© Getty ImagesStrategy Scout: Bahrain Grand Prix 2022Oracle Red Bull Racing’s strategy team explain the best way to tackle Bahrain.
2022’sseasonopenerwillbefullofunknowns,suchas:how’stheRB18goingtoperform?Whathavetheotherteamsdonedifferently?Howwillthenew18-inchtyresperformaroundtheBahrainInternationalCircuit?
They’re questions the entire Team has been asking since the end of last season, and the person who needs to know the most is Will Courtenay, Head of Race Strategy.
Will Courtenay With Christian Horner In The Pit Lane© Getty Images
It’s Will’s job to decide when the cars should pit, what tyres they should choose. He also has to make decisions on how to react if a Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car is deployed, how to respond to weather changes and much more. If he isn’t trackside for a race, he will be in the Operations Room at the Red Bull Technology Campus in Milton Keynes, analysing data and helping the trackside team make the best decision in any circumstance.
What Will has ahead of him this weekend is the 5.4km track of the Bahrain International Circuit. The race will be 57 laps creating a race distance of 308km in total.
Taking Care Of The Tyres Trackside© Getty Images
Historically there has been plenty of overtaking opportunities in Bahrain, and with the new generation of cars, we can expect even more excitement.
It is also a night race, which adds to the thrill. “Bahrain is going to be pretty exciting this year,” said Will. “It’s the first race of a new generation of cars and we have the new 18-inch wheels. There’s a huge number of unknowns going into this weekend.”
Although there are a lot of unknowns, Will can still look back on previous races for some hints towards the strategy. “Bahrain has traditionally been a two-stop race, it’s a very high-roughness track surface which tends to result in a lot of degradation,” he explains. “Which means we might have to make more than one pit stop to get to the end of the race competitively.”
Pit Stop Strategy Can Make Or Break A Race© Getty Images
It’s known as a circuit for plenty of overtaking, so Will said that due to it being one of the easier tracks to overtake, drivers will: “stick to fastest race strategy, rather than distorting to track position.”
Bahrain is a desert race, so temperatures are fairly predictable, but it’s not that easy. “It can be quite windy and that can affect the cars quite a lot. It increases the degradation and wear. It’s something we need to be conscious of during the race and maybe adapt our strategy accordingly,” he concluded.
The first race of the season gets underway at 18:00 local time (15:00UTC) this Sunday. You can follow all the live timings on our Race Station.
Back To Bahrain For The First Race Of 2022© Getty Images
