Bahrain F1 Grand Prix 2019: Preview (VMM)

Bahrain F1 Grand Prix 2019: Preview (VMM)

The Bahrain International Circuit is the Kingdom of Bahrain鈥檚 only racetrack. The 3.363-mile/5.412km track provides a complex technical challenge for the teams. The circuit has two clear overtaking places, into Turns One and Four, and acres of run-off. Heat management is crucial, both for the cars and the drivers. Ambient temperatures regularly exceed 35 degrees and the cloudless desert skies push the track temperature towards 60 degrees - the highest of the year. Such extreme conditions affect tyre wear and result in the drivers losing up to three litres of fluid during the race. 鈥淚 won this race in 2009 and feel we have a car that鈥檚 quite well suited to the track鈥檚 characteristics. The track is a good balance of tricky, technical, low-speed corners and faster, high-speed sweeps - particularly two sections behind the pits, which are very satisfying when you get them right. Our car should go well here. 鈥淚 think the original circuit layout, which doesn鈥檛 include the extended 鈥榚ndurance鈥?loop that we used for a single race in 2010, is better for Formula 1 - and it鈥檚 a positive that we鈥檙e returning to that configuration this year.

鈥淚t will make the approach into Turns Five, Six and Seven - the high-speed sweepers - more challenging as you鈥檒l be entering at much higher speeds. 鈥淯nlike Jenson, I鈥檝e not won in Bahrain - although I鈥檝e had some strong drives there in the past. The circuit is a typically modern F1 track, with plenty of run-off and a good variety of corners. You can be really late on the brakes for Turns One, Four and 14, which is a particularly technical final corner. 鈥淪till, there are definitely passing opportunities. 鈥淭his race will represent the last of the four flyaways that constitute the opening phase of the 2012 world championship. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes goes into the race leading both the drivers鈥?and the constructors鈥?world championships, and we want to come away from Bahrain having consolidated our positions in both. Kimi Raikkonen finishes third for McLaren, but it鈥檚 F1 returnee Pedro de la Rosa who attracts the most post-race plaudits. He鈥檚 drafted into the team at the 11th hour to replace the injured Juan Pablo Montoya and he drives a tenacious race to fifth, setting the fastest lap of the race.

A mechanical problem in qualifying forces Kimi Raikkonen to start the race from last (22nd) place. Undeterred, he鈥檚 up to 13th by the end of lap one and he executes a perfect one-stop strategy to finish third. Juan Pablo Montoya ends a solid day for the team in fifth place. Another race, another podium for McLaren鈥檚 new superstar Lewis Hamilton. He starts and finishes the third race of his F1 career in second place, just behind pole sitter and race winner Felipe Massa. Fernando Alonso brings the team鈥檚 second MP4-22 home in fifth place. The MP4-24 has some early-season grip issues, but that doesn鈥檛 stop Lewis. The reigning world champion uses the team鈥檚 new KERS Hybrid system to good effect, coming home in fourth place. Third place behind the Ferraris is a promising start to the year for Lewis, but he might have finished even higher had he not been held up by Nico Rosberg for the first half of the race. Jenson Button, driving his first race for McLaren, comes home seventh.

Looking at it from another point of view, can any parallels be drawn in the loads exerted on the GLK when driving in the extremes just mentioned? As incredible as it may sound, there are indeed parallels. The loads exerted on the vehicle when driving over dunes or through deep sand, for example, are certainly similar to the demands experienced when driving in deep snow or up Alpine passes. Powder snow and desert dust likewise behave in a similar fashion. Now that the series of testing in the Namib Desert is over, the car is due to be put through its paces in a polar environment close to the Arctic Circle. The contrast between the conditions could not be more stark. What particular findings do you glean from this extreme climatic change? Just like the fine-tuning drives in the Namib, the test drives near the Arctic Circle form part of our approval procedure prior to the start-up of series production.

In both instances, the test vehicles are the same, meaning we can be sure that the future customer vehicles will meet the stringent Mercedes requirements. Don't you verify such characteristics in an earlier phase of the development process? Naturally we inspect all vehicle components back in the early stages of development, both in special test vehicles and on test rigs, as well as by conducting simulations as part of our digital prototyping. Yet, as the development process draws to an end and all assemblies are performing at their optimum, in line with our specifications, there comes a point at which the vehicle needs to be precision tuned. This brings the system as a whole into perfect harmony and ensures that it operates reliably and to the best of its abilities under all conditions. There is a clear comparison to be made with the making of a grand piano: here again, the individual components are developed with utmost care and manufactured with absolute precision.