Round the Outside
Fundamentally, it’s a simple change – the middle section has been abandoned and cars have been redirected to race around the perimeter of the site.
It makes a fast but relatively short lap that will create interesting slipstream opportunities.
When the idea was first announced a while ago some observers likened the layout to an oval, as used in many different styles in the United States. But having spent several years travelling around the circuits of America when I was covering Champ Cars in the 1990s, I don’t agree with that notion.
Ovals are their own unique challenge. This version of Bahrain is actually much more closely linked to the circuits that lit up the world of motorsport in the United Kingdom after World War Two – airfields.
Before the war, the UK had a limited number of regular motor racing venues. Brooklands was a mighty oval with internal routes that could mix up the challenge, while Donington was a glorious ride through undulating parkland.
But in the late 1940s, it became clear to motorsport fans in different parts of the country that there was an abandoned wartime airfield nearby that had plenty of space to go bonkers in a fast car.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Formula 1 needed to significantly adjust the calendar in 2020. Some tracks had their events cancelled, some classic circuits have returned, and a few locations have hosted multiple races. We saw this at the start of the season in Austria, a little later around Silverstone and now Bahrain is organising a second Grand Prix. However, it is different from the two aforementioned locations.
A shortened circuit
The circuit in Bahrain was used for the Grand Prix last weekend and that on the normal layout which has been used before for an F1 race. Unique to the circuit, however, is that all possible layouts have an official FIA Grade 1 license, so there is more variety available. This was not possible in Austria, where there is no alternative layout at all and in Silverstone the variants were not officially approved.
Two races in a country at the same location can be boring, but can also provide a spectacle. What Bahrain has, in any case, is that the layout is different and that comes with two important points. First of all, there has never been a Grand Prix on this variant, so it is new for the drivers. Also, it is a very short variant, because a lap could be done in 54 seconds.
At 3,543 meters, the circuit is on the short side and has three long straights, which are interspersed with relatively sharp turns. Halfway through the circuit, most of the action on the steering wheel occurs between turns four to nine, but the pace will still be very high. Primarily because of the straights and of course the short length of the track. This also ensures that the Grand Prix consists of 87 laps.
The construction of the circuit started in December 2002, based on the design of Hermann Tilke. Due to the flat environment, the designers were given quite a lot of space in designing the layout.
The first Grand Prix in Bahrain was in 2004, won by Michael Schumacher. This was on the normal layout. Next Sunday’s alternative layout will be used in F1 for the first time, and “new” circuits on the calendar have already created a spectacle this year. It remains to be seen whether this will also be the case on this relatively young circuit.
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