Formula 1 motorsport boss Ross Brawn has hailed the success of hosting the Sakhir Grand Prix on Bahrain’s ‘Outer Circuit’.
Unlike the other two venues to host doubleheaders in the revised 2020 schedule, F1 took advantage of the various layout options available at the Middle Eastern track, using the traditional GP for the first weekend before switching to the high-speed ‘Oval’ on the second.
Using the 3.5km layout was seen as a gamble, however, with lap times of under a minute recorded for the first time since the French GP in 1974 and fears the short lap was cause chaos in qualifying.
But they were largely unfounded and a good amount of overtaking in the race, as proven by winner Sergio Perez’s charge from 18th to first, only added to what was a unique weekend for fans and teams alike.
“It wasn’t my idea [to use the Outer Circuit],” Brawn told Channel 4 this week.
“We created a department within Formula 1 to look at circuits and Craig Wilson, who is our engineer and looks at these things, came up with the idea of having this oval circuit.
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“I must admit I was a bit nervous, but Craig persuaded me and it was a great day.
“I think the thing was that this time of the season you were going to get a cookie-cutter race, the second one on the same circuit. The cars are all sorted out, there’s no developments.
“Obviously we didn’t anticipate the problem with Lewis [Hamilton] but earlier in the year when we had those double-headers, I think the cars were all developing and there was enough mayhem.
“And so we made the call to use this Outer Circuit and it worked great, lots of action, a bit of chaos. Lots of drama.
“The viewing figures this weekend have gone off the charts – fantastic.”
The Outer Circuit was in many ways a throwback track, made up of long straights with only a handful of actual corners, akin to Monza and the Red Bull Ring.
And Brawn does think that recipe could be interpreted into other tracks going forward.
“This looks a very simple track but it is very complicated. The bumps make it quite challenging and we saw with a simple, short track what extra dimension it can bring,” he explained.
“I think that will influence some thinking in the future. Some of the new tracks we’ve tried like Portimao, sensational, and some of the other new tracks we’ve visited.
“And again that will feature in our thoughts for the future, how we should do things.
“It’s been a sensational season because considering where we were in March, I think we all came back from Australia not knowing what the future held.
“And getting this over the line – we’re almost there now – it’s been a great season, lots of action.”