And they’re off! The 74th Formula 1 World Championship season gets underway in Bahrain, the longest ever with 23 races on four continents. The 5.412 kilometre-long Sakhir track is a very familiar one for the drivers as it was used twice in the same season in 2020, while it has also seen hundreds of laps completed during pre-season testing.
The track. Drivers will complete 57 laps of the Bahrain International Circuit on Sunday, covering a distance of 308.238 km. Its key features are long straights and very heavy braking points, especially at turns 1 and 14. There are three DRS zones, where the moveable rear wing can be used: on the start-finish straight and after turns 3 and 10. As always, qualifying and the race will start after sunset at 18 (16 CET) run under floodlights. As the sun goes down, so too does the track temperature and therefore the cars pick up pace.
Sweet memories. Last year, when the new generation of ground effect cars raced for the first time, the Scuderia secured a one-two finish, Charles Leclerc leading team-mate Carlos Sainz past the chequered flag.
Three questions to...
FRÉDÉRIC VASSEUR, TEAM PRINCIPAL
1. The start of a new season is always a very special moment. What is the mood in the team?
"I’ve had this feeling quite often in my career, but I have to admit, this time it’s extra special. I can feel the passion not only from every single employee in Maranello, but also from the tifosi - and it only took me a couple of months to get infected by this passion and excitement. We can’t wait to get the season started".
2. What are your expectations for this race, taking into account last week’s pre-season test?
"Testing was good and the three days last week showed that the car is matching our expectations and now we need to continue fine-tuning in order to get the most out of it. One thing is clear: this will be the Championship with the most races ever, so no matter what the result, the title won’t be won or lost in Bahrain".
3. What can we expect this weekend in Sakhir from a technical point of view?
"We know the track pretty well, but the changing air and track temperatures, as well as changing wind conditions, plus the new Pirelli tyres will make it very tricky to get the set-up of the car right, but both Carlos and Charles collected a lot of data during the three test days, so we should be well prepared for a good weekend".
Frédéric Vasseur
Nationality: France
Born on 28/5/1968
in Draveil (France)
Ferrari Stats
GP contested 1052
Seasons in F1 74
Debut Monaco 1950 (A. Ascari 2nd; R. Sommer 4th; L. Villoresi ret.)
Wins 242 (23%)
Pole positions 242 (23%)
Fastest laps 259 (24.62%)
Total podiums 798 (25.28%)
Ferrari Stats Bahrain Grand Prix
GP contested 18
Debut 2004 (M. Schumacher 1st; R. Barrichello 2nd)
Wins 7 (38,89%)
Pole positions 6 (33,33%)
Fastest laps 6 (33.33%)
Total podiums 16 (29.63%)
Bahrain Grand Prix: facts & figures
3. The number of seasons that Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have been team-mates. Along with Red Bull Racing’s present line-up, they are the pairing who have completed the most races together (43) of the current drivers on the grid. The record for the number of races run together for both Ferrari and Formula 1 as a whole, is held by Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello on 102. On the Ferrari front, next up are Sebastian Vettel-Kimi Räikkönen on 80 and Fernando Alonso-Felipe Massa on 77.
5. The number of times the Formula 1 World Championship has started in Bahrain. Of the four races to date, only once has the winner at Sakhir gone on to take the title, which was the case with Fernando Alonso (Renault), who secured his second title in 2006 at the end of a great fight with Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari. In the other years when the season started in Bahrain, the winners at Sakhir were Alonso in a Ferrari F10 in 2010, Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes in 2021 and Charles Leclerc and the Ferrari F1-75 last year.
10. The average number of days per year on which it rains in Bahrain. It is one of the most arid places on earth. The rainiest country to host a Grand Prix is Canada, where in Montreal, the average number of days of rain per year is no less than 163.
21. The number of years since the Formula 1 World Championship started earlier than this year. It happened in 2002, when the Australian Grand Prix took place on 3 March. However, there have been several seasons where racing started much earlier in the year. In the Seventies, the opening round usually took place in Argentina and Brazil in January and February, while the earliest ever race took place in South Africa on two occasions, on 1st January 1965 at the East London circuit and in 1968 at Kyalami, which meant that qualifying actually took place in the previous year!
417. The number of laps of the Sakhir circuit completed by Scuderia Ferrari over the only three days of pre-season testing this year. AlphaTauri and Williams actually did more, with 456 and 439 respectively.