2013 Bahrain GP - Sakhir

[Maelstrom]

With what we saw in China, Ferrari is the favorite to win the race.

I'd have to disagree... Different tracks suit different cars.

The Lotus was the quickest car in Melbourne but was off the pace in Malaysia. But they were quick again in China.

Red Bull wasn't the quickest in China but were 1-2 in Malaysia.

[Nomore]

With what we saw in China, Ferrari is the favorite to win the race.

I'd have to disagree... Different tracks suit different cars.

The Lotus was the quickest car in Melbourne but was off the pace in Malaysia. But they were quick again in China.

Red Bull wasn't the quickest in China but were 1-2 in Malaysia.

Well everyone can have opinions and i respect your opinion but i think u r wrong. I think Ferrari was the fastest car in Melbourne...they switch to 3 stops to jump Vettel but Lotus were very close. In Malaysia RB made 1-2 but difficult to judge if they were fastest because the quali and the start of the race was infected by rain and their main rival Alonso was out in first lap, and Raikkonen was stuck in traffic. In china it was simple, Ferrari was the fastest car.

There isn't any type of data or any type of logical connection to suggest RB will win Bahrain in normal conditions.

[rssh]

Is Bahrain a rear limited track ? I don't want to make bold predictions but Lotus may have an edge here because they were good here last year . They have a good balance in front and rear tyre temp because in Bahrain it is really easy to overheat the rear tyres and given soft tyres lottery in China, Bahrain will have mostly the same tyre strategy . Also I would watch out for FI because they have good balance in hot conditions (European and Bahrain last year)

[Neno]

Prediction... Red Bull Pole, Red Bull win.

I doubt Red Bull will snatch pole, it never rains in Bah-rain and thus far they've shown themselves to not have the qualifying advantage they previously enjoyed. The race pace is there but they're no kinder on their tires than any of their rivals.

So what you're saying is, Vettel is the fastest driver by far in changeable and wet conditions. Alonso more than 1s of his pace in malaysia Hamilton more than 2s...

He is saying that Red Bull characteristic of car is to quickly heat their tires, in one lap, which is crucial when changeable
and wet conditions are. Australia and Malaysia both showed that.
In dry track, Lotus and Ferrari are faster by slight margin from Red Bull and also they have good better tire usage then Vettel.
This both is valid for qualy and race pace.

[raymondu999]

With what we saw in China, Ferrari is the favorite to win the race.

Disagree, on the grounds that China is a very different circuit layout to Bahrain, with very different demands on the cars. Also, it's an entirely different climate. China is a very cold race - Bahrain is a very hot race.

The Lotus was the quickest car in Melbourne but was off the pace in Malaysia. But they were quick again in China.

Very oddly (IMO) the common denominator was that China/Melbourne were very cold races - Malaysia was hot.

Red Bull wasn't the quickest in China but were 1-2 in Malaysia.

A hot race.

I think Ferrari was the fastest car in Melbourne

Alonso did his final stop on lap 39, and did his fastest racing lap on lap 53 - 14 laps into the stint. Raikkonen did his final stop on lap 34, and did his fastest racing lap on lap 56 - 22 laps into the stint. Alonso did his fastest lap of 1:29.560 - compared to Raikkonen's 1:29.274, which is 0.286 faster.

Taking into account decreasing fuel loads - if we normalise the fuel effect at 1 tenth per lap, that means that Alonso was 0.286-0.300 = 0.014s faster than Raikkonen. Problem is, Raikkonen's lap was done on 22 lap old tyres, not 14.

In conclusion - Alonso on tyres 8 laps younger, was an *entire* 0.014s faster. Considering the tyre ages, I'd have to say they *weren't* the fastest in Melbourne.

In china it was simple, Ferrari was the fastest car.

Agreed. Though it is of course "China" and not "china."

There isn't any type of data or any type of logical connection to suggest RB will win Bahrain in normal conditions.

There isn't any type of data or any type of logical connection to suggest Ferrari will win Bahrain in normal conditions.

Bear in mind:
Bahrain has a very abrasive track surface - Shanghai has a very smooth track surface.
Bahrain is always very hot - Shanghai is always very cold
Bahrain is very rear-limited - Shanghai is very front-limited
Bahrain is very stop-start - Shanghai isn't.

Is Bahrain a rear limited track ?

Yep!

I don't want to make bold predictions but Lotus may have an edge here because they were good here last year
[...]
Also I would watch out for FI because they have good balance in hot conditions (European and Bahrain last year)

Interestingly - those two teams have generally performed better in the two cold races this year (rather than the hot race)

[gray41]

Why is there a jump in tyre compounds?

[muhammadtalha-13]

Why is there a jump in tyre compounds?

That's just Pirelli doing S#it !!!

[ForzaFer]

I think Ferrari was the fastest car in Melbourne

Alonso did his final stop on lap 39, and did his fastest racing lap on lap 53 - 14 laps into the stint. Raikkonen did his final stop on lap 34, and did his fastest racing lap on lap 56 - 22 laps into the stint. Alonso did his fastest lap of 1:29.560 - compared to Raikkonen's 1:29.274, which is 0.286 faster.

Taking into account decreasing fuel loads - if we normalise the fuel effect at 1 tenth per lap, that means that Alonso was 0.286-0.300 = 0.014s faster than Raikkonen. Problem is, Raikkonen's lap was done on 22 lap old tyres, not 14.

In conclusion - Alonso on tyres 8 laps younger, was an *entire* 0.014s faster. Considering the tyre ages, I'd have to say they *weren't* the fastest in Melbourne.

Yes, those are the facts but Alo was pushing those tyres while Rai was cruising, and i can prove that:

Alonso on lap 36 (tyres 16 laps old) puts 1:30.674 and Kimi on the same lap (tyres just 2 laps old) puts 1:31.881 and continues to drive like that lap after lap which is indicator that he was preserving tyres.
So we can go on and analyse race data but for sure we will never know what would happen if they were on the same strategy.

[godlameroso]

Let's see:
The first two actual turns are both hair pins, except the second one is deceptive, it's exit is very wide and for a hair pin you can carry a good bit of speed through it. Next two high speed turns followed by a tricky trail braking maneuver sends you up a slight gradient that drops off to the left into a decreasing radius left with variable camber and always full of sand. Probably the highlight corner of the circuit as it probably is where you can gain or lose the most, but is also the hardest to nail perfectly. This is compounded because this super difficult turn leads onto a straight, which I believe is a DRS zone this year.

The second half of the track is all high speed heavy braking into medium speed turns. This part really irritates me because the corners themselves are very interesting but because they're medium and not low speed, overtaking becomes essentially impossible. Regardless, the medium speed nature of these corners places efficient downforce at a premium especially at preserving the rear tires, but also the front lefts. This is one of those circuits where an asymmetrical setup becomes a necessity rather than an optimization.

[gray41]

http://www.pirelli.com/corporate/en/pre ... Release%29

Changed to Medium and Hard. [-o<

[Vasconia]

RB was fast in Malaysia which was a "colder" race than it usually is. China was hotter than expected so we will see a close battle between Ferrari, RB and Lotus.

On Saturday Mercedes could be fast too but they will suffer on race conditions, this must be an epic battle between Alonso, Kimi and Seb.

Force India will be very strong too, they will battle with Mclaren and perhaps with Mercedes if they struggle a lot with tyre degradation.

[PABLOEING]

Pirelli working for RB.....the team with Mercedes that want to change to the hardest compounds .

[raymondu999]

I am hereby revising my strategy predictions!

Medium-Hard-Hard for the odd person - *cough*McLaren!*cough*
Medium-Medium-Hard-Hard for the racewinner

I suspect Med-Hard-Hard-Hard is a viable strategy for someone who pulls a Webber and qualifies his frontrunning car WAY out of position - push to the flag!!

I wonder if Pirelli are starting to regret the construction of their supersoft/soft tyres - they seem to be comparable to blue cheese in terms of durability.

[turbof1]

I am hereby revising my strategy predictions!

Medium-Hard-Hard for the odd person - *cough*McLaren!*cough*
Medium-Medium-Hard-Hard for the racewinner

I suspect Med-Hard-Hard-Hard is a viable strategy for someone who pulls a Webber and qualifies his frontrunning car WAY out of position - push to the flag!!

I wonder if Pirelli are starting to regret the construction of their supersoft/soft tyres - they seem to be comparable to blue cheese in terms of durability.

Well, safe of the color, the tyres looked like they were blue cheese:


The problem is too much speed-dependency: go slow with them and they will be fine, push them a little bit and you get 1 lap high performance out of it, with the next lap full of regret of why you pushed them. If the tyres would have been more dependent on how long you used them, instead of how hard you go with them, they would be fine tyres.

[Shrieker]

Changed to Medium and Hard.

That means people can almost go balls to the wall which is most definitely better news than watching people drive to a target lap time...