Caterham F1 Racing News

Bahrain International Circuit, Bahrain

GP2 Bahrain Race Preview

Thursday 19th April 2012

After an encouraging start to the season in Malaysia, where Caterham Racing collected ten championship points, the entire GP2 family is now in the Middle East for the double-header races in Bahrain. This means as part of a busy fortnight the series will race alongside the Formula One Grand Prix for the first weekend and then conduct two more races one week later at the only GP2 stand-alone event of the 2012 season.

Located at Sakhir, 30 km south-west of the island's capital Manama, the Bahrain International Circuit boasts 50,000 grandstand seats and provides spectators with an excellent view point of the 5.412km track. The circuit features 15 turns, four straights, 18m change in elevation and at least three genuine overtaking opportunities.

The local dusty environment can severely reduce grip on track and increase tyre degradation and, combined with the expected hot temperatures, the demanding conditions will test the drivers’ physical fitness to the limit.

Caterham Racing Team Manager Phill Spencer: “Bahrain is a fantastic modern facility and we are looking forward to racing here. We have had a couple of weeks at home to regroup since Malaysia but since all our equipment arrived in Bahrain on Tuesday, straight from Malaysia, the guys have been very busy preparing the cars. After our performances in Malaysia we are quietly confident we can go out over the next two weekends and be competitive. Both Giedo and Rodolfo are keen to get out and race and our main objective is to get both cars in the points, so I am looking forward to seeing what unfolds.”

Rodolfo Gonzalez “We had a bit of bad luck in Malaysia but we did manage to take away some positives. We had strong race pace and it looks like we are pretty easy on the tyres which should play into our hands here in Bahrain.  I have arrived in Bahrain feeling relaxed and confident I can keep building on the job I did in Malaysia. We need to make a couple of changes in our strategy and setup to get the best out of the car here, but overall I am looking forward to doing as good a job as I can at what is definitely a really good venue.  I like the track here - there is a lot of hard braking where you must be careful not to go off line as the sand that sweeps across the track can ruin your tyres, but as long as we are smart I am confident we can do a good job and collect some points.”

Giedo van der Garde “I have come here straight from Shanghai after a positive FP1 session with Caterham F1 Team. It was really good to be back in the F1 car and both the team and I were happy with how it went, but now we are in Bahrain and it’s back to business with Caterham Racing in GP2.  Our result in race two in Malaysia was good and we have already made some big developments with the car so I am very encouraged by that. As always, qualifying will be very important here. My aim is to be in the top four and hopefully from there we can win the race. I imagine the track will be very dusty and dirty to begin with so this is something to consider but overall it is a nice track and one I like competing on. The middle section is quite technical which is good from a driving perspective, so I am looking forward to getting out there and racing.”

Caterham Racing Chief Engineer Humphrey Corbett: “We have arrived in Bahrain feeling quite confident about the races ahead. We haven’t been here for a while but both drivers know the circuit and we have quite a bit of experience of this track right across the team. I am happy with how the cars have developed and we have a good strong base set up to work with. With two quite long straights here we have a question mark over the level of down force we will use - it will probably be slightly less than what we have run in the past but we will look at that in more detail over the first weekend and see where we need to be. Overall I’m looking forward to both weekends - after our performances in Malaysia I am confident we can get both drivers up there in qualifying and give them the best shot at finishing in the points which has to be the aim for both race weekends.”

Schedule:

Friday 23rd          Free Practice: 1200 -1230

                          Qualifying:1600 – 1630

Saturday 24th      Race 1: 1545 – 1650 (32 laps)

Sunday 25th        Race 2: 1050 – 1140 (23 laps)