Finally, after a long wait, officially starts again Formula 1! After doing the test three days ago, we remain in Bahrain with the first truthful feedback on the strengths of the teams. It will be important to try to understand how the cars will respond to the new Pirelli compounds. For the first race week of the year, Pirelli selects mixes them C1 (Hard)-C2 (Medium)-C3 (Yellow). Let's take a better look at their features.
| Pirelli, here are the compounds chosen for Bahrain The new C1 makes its debut at the first race of the season, on the Sakhir circuit. Pirelli has increased to six the number of compounds from which it chooses the most suitable trio of compounds for each track in the championship. The new C1 compound is the intermediate compound between the harder C0 (used in 2022 as C1) and the C2, which has remained unchanged. Pirelli has nominated the C1 compound as P Zero White hard, C2 as P Zero Yellow medium and C3 as P Zero Red soft for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The teams will have 2 sets of hard, 3 medium and 8 soft for each car, in addition to the usual allocations of Cinturato Intermediate and Full Wet. The asphalt of the Bahrain International Circuit is one of the most abrasive of the season and the track layout, made up of corners taken at low and medium speeds, subjects the tires mainly to traction and braking loads. The track also requires good rear axle stability. One factor to take into consideration is the temperature range. The asphalt temperature can reach 45 degrees during the day while it drops by at least 15 degrees as evening approaches. FP2, qualifying and the race, held at 18 pm, will therefore have different conditions from the remaining free practice scheduled for the early afternoon. The Bahrain Grand Prix takes place on a track in the Sakhir desert. The wind can sometimes bring sand onto the track, thus affecting the level of grip during the sessions. Among the support races there will also be the F2 and F3 single-seaters which will thus be able to influence the track evolution. In the first race of the year, tire degradation will be a key factor in defining strategies. Last year, with the exception of just one driver, all the cars stopped three times, instead of the assumed two, due to the entry of a safety car. The winner Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) ran the first two stints on the P Zero Red soft, replacing it with the medium in the final stint. The safety car regime allowed the Monegasque to mount the soft again and get to the checkered flag before his teammate Carlos Sainz. |
Mario Isola: "Watch out for the C1"
There was no shortage of words from the head of the Pirelli motorsport area, Mario Isola, to present everything.
“The first race of the championship will be an important test bench to validate the research work that Pirelli undertook last year and which allowed us to further improve the tire structure and introduce a new compound. In fact, we will be making the debut of the C1 at Sakhir: a new compound, created on the basis of last year's C2, which reduces the performance gap between the harder tires in the range. We expect it to be a valid option for the race as well. The Bahrain Grand Prix is often played on the undercut, so it will be interesting to see the teams' strategies with this new variable in the trio chosen for Sakhir”.
