay carbon-neutral with the tree-loving digital race programme. Save yourself the bother of flying to Bahrain, buying a GP entrance ticket, and going into the circuit just to get a hardcopy for kthyraan Dinaar.
Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI has resulted in the AI-enhanced Bing becoming available. The “nothing too recent” rule for ChatGPT becomes very evident when you ask it to search for predictions for the 2023 F1 season:
