F1 News

Criticism on bumpy circuit, but Raikkonen is not impressed

Criticism on bumpy circuit, but Raikkonen is not impressed

05-12-2020 11:49 Last update: 12:32

GPblog.com

The Formula 1 drivers are distributed after the first day of racing at the outer ring of the circuit in Bahrain. The track is very bumpy and not very forgiving in case of a mistake.

During the first two free practice sessions on Friday, it was clear that the drivers had difficulty adapting to the 'new' circuit. They were worried about avoiding all traffic on the ultra-short and ultra-fast track, where lap times are below the minute. As a result, the drivers only have between two and three seconds of free air when all 20 cars are on the track. For optimal performance you need at least five seconds.

Esteban Ocon, however, expected worse. "It was less crowded than I thought it would be," says the Renault driver to RaceFans. "But it's hard to cope with all the traffic, to get everything perfect in one lap. There are only corners, so it's going to be extremely tight."

Daniil Kvyat did have an idea of how to handle all the traffic: all the drivers are divided into groups so that the number of cars on the track decreases.

"Can just be driven"

The new part of the circuit is very bumpy. But according to Daniel Ricciardo that is not really a problem. "It is bumpy, but it is not too crazy. It's not as if you can't drive normally. It does give character to the track."

His future teammate Lando Norris sees other problems. "There's a lot of gravel, so a mistake is quickly punished. That's a good thing. But this circuit doesn't really show what a modern Formula 1 car can do."

One driver who was in any case not impressed by the circuit was Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn reacted how he always does. "It is very similar to all the other places. The lap times are a lot shorter of course. But that doesn't change much, it's all pretty much the same."