2015 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix

[E90SLAM]

Not sure if I'm excited for back to back weekends now. Or will be back to back boredom. At least the timing for this weekend's race will be decent morning hours.

Race Date: 19 Apr 2015
Circuit Name: BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT
First Grand Prix: 2004
Number of Laps: 57
Circuit Length: 5.412 km
Race Distance: 308.238 km
Lap Record: 1:31.447 - PEDRO DE LA ROSA (2005)

Tire Compounds Provided:
Prime: Medium (White)
Option: Soft (Yellow)
Rain: Cinturato Intermediate (Green) / Cinturato Wet (Blue)

F1 TIMETABLE (Bahrain Local Time)
Fri 17 April 2015
Practice 1 14:00 – 15:30
Practice 2 18:00 – 19:30
Sat 18 April 2015
Practice 3 15:00 – 16:00
Qualifying 18:00 – 19:00
Sun 12 April 2015
Race 18:00

F1 TIMETABLE (Pacific Time)
Fri 17 April 2015
Practice 1 04:00 – 05:30
Practice 2 08:00 – 09:30
Sat 18 April 2015
Practice 3 05:00 – 06:00
Qualifying 08:00 – 09:00
Sun 12 April 2015
Race 08:00

F1 TIMETABLE (Eastern Time)
Fri 17 April 2015
Practice 1 07:00 – 08:30
Practice 2 11:00 – 12:30
Sat 18 April 2015
Practice 3 08:00 – 09:00
Qualifying 11:00 – 12:00
Sun 12 April 2015
Race 11:00

Note: Please check your TV listings, cause NBCSN might be used to show Barclays Premier League instead.

[escobar929]

lets see if some of the post race excitement carries over, having the race at a normal time is def a plus

[AW335TT]

Boring race is better than no race, for me.

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by escobar929

lets see if some of the post race excitement carries over, having the race at a normal time is def a plus

I'm not holding my breathe for an exciting race. We need Maldonado to "do something", bring out the safety car and mess up everyone's race strategy.

[1MOREMOD]

Back to back weekends? You mean tudor also?

[solstice]

Hopefully it will get really tyre eating hot to increase the competiveness of Ferrari.

[ashtaron14]

Originally Posted by E90SLAM

I'm not holding my breathe for an exciting race. We need Maldonado to "do something", bring out the safety car and mess up everyone's race strategy.

We don't call him Crashtor for nothing!

[E9TOU]

Originally Posted by 1MOREMOD

Back to back weekends? You mean tudor also?

Back to back meaning there was a race last weekend and another this following weekend. But yes, Tudor this weekend as well -- but on Saturday and not Sunday. It's going to be a weekend full of racing for me.

[FormulaMMM]

Come on Nico, be competitive. Give us a '14 Bahrain repeat.

[1MOREMOD]

Originally Posted by E9TOU

Back to back meaning there was a race last weekend and another this following weekend. But yes, Tudor this weekend as well -- but on Saturday and not Sunday. It's going to be a weekend full of racing for me.

Oh I missed last week then!

[Chihuahua]

Merc 1-2.

Glad to see Sauber back in the points again. I think they have one of the best looking cars on the grid.

[E90SLAM]

Toto Wolff has warned his drivers Mercedes may start making firmer calls from the pit wall this year if it feels race wins are coming under threat from Ferrari.

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...rcedes-drivers

Wolff refused to blame Hamilton, but pointed out that Mercedes could have lost the race had Vettel been able to get ahead of Rosberg and Hamilton had then retired. Pushed on whether the team would need to treat its drivers differently now that Ferrari is a more regular threat, Wolff admitted that it might start sending some "unpopular" radio messages from the pit wall.

"It could have come to a point today where we would have been very firm on the radio, saying this is what needs to be done in order not to risk the race result," Wolff said. "He [Hamilton] didn't do anything wrong, but we were close to having the call that the pace needs to go up now. It could come to a situation, where if we see that we are risking the win against Ferrari, that we might do an unpopular call. We wouldn't freeze [the race] or anything like this, but it could be a situation when we need to manage them more."

Wolff reiterated that the interests of the team will always come first over the interests of the drivers.

"Our main objective, and this is what we decided with the drivers, is that we have a big responsibility to the team and a big brand. It's not just about the two guys out there but about 1000 people working on those cars, and if it ever comes to the call of interfering between the two of them because we would risk losing a race win, we would do that. We don't have the gap anymore from last year where we can just let them push each other until the very end. We need to manage the gaps between the two of them."

But Wolff said he does not yet see an eventuality where the pit wall will stop the drivers racing altogether.

"What we understand as the clear team order, which we've seen in the past, where a team says 'You are not allowed to overtake even though you are the faster car', this is not something I can honestly see happening. I can understand why teams in the past did it because they were under the threat of losing a championship. Touch wood, we haven't been in that situation yet, but managing more without making such a drastic call is within the possibility now."

[E90SLAM]

Nico Rosberg: Lewis Hamilton's driving 'irrelevant' to me

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...irrelevant-now

Nico Rosberg says the way Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton's drives in future races will now be irrelevant to him as he looks to rectify his form in Bahrain.

Rosberg was unhappy with Hamilton's driving in China, declaring his race has been compromised after being backed into Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel by his team-mate's slow pace. Mercedes moved quickly to calm the storm after the Shanghai race and Rosberg insists he has moved on.

"We start from scratch again," Rosberg wrote in his Bild column. "Lewis can drive as he wants - it's up to him. It is completely irrelevant to me. Between us, sometimes it's better and sometimes it's less good. But I see no reason to talk to him about it again."

In Mercedes' preview of this weekend's race in Bahrain Rosberg elaborated on what needed to change, with the focus once again on how he could improve.

"China was a frustrating weekend for me and I'm glad we have another race right away to get straight back to work. The team has made a great start to the season and, with this incredible car they have built, I know I just need to find a little bit more in myself to get back to the top step. I've never won in Bahrain but I've taken the last two pole positions here and also set the fastest lap at this circuit on my Formula One debut, so I know I have the pace."

[E90SLAM]

Lewis Hamilton: 'Everything is good' with Nico Rosberg

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...d-nico-rosberg

Lewis Hamilton says he and Nico Rosberg are "grown-ups" and have already moved on from the post-race controversy from the Chinese Grand Prix.

Hamilton won in China ahead of Mercedes team-mate Rosberg, but the German was unhappy that the world champion backed him into Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel while trying to conserve his tyres in the middle stint. An intense debrief followed, with Toto Wolff hinting Mercedes could adopt team orders later in the year if it fears a race result is in doubt.

However, speaking in the Bahrain press conference, Hamilton said he and Rosberg have spoken since and there is no lingering issue.

"That's something we spoke about after the race so I don't particularly see a reason to go back into it," Hamilton said. "You know what my comments were after the race and some people have spun those words in whatever way they've wanted to spin them. We're moving forwards and we will reunite as a team this weekend and try to do a great job. There's no issue between me and Nico, we saw each other this morning and everything is good. There's going to be times when people are going to be unhappy about some things but we're grown-ups and we'll move past it."

When the questioner then followed up that question by saying the winner is usually the quickest driver, Hamilton, who claimed the fastest lap in China, laughed and said: "Well, I was."

Hamilton also played down the prospect of Wolff coming good on his threat of adopting team orders.

"I'm not really aware of Toto's comments so I'm not really sweating about it. Team orders is not generally something we talk much about, it's not our approach but ultimately our job as drivers is to help the team get the best result overall, regardless of whether you're first or second it's your job to make sure you secure as many points as possible for the team."

Though the cooler temperatures of Bahrain's floodlit race will likely negate Ferrari's biggest strength, Hamilton expect the red cars to be hot on Mercedes' heels this weekend.

"With the tyres, as it was in Malaysia, it's a very rear-limited circuit so you have to assume Ferrari will be very strong again. But from our experience in Malaysia we're going to take a slightly different approach and hope that helps us combat that weakness or whatever you want to call it ... Area we can improve in. I'm quite confident that as a team we can rectify that issue that we had in Malaysia. It's still going to be tough and Ferrari have been very, very competitive the last couple of races so I anticipate they'll be very strong this weekend and our race is definitely with them."

[E90SLAM]

Williams' budget gap to Ferrari starting to show - Felipe Massa

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...w-felipe-massa

Felipe Massa believes Ferrari's extra resources are starting to show in the battle with Williams for a place on the podium.

This year Ferrari made a big step forward over the winter and has emerged as a potential rival for Mercedes. In doing so it has leapfrogged Williams, which has been a threat to Ferrari in qualifying but often dropped off in the race.

Ferrari is among the best funded teams in F1, while Williams is still independent and running as an engine customer to Mercedes rather than a works team. Massa believes the gap between the two in races this year represents the funding behind the two outfits.

"If you have two teams that are working in the right way but one team has also double the budget it makes a difference," he said. "If you have a team that is struggling for different reasons then the money makes less of a difference, but if you have both working in a good way with an understanding then it's good to have the more and more [money] you can. It's clear."

Massa believes Ferrari's main advantage over Williams lies in its use of tyres during the race.

"The only thing that changed [from 2014] was Ferrari compared to everybody else," he added. "In Melbourne we were a little bit slower, we were maybe better in the qualifying, but even in the last qualifying [in China] we were qualifying both cars in the middle of the two Ferraris. We are in the fight in the qualifying, but Ferrari is the only team that makes a big gap between qualifying and the race, so Ferrari took more than a second, maybe a second, compared to Mercedes in the last qualifying compared to the race. One second, I tell you, is a lot of time.

"I think Ferrari is maybe the team that has the tyre usage in a completely different way to everybody, and for sure we are working to get as close as we can, but they use the tyres in a completely different way and they have a lot less degradation than everybody - even compared to Mercedes, because if you take one second in the qualifying and you are in the same pace in the race, even compared to Mercedes they are better. I think they are the only team that makes that gap from qualifying to the race and for us it was not easy to have the same pace because we couldn't, until now, use the tyres in the same way."

Massa believes Ferrari will be strong this weekend as the conditions and demands of the track are closest to Malaysia.

"In Malaysia everything was related to the rear tyres and they won the race, so here is another track where the rears are a lot more important than the front, in China it was a lot related to the front tyres and they [Ferrari] still had a good pace. I think they proved in a different type of track that they were strong in the race, so I think we cannot stop working and stop understanding the car and trying to improve. But it's also true that we are third in the championship as well, so it's not that we are having a complete disaster at the beginning of the season, it's not correct to say that, we just need to see if we can fight with the Ferrari because Mercedes is already far, but anyway Ferrari is not far from Mercedes."

[E90SLAM]

.

[Petr0lhead]

I remember that last years race at Bahrain was one of the most exciting races of the 2014 season.
As for 2015: Hamilton and Rosberg fighting each other, Ferrari pushing both of them and some great wheel to wheel racing around 10th position would be awesome!
It could be the best race of this season so far with the Malaysian Grand Prix being the most exciting yet.

[KingOfJericho]

I actually kept last year's race on my TiVo until the new season started. I used to watch it each time I would got a hankering for some F1 during the off-season.

[kct7]

Check out the Bahrain International Circuit race control car!

[E90SLAM]

Typically hot, dry weekend awaits in Bahrain

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/04/1...ts-in-bahrain/

If there’s one thing that is always predictable about the Bahrain Grand Prix, it’s that the conditions will be hot and dry throughout the weekend.

There’s never been a wet race or indeed a wet session over ten Bahrain race weekends and that is looking likely to be the case again this year with dry weather predicted over all three days.

Despite both qualifying and the race taking place under lights like last year, temperatures will still remain just under 30°C on both Saturday and Sunday. Pirelli have brought the Medium and Soft compound tyres to the Bahrain International Circuit for this weekend.

[hellrotm]

^
Just under 30°C...is that what they consider hot over there?

[five_timer]

Originally Posted by BlackJetE90

^
Just under 30°C...is that what they consider hot over there?

86F with the sun down is what I'd call hot.