Bahrain goes for new track layout

A completely unexpected piece of news popped up today, with the Bahrain GP organizers announcing this years race will not take part in the usual 5,41km layout, but rather in an “Endurance” 6,2km version of the circuit which adds a new loop:

Map of Bahrain's new layout, the old track used the shortcut from T4 to what will be now T14

This is somewhat bizarre, because the reason the organizers have given for this change is basically to accommodate the fact there will be more cars on track, 26 instead of 20. I’ve seen GP2 fields of 26 handling it without any problem whatsoever, specially given that this is the one circuit in the world that is really bloody wide, and then there’s a sea of tarmac everywhere if you happen to go out of track. And amusingly, from the maps it seems the new section is going to be the narrowest part in the circuit.

However I’m not going to cry about it, as some fans in the forums already seem to be doing. The only harm it really does is to ruin the quick S we had after the turn 4 hairpin, which was one of the few challenging parts of the circuit, but then the new section of turns 5-6-7-8 looks quite challenging as well. The fact there’s going to be more corners will also force the teams to use a setup with a little bit more downforce, which isn’t good for overtaking, but I think the difference is going to be hardly noticeable.

Teams agree final rule tweaks for 2010

As for some completely unrelated news, and because I have no better place to put this, Scuderia Toro Rosso have announced they will launch their new car at Valencia the first day of testing in the 1st of February. And let me keep the most important news to the end: the teams have agreed on approving the new points system (25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1), without agreeing to give pole position and fastest lap points (thankfully), neither agreeing to force 2 mandatory pitstops per race as previously expected. I’m quite happy about that.

Last week’s recap

Sorry for the lack of articles lately. I’ve been busy in work, not had much patience in my free time, and there hasn’t been much worth writing a full article about. Anyway, here’s a recap of last week’s news in the F1 world:

- The teams want to ban double diffusers from 2011 onwards. This should be good, as double diffusers weren’t intended by the Overtaking Working Group when they laid out the new aerodynamics rules for 2009, and some said it helped ruin the airflow behind the cars. However Mike Gascoyne has come out saying he doesn’t expect any more overtaking with the ban; and it brings up a cost problem as the teams will have to re-think and re-design many things in the back of the cars yet again for 2011.

- The german newspaper AMuS says there’s a new proposed points system: 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 instead of 25-20-15-10-8-6-5-3-2-1. I like it as it has a smoother mathematical progression and because there’s a bigger difference between 1st and 2nd place, which should place more incentive on risk-taking over conservative racing. There’s also talk of points for pole position and fastest lap – of that I’m not a fan because I’ve seen it in other categories such as GP2, and all it brought was more complicated scenarios rather than improving the racing.

- Silly season still goes on, without new driver announcements. Swiss sources insist de la Rosa is certain at Sauber. French sources claim the Renault seat is between Heidfeld and Sato. Toro Rosso is yet to confirm Jaime Alguersuari, meanwhile promising italian youngster Mirko Bortolotti has been dropped from the Red Bull Junior Team, so someone has added 2+2 and got 5 by claiming Bortolotti’s moving into F1. I think it’s nonsense as I see Bortolotti as even less prepared for F1 than Alguersuari seemed last year! USF1 should announce José María López soon, and brit James Rossiter has came up out of nowhere as a possibility for the other seat – which would make for a weird and likely uncompetitive pair of drivers. There’s no news for the other remaining seat at Campos, and they seem to have bigger things to worry about right now…

- …because it appears Adrian Campos is so desperate for money he is trying to sell the team, or a part of it. Shady former A1GP boss Tony Teixeira is linked to it, and the story seems to have credibility as even Autosport have reported on it. USF1 gave some good news by announcing they will test next month at Barber Motorsport Park in Alabama, after persistent rumours that the team is not for real. Then it all surfaced again yesterday with the Gazzetta de lo Sport claiming the team had asked the FIA to start the season at Barcelona, skipping the first few races. Jonathan Noble meanwhile has rubbished these claims.

- Outside of F1, there is plenty of people competing in the Dakar in South America, although there’s not much of battles for the lead there. In cars the Volkswagens have 2 hours over the rest of the pack; in trucks the 3rd placed is already 7 hours behind the russian Kamazes; and in bikes Cyril Despres also has over an hour of a lead – after some controversy with Marc Coma being penalized with 6 hours for an irregular tyre change.  The portuguese have been doing well, Carlos Sousa 7th in cars with a severely restricted Mitsubishi, and Hélder Rodrigues 4th in the bikes. Both have been running higher in earlier stages and have dropped back.

- In rallying, the season is about to start, as the IRC has their biggest event of the year in the Monte Carlo Rally. Robert Kubica and Toni Gardemeister are the latest additions to a superb lineup. I am pretty excited about the Monte, the IRC, and interested about the rivalry with the new S2000 Cup of the WRC so I might write an article about this soon. There’s also the Arctic Rally this month, and this is of interest because Kimi Raikkonen will do his debut in the Citroen C4 WRC.