Held under the intense heat of the Bahrain desert, the Formula 1 Grand Prix this season appears to be a different challenge for teams and drivers compared to the pre-season tests just eight weeks ago. The high track temperatures, combined with the Sakhir circuit’s rough Tarmac, create a tough environment that wears out tires rapidly, although the cooler night-time conditions may provide some relief during the race.
Pirelli, the tire supplier for F1, has kept numerous strategy options available with a mix of all three tire compounds. While all indicators are pushing towards a two-stop strategy, a one-stop plan cannot be dismissed entirely.
“It could be an option, we are not excluding it at all,” said Pirelli’s Simone Berra. “Obviously, it’s very difficult and it will be very much dependent on drivers and team set-up. What is different from Friday is that we slightly reduced the starting pressure on the rear axle, which significantly reduced the thermal degradation.
But thermal degradation is still there, and it’s difficult to manage on very long stints. So, the one-stop is a possibility but at the moment, on the simulation, the two stops are faster.”
This insight suggests that teams are still leaning towards a two-stop strategy as the most conventional plan. The mix of all three compounds in play is crucial since not every driver has new sets of each available, complicating decisions further.
“We have 11 drivers that kept two new mediums and one hard, so probably the best move on paper should be starting on the medium, switching to the hard and then using the medium at the end of the race,” predicted Berra.
“If you’re able to extend the stint on the hard a bit more, you can go with the soft with lower fuel load. Another possibility is using the soft at the start to exploit the extra grip that you have on the soft compound and then using two medium compounds on the other two stints.
For the drivers who have one [new] hard and one medium, if they are going for the two stops, they obviously need to use all the three compounds. All the three compounds are raceable and all the combinations for the two stops are on the same level, so the choice of the compounds will be very much team-dependent and driver-dependent.”
This variability in available strategies is promising news for F1 fans, as it opens doors for creating tire life offsets that might enable overtaking, whether through an undercut or overcut strategy. The inclusion of three powerful DRS zones at the circuit only adds to the excitement.
Fans can rest assured that a repeat of Suzuka’s dull one-stopper with minimal tire degradation is unlikely. “We know that here the undercut is very powerful, it’s one of the circuits where it’s most powerful in the championship, so it could be an idea to start on the soft and to get rid of it as soon as possible to try to overtake the car in front,” stated Berra.
He also noted the implications of varying strategies for drivers starting out of position, particularly Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. After expressing disappointment with his own qualifying result that places him sixth on the grid, Norris had impressive long-run pace during practice, indicating McLaren’s capability for tire management.
“Hopefully we will be able to see that being gentle on the tyres will be something that our car can exploit – this is also why we went for a certain tyre allocation, limiting the number of softs and adopting other tyres that we hope will pay off in the race,” stated McLaren team boss Andrea Stella, noting that both Norris and polesitter Oscar Piastri have two new sets of mediums and one set of hard tires to utilize.
Verstappen, meanwhile, expressed some pessimism regarding his prospects for moving up the field, as both he and Yuki Tsunoda struggled during qualifying. However, he does hold two sets of hard tires and one set of mediums, giving him options to explore alternate strategies during the race.
“Probably he could go with the medium and then hard-hard for the second part of the race,” speculated Berra, adding that he could also opt for a soft start followed by two hard stints.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko acknowledged the difficulties in getting Verstappen onto the podium but remained hopeful that he could advance during the race. “If you watched the F2 sprint race [which featured lots of position changes], you saw what is possible,” he mentioned to Motorsport.com.
Marko continued, “We didn’t see a proper long run yet, but we hope with this set-up and maybe by solving the brakes, he should be in a position to move forward.”
Another driver to watch is George Russell, who appeared to be the strongest of the non-McLaren contenders in practice. Although Russell has been moved from second to third following a qualifying infringement by Mercedes, he seemed more impressive than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who will be starting alongside polesitter Piastri.
Russell’s advantage lies in Mercedes’ higher top speed, which may aid him in both attacking Leclerc and defending against threats from behind as the team has opted for a slightly lower downforce set-up. Nevertheless, Russell anticipates that Norris will likely pass him on track during the race.
“I think, unlike the first three races of the season, this isn’t going to be necessarily a qualifying race,” Russell stated. “I think this is going to be the race which is most biased to the lap times you do in the race.
McLaren, they’re so far ahead of everybody. They can pit early, pit late – they’ll probably potentially overtake us on track. But nobody expected anyone but Lando and Oscar to be on the front row, so maybe there’s another surprise [in the race].”
Additional reporting was contributed by Ronald Vording.
image source from：https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/strategy-corner-norris-verstappen-progress-bahrain-gp/10712895/
