Bahrain Grand Prix Preview
The Bahrain Grand Prix is the first night race of the season, set in the Sakhir desert in the Middle East. Despite the ‘cooler’ night conditions, track temperatures remain consistently hot, ranging from 26°C to 31°C over the last three years. These temperatures encourage the tyres to operate within their working window, providing good mechanical grip. Although, the high traction demands of this circuit together with the high track temperatures could lead to overheating of the rear tyres.
The drivers complete 71 gear changes per lap, reaching a top speed of 326 kph before Turn 1. The Fuel effect of this track is 0.31s/10Kg compared to the 2018 average so far of 0.35sec/10Kg. Fuel consumption is 1.84Kg/lap with 61% of the lap on full throttle. Pit lane length is 426m which is 59m longer than average and the fastest pit stop time from 2017 is 24.240s. Courtesy of Renault Sport Racing
Tyres

Courtesy of Pirelli Sport

The key thing to remember this weekend is that because the Bahrain Grand Prix is a night race, track temperatures continue to fall during the race, consequently changing the tyre behaviour and level of grip
Track temperatures are much hotter in the afternoon, which is why FP1 and FP3 are largely unrepresentative, making FP2 more important for high fuel long runs to try and understand the tyre behaviour in representative race conditions
Medium, Soft and Supersoft are the mandatory compounds for the race, the same as las...