01/03/2023
NEWS STORY
As previously reported, Pirelli has expanded the range of available compounds to six this year, with three still chosen for every race.
The brand new C1 compound fills the gap between the hardest C0 (used as the C1 in 2022) and the C2, which is unchanged from last year.
In Bahrain, C1 will be the hard, C2 the medium and C3 will be the soft.
The teams will have two sets of hard tyres at their disposal, three sets of mediums, and eights sets of soft per car.
The Bahrain International Circuit features some of the most abrasive asphalt of the year while the track - consisting of low to medium speed corners - mainly places traction and braking demands on the tyres. The layout also requires a good level of stability at the rear of the car.
The wide range of temperatures is a factor to take into consideration. Asphalt temperatures can reach 45 degrees centigrade during the day, dropping by at least 15 degrees as evening falls. FP2, qualifying and the race - which all begin at 18:00 - will therefore be run in very different conditions to the remaining sessions, which take place in the early afternoon.
The Grand Prix takes place on a circuit surrounded by the Sakhir desert. Wind can sometimes blow sand onto the track, affecting the grip levels during the sessions. The support races include Formula 2 and Formula 3, with the resulting rubber laid down influencing track evolution.
Tyre degradation will be a key factor when it comes to deciding the strategy. Last season, all the drivers bar one stopped three times (rather than the anticipated two-stopper) due to a late-race safety car. The winner Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) carried out his first two stints on the soft, before swapping to the medium. The safety car allowed him to put the soft back on for the final run to the flag, ahead of his team mate Carlos Sainz.
Mario Isola - Motorsport Director: "The first race of the championship will be an important test bench to validate all the development work we have carried out last year, which allowed us to further improve the structure of the tyres and introduce a new compound.
"Our latest C1 will make its debut at Sakhir: an entirely new compound based on last year's C2, which allows us to reduce the performance gap between the harder compounds in the range. We expect it to be a valid option for the race this weekend as well.
"The 'undercut' is often pivotal to the Bahrain Grand Prix, so it will be interesting to see how the teams make use of this new element in the trio of compounds that are nominated for Sakhir."