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Third Driver Alex Wurz takes us on a thrilling lap of the Bahrain International Circuit.
“The
Formula One circus likes visiting Bahrain. Everyone’s looking for more
than just another paddock and there’s a lively city near to the Bahrain
International Circuit, where there are good places to eat and go out.
“It’s usually quite windy in the afternoons, which results in sand
getting blown onto the track. The knock-on effect of this is felt most
in qualifying, when everyone wants to be the last person on the track,
when the circuit is at its cleanest. Therefore there’s usually a lot of
traffic to negotiate.
“The BIC is one of the slower tracks that
Hermann Tilke has designed, but it’s still quite interesting. From a
technical point of view, braking and traction are crucial, and you
break very hard into Turn 1, from seventh gear - more than 300kph -
down to first gear. This provides the best overtaking opportunity on
the lap.
“Turn 2 is a left kink, which, without
traction control, is going to be quite challenging because you’re going
to have a lot of slip. We might see some snap oversteer here as a
result. Turn 3 is easy flat and leads to the right-hander Turn 4, which
is taken in third gear. It’s off-camber and could pose quite a traction
problem without TC.
“Then you come to a very
interesting part of the track, the fast right-left chicane. It’s
enjoyable, but it can be frustrating from a car set-up point of view
because if it wasn’t for this section you’d soften up the car. As it
is, you have to keep some roll stiffness in the car for this quick
change of direction.
“You then come to the hairpin, which
picks up a lot of grip throughout the weekend. The exit goes uphill,
into a long left-hander, which tightens up into a sharp left. Everyone
locks up a bit because it’s off-camber and over a crest, so the inside
front is unloaded. Traction is really important on the exit because the
back straight follows, where you get up to sixth gear before slowing
for the third-gear left-hander. I would set up my car’s aero balance -
the amount of wing I carry - for this corner.
“After this
corner there’s a long uphill stretch into a flat right-hander. The
front left is loaded for a long time through here and then you come
into another right-hander, which is an overtaking opportunity if the
car in front is using its tyres too much. A very long straight leads to
the last corner, where it’s easy to out-brake yourself. You lose more
than you can win through here because it’s really important to have a
clean exit onto the start-finish straight.”
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