Race weekend running from Thursday to Saturday for the first time marks the beginning of the 2024 season with the Bahrain Grand Prix
After the week of preseason testing and the premiere of Drive to Survive to get everyone in the mood for racing F1 is back one day sooner than usual. The 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix will take place from Thursday to Saturday this year. The first two Formula 1 races of the 2024 season are being held on a Saturday in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. This is due to Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, starting on Sunday, March 10 this year. Saudi Arabia’s second round was scheduled for that weekend and has been moved forward by a day as a result. As FIA rules dictate that there must be a full seven days between Grands Prix, the opening round in Bahrain the week before has taken on that revised schedule too.
That means free practice sessions 1 and 2 will be held on Thursday, free practice 3 and qualifying on Friday and the race will take place on Saturday. This schedule also appeared in last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix but on that occasion it happened to adapt better to European fans and their timezone.
What can we expect from the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix
Preseason testing is not the place to make conclusions about a season but fans all over the world have been doing exactly that. Comparing the pace between drivers and their stints is difficult because of unknown fuel loads and many other factors. However, some analysts have shared their thoughts on some teams doing what is known as “Sandbagging“. The definition of this term is hiding the actual performance of the car by using higher fuel loads or less powerful motor maps. Kind of like putting sandbags on the car to make it slower but not literally. their finds is that teams like Mercedes or Aston Martin could be hiding themselves but some also say maybe Red Bull is doing that too.
According to Aston Martin F1 Updates, the pace on the Aston Martin looks very similar to the Red Bull on the same day. Fernando’s pace on the hardest compound (C1) was even slightly better than Max‘s on a softer one.
The opposite term to sandbagging is called glory running. Getting on track late when there is the most rubber and the lowest asphalt temperature on very low fuel, using the best motor map and the softest tyre to make a fast lap and get on top of the timetable. Zhou Guanyu did exactly that on the last day of testing and got the third-best time of the day with the Stake Sauber.
Bahrain is not the best benchmark for the season
The Bahrain International Circuit is not the track with the most average characteristics. Extreme temperature, really high degradation asphalt but mostly slow corners (except for turn 12) is not a common combination. Some cars could shine here and then have lots of problems next week in Saudi Arabia. Where the track is almost fully made by high-speed corners.
Barcelona was the track used for testing before and for a good reason. It is known for being a really balanced track and it is usually said that if the car works in Barcelona it could work everywhere.
All teams are ready to see what the Grand Prix could bring and to start the season. Battles for every point and the chances to see if this third year of regulations could bring closer racing are almost on their way.
Guillermo Lorenzo Manzano
