Caterham and Petrov on the grounds of their F1 beginnings

After returning to China, where he scored his first Formula One points, Vitaly Petrov will return to Bahrain, the circuit where he made his debut in 2010 with Renault: « It’s a track that means a lot to me. I received great support there when we last raced, and I’m sure it will be the same this season with Caterham. From a driver’s perspective, it’s quite a technical circuit, and one of those where you need a really well-balanced car and have to ensure you hit the apex of the corners to achieve good lap times. This is especially true in the last sector: you can gain or lose a lot of time there,” explains the Russian.

For his part, Heikki Kovalainen believes that the Sakhir circuit doesn’t really offer any difficult corners: You can push hard for most of the lap, especially on the curbs which are quite gentle on the cars. As for the surface, it rubbers in and the grip level improves dramatically, so we’ll see lap times constantly decrease over the weekend and that means you’ll need to be on the track all the time in qualifying to make the most of it.

Vitaly Petrov also agrees with his teammate: « It will be interesting on Saturday to see when everyone makes their runs in Q1. The track gets faster lap after lap, which means you have to be rather bold with your strategy to ensure you give yourself the best possible window for a good qualifying lap. »

For Mark Smith, director of the Malaysian team, the sand will also require engineers and mechanics to pay particular attention to air filtration and all mechanical parts to avoid premature wear, while according to him, the wind will also play a significant role throughout the weekend: The wind direction can change very suddenly, and we will have to take this into account when making the final decision for the gearbox ratios, particularly with the use of KERS and DRS.

Outside of the track conditions, Heikki Kovalainen believes the main focus should be on braking: « The high ambient temperatures and the nature of the circuit mean we will spend a large part of our Friday tests on managing brake cooling and performance to be as well-prepared as possible for qualifying and the race. » Indeed, Mark Smith reminds us that brakes are highly stressed on the Sakhir circuit: « It will be very important to find the right balance between managing brake temperature and their wear level, without conceding too much in absolute performance. This means that setup work, for each day spent on track, will be heavily focused on defining a stable platform that responds both to heavy braking and to all traction needs in a lap. »