Formula 1 bosses anticipate Bahrain’s Outer Circuit will offer plenty of action and a tricky challenge for drivers later this year.
The short, high-speed layout will be truly unique when it is used for the second race in Bahrain, known as the Sakhir Grand Prix, in December, with lap times expected to be the shortest in F1 history at just 54 seconds, while the race distance will be 87 laps, nine more than Monaco.
Originally, it was F1 motorsport boss Ross Brawn who mooted the idea of using what has been dubbed an ‘almost oval’ earlier this year, and he is delighted the sport has opted to try something out of the norm.
“It would have been easier to do nothing new, but we felt strongly that we had the track and the opportunity to do this,” he told Autosport, with Bahrain having six different layouts to choose from.
“Ultimately we are here for the fans and to put on a great spectacle. We believe a different layout one week after the first race is an exciting thing for our fans and will add extra intrigue ahead of the race.
“We considered all the options and came to the conclusion the outer track provided a strong mix of speed, fast lap times and a big enough difference from the international circuit to put on an exciting race for all our fans and give the drivers a new challenge,” he added.
“I think it’s the best choice and one that everyone will enjoy when we race back-to-back in Bahrain this December.”
Though it has been compared to an oval due to its shape, the Outer Circuit shares more in common with Monza, as it’s dominated by long straights linked by mostly slow corners.
But while the 11-turn layout may look easy on paper, Brawn thinks that will be deceiving.
“The ‘oval’ circuit is not a classic Grand Prix configuration, but I suspect it will present quite a challenge to the teams and drivers to manage both qualifying and the race, and I am expecting a lot of action,” he added.
“It’s going to be a busy race, with sub-one-minute lap times, running to more than 80 laps.
“Traffic will certainly be an issue and there will be opportunities to overtake, too. It might look simple, but I expect it will be quite challenging to get the lap times out of it.”
Speaking to Motorsport-Total.com, Romain Grosjean raised concerns over the congested track and the issue of backmarkers having to cope with being lapped pretty regularly.
But F1 technical consultant Pat Symonds downplayed those fears.
“In terms of traffic, it’s going to be crowded, in the same way, Brazil gets crowded. Short circuits do,” he was quoted by GPFans.
Also Read:
“That’s all part of the challenge, but in the drivers’ championship, to be a complete driver you have to handle things like this.
“Of course, the team have so many tools to look at these sorts of things, so it will be a challenge, it will be difficult. Maybe some will lose out from it, some will gain from it.
“I think overall we’re going to have a good spectacle.”
The former Williams and Renault chief also explained some of the work that went into ensuring the Outer Circuit was suitable for F1.
“Bahrain is unique in that it has a number of different circuits,” added Symonds. “If you remember we did use an alternative circuit some years back [the endurance circuit in 2010]. Bahrain typically does give a very good race, but that particular circuit wasn’t that good.
“So we evaluated all the circuits available to us, and remember we have some pretty sophisticated tools, they’re not just lap simulations tools, they are tools that allow us to look at probabilities of overtaking and things like this.
“Of course, we also looked at tyre duty cycles, brake duty cycles, these sorts of things, and in this case we also had to look at lighting because this will be a night race rather than a dusk race. We had to ensure that on the outer loop we had adequate lighting.
“So we’ve been through all that. We felt there was something really quite different [about the outer circuit]. It’s a short lap time, a very high-speed circuit, a different sort of challenge.
“We’re pretty sure it’s actually going to give an exciting race, and we really want to provide the fans with something different, and I believe we’ve done that.”