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Formula One pre-season testing could soon be returning to the kingdom … if the sport’s sole tyre manufacturer Pirelli gets its way. And a warm and professional Bahraini welcome will await the teams again should the green light shine, Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) officials promised today.
The BIC previously hosted a successful test in 2014, with many teams expressing satisfaction at the circuit’s suitability and hospitality but the decision was made later that year to host future tests in Spain as part of what many insiders believe was a false economy.
The rationale behind the reduced number of tests was to lower the costs for teams. With so many smaller outfits struggling financially, it was decided that for logistical and cost-cutting reasons, it made sense to host the tests only in Europe where all 11 teams are based.
However, the downside was that it made little sense when the cold and damp test conditions experienced at the Circuito de Jerez and the Circuit de Catalunya bore little resemblance (the UK summer race being the exception to the rule, as usual) to those that cars often experience in racing throughout the season.
Races in the southern hemisphere and nearer the equator are scheduled for the beginning and end-of-the-season to take advantage of more reasonable weather conditions, whilst the European trail takes place throughout the continent’s summer for similar reasons.
Now, Pirelli wants pre-season testing to be carried out in the Middle East next February, to be sure of better weather. Pirelli’s motorsport head Paul Hembery said: “We would prefer to go somewhere like Bahrain or Abu Dhabi.
“The temperatures will be representative and we know the tracks very well. We definitely would want to go to representative tracks.”
Furthermore, if teams were permitted to test in Bahrain as they have in the past, they would even be able to test Pirelli’s new ultra-soft tyre option in conditions realistic to those they will find in races.
Testing next year is more important than ever with significant rule changes coming in and Pirelli, who have started trying out 2017 compounds already, having to make wider tyres for cars designed to go substantially quicker.
“If we have any surprises, if the cars then are very different to what we had envisioned, then we will have to react to that,” added Hembery. “Probably not for the first race, but at least when we have some really good winter testing we should know in advance how it is likely going to be and what changes are needed.”
If the sport’s executives decide to return to the Gulf region for testing, then the kingdom will be ready and waiting, according to Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa, the BIC’s chief executive.
He told GulfWeekly: “The BIC has always welcomed the opportunity to hold testing for Formula One and has successfully hosted several tests in previous years.
“The decision remains in the hands of Formula One Management, the teams and Pirelli, but as always if BIC was selected as the venue for the 2017 winter testing, we will do all what is needed to ensure the testing programme will be successful; the circuit is well known and the conditions are representative of what the cars would face over the course of a season.”
The testing return to Bahrain would also give the economy and, in particular, the kingdom’s hospitality sector, a massive boost too, with several teams’ arriving en masse in what is generally a quiet period.
