Pic will not be in the unknown in Bahrain
Charles Pic already knows the Sakhir circuit where the F1 cars will race this weekend, and the Frenchman hopes this will allow him to be more competitive at the wheel of his Marussia. His teammate, Timo Glock, expects to have a good race and hopes that the performance of the MR01 could be improved once again.
For the first time this season, Charles Pic will race on a circuit he knows. The Frenchman, who made his F1 debut with Marussia in Australia, has already raced on the Sakhir circuit in GP2 and hopes it will help him be more competitive: « The first three races were a real challenge because I had never raced on these circuits before, so it was a bit of a leap into the unknown. It will be good to race in Bahrain because I will be able to immediately work on the aero program and settings without having to learn and understand the circuit. I hope this will allow me to push even more this weekend. »
Timo Glock, for his part, expressed his appreciation for the Sakhir circuit because it offers overtaking opportunities, which has often led to closely contested Bahrain Grand Prix. « The Bahrain circuit has always provided exciting races, and I am sure this year will be no exception, because there are many changes in hierarchies at the moment. The circuit offers great overtaking opportunities, and we have seen incredible maneuvers here in the past and some fantastic races as a result. »
But the layout is complicated for F1 cars, as Charles Pic explains. However, the Frenchman remains confident about the competitiveness of his MR01 on this track: « I know that the track is very demanding on the brakes, given the layout with long straights and low speed in corners. Tire wear can also be high because of this and given that the track is very abrasive. It will be another race in the heat for the team and for me, so it will be tough but I think we’ve shown so far that we can be present. »
His German teammate agrees, the Marussia team has made progress during the first three races of the season and it should continue according to him: “We have improved over the first three Grand Prix and even if we don’t bring anything new to the car here, we can consolidate with what we’ve learned and continue to make progress. There is still so much potential to extract from the car that it’s exciting to see how far we can go.”
