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Team
and Driver race preview (selected
team quotes, for a full team and driver preview click on the team name) Renault (
Fernando Alonso, Giancarlo Fisichella ) Bob Bell, Technical Director Chassis
I honestly don’t
think we could have hoped for a better start to the season. The entire team did a fantastic job over the winter, and these early
successes have been a huge reward for that investment of time and effort. Viry have done a fantastic job to rise to the challenge of
the two-weekend V10, while here at Enstone, the aero department has pushed hard to put performance on the car, with the design and
manufacturing sectors making a big effort to produce a reliable car in as short a time as possible. To win both races has been a
pleasant surprise, but the success is full deserved. Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top Toyota (
Jarno Trulli, Ralf Schumacher ) Mike Gascoyne - Technical
Director Chassis: "The most noticeable thing about the Bahrain International Circuit is its geographical location, being
located firmly in the midst of the desert. That fact alone adds a unique element to the race weekend, as sand is regularly blown on
to the race track. Recalling last year's event, we experienced a rather sizeable sandstorm early on Sunday morning, which made the
track extremely dusty for the race. We were able to confound our doubters with a highly competitive performance in Malaysia to score
Toyota's first podium position. We have to look to try and enjoy a similar level of competitiveness in Bahrain this week and get at
least both Ralf and Jarno in the points and secure our second place in the constructors' championship." Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top Red Bull (
David Coulthard, Christian Klein ) Christian Horner (Sporting Director)
“In Bahrain we will be aiming to continue our good form
from Australia and Malaysia and our target is to complete a hat-trick of points scoring races. Malaysia proved the Australian result
was no fluke and we demonstrated that our results have been obtained on merit. As we return to Europe, after this opening trio of
races, we will be embarking on a testing and development programme to keep the momentum going over the next few races.” Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top Ferrari (
Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello ) Michael Schumacher
I think this will be another tough race weekend for
us, but hopefully not as tough as Malaysia. Our test drivers and the test team have done most of the work on F2005, with me and
Rubens only having one day's testing each. But I feel we have done enough kilometres in it to be confident about using it here Full
Driver Preview Back
to Top Williams
BMW ( Mark Webber, Nick Heidfeld ) Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1):
Following the improved performance of the FW27 seen in Malaysia, we are looking
forward to the Bahrain Grand Prix. The FW27 is getting faster, but it is still not quick enough to be competing at the front yet,
but that is definitely our target. The Bahrain circuit has some long straights and slow speed corners which drive the minimum
lift to drag ratio requirement upwards. Although it is still a high downforce circuit, this means that minimizing drag is important
in Bahrain. It will therefore be interesting to see where all the teams are placed. Based on last year's race, there are plenty of
overtaking opportunities as well which should provide for an exciting Grand Prix. We will have some more aerodynamic improvements
for the FW27 in Bahrain and Michelin will bring one known, and one new, tyre choice. In terms of compound hardness, we were still
slightly conservative in the last Grand Prix, but Michelin are getting much closer to the optimum compound region now. Pit
stop strategy is likely to be similar to that seen in the first two races. Aside from driver mistakes, once the Saturday qualifying
session has been run it is quite difficult to significantly move grid position from the Sunday qualifying session as the effect of
fuel load has been halved. Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top McLaren (
Kimi Raikkonen, Juan Pablo Montoya ) Martin Whitmarsh, CEO Formula One, Team McLaren Mercedes
"A characteristic of the surface at Bahrain is that it retains heat,
and with track temperatures reaching over 50 degrees centigrade. As with Malaysia this demands good grip and durability from our
Michelin tyres, which was demonstrated in Sepang, and hopefully the Team McLaren Mercedes team will be taking advantage of this in
Bahrain. This is another hot race, but the conditions are not humid like Sepang and therefore have less of an impact on the teams
and the cars. However, the temperature can be very changeable, for example over the course of the Grand Prix last year we saw them
range from 30-52 degrees centigrade on track, which is an interesting challenge to ensure the MP4-20 can operate to its optimum at
both ends of the scale. Going into the event this year, we of course have a superior data set, having been able to conduct live
testing programmes in preparations for its unique characteristics alongside the simulation work at the McLaren Technology Centre,
which will assist our planned programme for Friday's free practice sessions." Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top Sauber ( Jacques Villeneuve, Felipe Massa ) Willy Rampf
(Technical Director): "We learned a great deal about the circuit at Sakhir during the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix last year.
Our major concern then was the high ambient and track temperatures and the amount of sand that was likely to find its way on to the
circuit, and once again much of our preparation work was of a precautionary nature. We will use our maximum cooling bodywork
package, and take a lot of time with additional filters and protection for things such as suspension pivots and wheel bearings. To
be honest the sand issue was not as bad as we had expected, but because of the single-engine-for-two-race-weekends rule this year we
will naturally still have to be very careful in the measures we take. With the new 2005 aerodynamic regulations we will once again
run the maximum downforce available.
"Sakhir offers a wide range of corners. In sector one there is a tight turn at the end
of the straight which requires good traction to maximise the speed into the following corner. Sector two is very demanding for the
drivers as there are some esses and high speed corners. Braking at turn-in requires a car set-up which offers a high degree of
stability.
"The circuit has a lot of run-off area, so if a driver goes off the track there is a high chance that he can get
back on without too much difficulty and without damage. This is a good thing because the unusual width of the track has helped to
generate one or two places where drivers are encouraged to attempt overtaking." Full Team
and Driver Preview Back to Top Jordan ( Tiago Monteiro, Narain Karthikeyan ) Trevor
Carlin, Sporting Director
“Our goal here at the Bahrain International Circuit is to build on the positive results from
Australia and Malaysia and keep the cars at 100% reliability rate. The drivers are performing better and better so hopefully we will
keep on improving.“ Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top BAR Honda ( Jenson Button, Takuma Sato ) Geoffrey
Willis, Technical Director
"After the disappointment of the double retirement in Malaysia, we head to Bahrain for the
final leg of the initial fly-away races determined to turn clear signs of the 007 performance into tangible results. We can expect
Bahrain to be almost as hot as the previous round and the high track temperatures will make looking after the tyres a critical
element during the race.
As part of the testing this week in Paul Ricard, we have been working with Michelin to finalise the tyre
specifications as well as solving the reliability issues from the last race and further developing the aerodynamic characteristics
of the car. A unique feature of Bahrain is the fine sand dust which can rapidly affect track conditions. The slow and medium corner
speed circuit layout requires the car set-up to have good traction without too much understeer and a good brake package to cope with
the heavy braking duty cycle." Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top Minardi
( Christijan Albers, Patrick Freisacher ) Not yet available Back to Top Bridgestone Hiroshi
Yasukawa, Director of Motorsport, said: “We have had an interesting start to the 2005 season and following the race in
Malaysia I know our engineers have been working extremely hard behind the scenes to set us back on track. This is only Formula One’s
second visit to the Middle Eastern circuit in Bahrain and no doubt it will be a tough challenge for us all but we are looking
forward to embracing it and must remember that the Bridgestone equipped Ferraris came first and second last year. Off track, Bahrain
has a great deal to offer Formula One and for Bridgestone, it is an important market so we are hoping to give our customers and
dealers from the region a good show this coming weekend.” Full Bridgestone Preview
Back to Top Michelin Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director
"As is customary, we have been working very hard on the forthcoming race - we might have made a sparkling start to
the season, but there is never any scope for complacency in Formula One. Even though Michelin has so far had the upper hand in this
year's tyre battle, it won't surprise anybody if the opposition ups its game.”
“This weekend we will face our third different
set of circumstances in as many grands prix - and Bahrain poses some unique challenges. It is likely to be hot and the desert
setting means there is always a risk of sand blowing onto the track, which naturally accelerates the rate of tyre wear.”
“Last
year we came here with no experience of running at the track, although our technicians had visited the facility to allow us to
conduct a number of simulation tests. This year's preparations are not really a great deal simpler, though, because the track will
have evolved in the past 12 months and the tyre regulations have, of course, changed significantly.”
“We will have two tyre
specifications for our seven partners: one has been seen before, while the other is completely new and has been designed
specifically for Bahrain.” Full Michelin Preview Back to Top
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