Bahrain GP Stats
This week sees the first race of the season at the Bahrain International Circuit in Manama. Although the circuit has only been on the F1 calendar since 2004, there is quite a long list of stats for the race:
Circuit Stats:
· This will be the 7th race at the Bahrain International Circuit. But it will only be the second time that the race has started the season, with the only previous time being in 2006.
· When it made its debut in 2004, it was the first Formula 1 race to be held in the Middle East, being joined by Abu Dhabi in 2009
· The circuit first broke ground in November 2002, and was built in a record-breaking 18 months. The paint was barely dry when F1 first arrived for its maiden race in April 2004.
· The circuit was designed by renowned F1 architect Herman Tilke, and was his fourth design to appear on the F1 calendar, after the A1 Ring, Sepang International Circuit, and the redesigned Hockenheim circuit.
· This year sees a new layout being used for the first time. Since 2004, F1 has used the ‘Grand Prix’ layout, but from this season it will use the ‘Endurance’ layout due to the increase of competitor numbers. This has taken the lap length from 3.3 miles to 3.9 miles – the second longest on the calendar after Spa-Francorchamps.
Team Facts:
· The Bahrain Grand Prix will be the first time that 12 teams have started a race since 1995 Australian Grand Prix. However, it isn’t the first time since then that 12 teams have entered a race. Back in 1997, there were 12 entries for the Australian Grand Prix, but the Mastercard Lola team failed to qualify. They quit F1 two weeks later and never made the next race in Brazil.
· Since 1994, there has only been 7 brand new teams in Formula 1. Simtek and Pacific in 1994, Forti in 1995, Stewart and Lola in 1997, Toyota in 2002 and Super Aguri in 2006. The remaining 22 new names that have appeared on the grid have all been takeovers.
· All 3 of the new teams that are taking part this season all initally applied to enter F1 under different guises. Virgin Racing applied as Manor Grand Prix, HRT were entered as Campos Meta, and Lotus were entered under the 1Malaysia banner before taking the Lotus name. Added to that, the USF1 team were entered as USGPE as they were not given permission to use the term 'F1' in their name until their application was successful
· It is also the first time that 3 brand new teams have entered F1 in a single season since 1988, when Coloni, Eurobrun and BMS/Dallara entered the sport. The majority of new teams since then have been buyouts or takeovers. Ironically, Dallara are also involved with the new Hispanic Racing team as chassis designers
· And with Mercedes having bought over Brawn, it is the highest number of ‘new’ teams in F1 since 2006, when there were five ‘new’ teams. BMW Sauber, Honda, Toro Rosso, Midland took over Sauber, BAR, Minardi and Jordan respectively, while Super Aguri were the only brand new team on the grid.
· Sauber will also make history this season as the first ever team to have two manufacturers as part of their name. Although BMW have withdrawn from the sport, they will remain on the team’s name for this season, with Ferrari supplying the team with engines.
· Only three teams have won a race in Bahrain – Ferrari (2004, 2007, 2008), Renault (2005, 2006) and Brawn (2009).
Driver Stats
· This will be the first season that the last two world champions have been paired as team-mates. Although there has been world champion team-mates in the past (Prost-Senna, Hill-Clark) none have been team-mates as successive world champions.
· And speaking of champions, Jenson Button hasn’t led a lap of a grand prix since his victory in Turkey 11 races ago.
· It is also the most successful grid of all-time in terms of championships already won, with 11 titles won between them (Schumacher 7, Alonso 2, Hamilton 1, Button 1) - 18% of the total titles won in F1 history. They also span a 15-year period between 1994 and 2009 - the biggest span in F1 history.
· There is 11 race winners on the 2010 grid - the same number that started last season, with Mark Webber bringing the totoal number up to 12. Both Kimi Raikkonen and Giancarlo Fisichella left the sport at the end of 2009, with Michael Schumacher returning to give the total number of 11
· Michael Schumacher will be the oldest driver to start a race since Nigel Mansell started the 1995 Spanish Grand Prix, also at the age of 41.
· Mercedes will have the first all-German driver line-up to start a race since Nick Heidfeld and Sebastien Vettel started the 2007 United States Grand Prix for BMW Sauber. It also sets up a media frenzy in both Britain and Germany with the all-British team (McLaren) facing the all-German team (Mercedes)
· And speaking of nationalties, there are 12 different nationalities represented on the grid, with Germany having 6 drivers - the most of any country.
· And with Schumacher being the oldest driver on the grid, the gap in age between him and Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari, aged 20, is the biggest between two drivers in F1 history.
· Fernando Alonso is the fourth world champion that Felipe Massa has been partnered with (Villeuenve in 2005, Schumacher in 2006, Raikkonen in 2008-2009). No other driver in F1 history has had so many previous champions as a team-mate
· There will be 5 drivers making their F1 debut in Bahrain (Nico Hulkenberg, Vitaly Petrov, Bruno Senna, Karun Chandhok, Lucas Di Grassi), with a sixth, Kamui Kobayashi, also taking part in his first full F1 season.
· The Bahrain Grand Prix sees two drivers returning from injury. Felipe Massa makes his first competitive outing in an F1 car since his nasty eye injury he received in qualifying for last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix. And Timo Glock makes his return after missing the final three races of last season having been injured during qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.
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