F1 drivers eager to get racing

Manama : Formula 1’s star drivers are eager to get racing going this weekend at Bahrain International Circuit.

Haas pair Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen are both looking forward to the overtaking opportunities available at Sakhir track.

“I love driving in Bahrain,” said Grosjean. “I think it’s a really exciting track for racing and overtaking.

“It’s one of those tracks where there are many opportunities to overtake, which is amazing. Obviously there’s turn one, but turn three, turn 11, turn 15 – they all make it probably one of the best circuits for racing.”

Magnussen agrees and hopes that such facilities will help them bounce back from a disappointing opening round in Melbourne last month.

“Bahrain is a much better circuit for overtaking than Australia,” Magnussen said.

“I don’t think we’re going to have as many negative comments about a boring race in Bahrain because the track layout is a lot better for racing and overtaking. I’m sure we’ll see an exciting Grand Prix.”

Red Bull Racing tandem Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen are looking forward to the challenge of making quick adjustments from morning to night racing.

“It’s actually quite a tricky event as the practice sessions are in the heat of the day but the important sessions, qualifying and the race, are in the evening when the track cools so you have to be very adaptive with the set-up,” explained Daniel Ricciardo.

“The weekend is an interesting one as you only have one session to understand how the car behaves under the night race conditions because the other two sessions are during the day, so it’s a bit hot. The track itself is very technical, you have some slow corners and then you end up in some really fast corners which makes it a fun circuit. Driving under the lights is always nice as we don’t get a lot of opportunity throughout the year,” Max Verstappen added.

It won’t be the first time racing at BIC for the Toro Rosso duo of Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly, but it will be their first Bahrain Grand Prix. Hartley was successful in Sakhir in previous years while driving in the FIA World Endurance Championship, as was Gasly during his days in GP2, now Formula 2. Both are hoping that their past triumphs can lead to a positive result this weekend.

“Bahrain is a track I have some nice memories from, it was where we clinched our first world title back in 2015 with Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard in the Porsche LMP1 team, so I’m really happy to go back there,” recalled Hartley.

“I wouldn’t say it’s my strongest track on the calendar, but it’s one that I know very well. My goal for this weekend stays the same: to score my first points in Formula 1.”