Bahrain Grand Prix: Preview

The forthcoming year will be MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s ninth in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, and the team enters the 2024 season with an unchanged driver line-up of veteran pairing Nico Hulkenberg (36) and Kevin Magnussen (31).

Hulkenberg has contested 203 grands prix and is entering his second season with MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, having scored 530 career points and a best result of fourth, achieved on three separate occasions. Magnussen has started 163 grands prix, of which 123 have been with MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, scoring 186 points, with a career best result of second.

Their experience aided MoneyGram Haas F1 Team during pre-season testing, as valuable insights were gained on the VF-24. Hulkenberg and Magnussen completed 441 laps (2,386.70 kilometers, 1483.03 miles) across three days of running in Bahrain, the most of any team. 

Bahrain will open the new Formula 1 season for the fourth successive year, and sixth time in Formula 1 history, and it marks the start of a record-breaking 24 event schedule. Per 2023 MoneyGram Haas F1 Team will have a trio of visits to the United States, in Miami (May 5), Austin (October 20) and Las Vegas (November 23). 

Formula 1 will welcome back Emilia Romagna, at Imola, after its 2023 absence due to extreme weather, and China, at the Shanghai International Circuit, which last featured in 2019. There will be six F1 Sprint events, commencing in China in April, with Miami and Austin also due to utilize the format. 

This weekend’s event marks the 20th anniversary for the Bahrain International Circuit, which welcomed Formula 1 in 2004, becoming the first grand prix in the Gulf region. The 5.4km circuit is an all-round test of a car’s ability, characterized by long straights, heavy braking areas, and several traction zones that punish rear tires. The Bahrain International Circuit has also yielded some standout results for MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, with Romain Grosjean fifth in 2016, while Magnussen replicated that result in 2022. 

In an alteration from the usual grand prix weekend format the opening race of the season will take place on a Saturday. That means the first two practice sessions will be shifted to Thursday, with the final practice session and qualifying taking place on Friday.

 

Ayao Komatsu – Team Principal:

“First and foremost, the overall objective of pre-season testing was to improve our race performance and race tire degradation management which was the key weakness from last year, so we totally focused on that. On the first day, we managed to make pretty good progress, both in terms of car set-up and the driving side of things.

"On day two, we still focused on tire management but also focused on giving direction to the aero team for future development, which we really need to get right this year. We did that well, so entering into day three – it wasn’t always in our plan to do a quali sim – we made enough progress for me to have the confidence to say we could look at our low-fuel performance as well. At the same time, in terms of reliability and looking at the race simulation, that’s what we’ve been focusing on. 

“As an overview, I think we achieved our original objective of understanding tire performance, giving a direction to the aero team for the future development plan, and then signing off on qualifying performance and reliability. I think the way we worked during testing, focusing first on race performance, then working on qualifying, that’s how we’re going to continue.

"So in FP1, FP2 and FP3, we’re not going to throw away what we learned from here, we’ve got the fundamental bases here, so next week will be more about fine-tuning and then maybe getting a better compromise between qualifying and the race. Last year, we could qualify P8, but we knew we wouldn’t race there, so we can tune that. 

“For me, it’s pretty good to test in Bahrain as it’s very hard on tires, meaning degradation is very high. You go through different temperatures as well because you run from the morning until the night and again, that gives very good data.

"For me, it’s good at such a rough circuit, a rear-limited circuit, because if we look at last year, that was our weakness on the VF-23, so I’d rather expose that here if we have an issue, and then adjust as we go to other circuits.”

Kevin Magnussen:

“We can be happy about testing. The objective was to work on long runs with high-fuel, racing-related stuff addressing our main issue from last year, and I think we’ve made progress. I don’t want to raise expectations – I think we still have a lot of work to do – but we’ve gotten somewhere with the work we’ve done over the winter and these days at testing. 

“It’s a tricky circuit, especially for rear tires and tire degradation is usually quite high, so if you can manage your tires here, then it’s a good sign. Tire management isn’t easy, so it’s a good place for us to be testing given the issues we’re trying to fix. I’m looking forward to seeing where we’ll be in the race, that’s always the final test to see if we’ve made progress or not. Everyone’s in good spirits, there’s a really good atmosphere in the team and an atmosphere I haven’t felt for a while.”

 

Nico Hulkenberg:

“Overall, pre-season testing was good and positive. It’s always difficult, I don’t want to get too excited or over-enthusiastic, but we’ve definitely made an improvement in certain areas where we were struggling last year. That’s good to see and feel, but that was very much needed. 

“It’s too early to say where we are in the field, but it was a fun few days, and was successful from a testing execution and reliability point of view. I’m looking forward to getting the season started, I’m curious to see how it all plays out.”