You get the sand even in the sandwich F1,Formule 1, construct, konstrukce

You get the sand even in the sandwich

Tomáš Leixner | 1.7.07 | T. Leixner

F1 GP

MANAMA (lex) - In the CR you have to order it when you want to build a house, in Bahrain the builders just drive for it into to the desert right next to the city. Only oil is perhaps more abundant than sand on the little island in the Persian Gulf. While in Malaysia there is fear of a tropical downpour, the Sakhir Circuit is more afraid of a sand storm. None of these conditions allows the race to start.
There is no other threat in Bahrain nor any other noun is uttered more often. The sand gets everywhere. Into the engines, hair even the sandwiches. And every night it covers the track in a thin layer making it slippery.
Not surprisingly, as early as the first practice there were Kimi Räikkönen, Fernando Alonso or Jenson Button to exit the circuit. They did not make any mistakes, they did not brake too late, they just skidded sideways on the sand.
„It seems to be, that we are driving on a completely different circuit than in winter tests," says David Coulthard. „I know the corners, but the driving is totally different in them."
It is not just the pilots' feelings or sporadic trips out of the kerbs. In the February testing the drivers reached times around one minute thirty-one seconds. The fastest from yesterday - Kimi Räikkönen - was two seconds slower. The Melbourne's initial race winner, for sure, could not forget how to drive fast.
„Apart from the sand I do not like the wind either. It's very strong in gusts and it can do with car what it wants," claims Räikkönen.
The Finn has been lucky so far, he has always managed to deal with the gusts. His fellow countryman Heikki Kovalainen crashed because of that in Bahrain. On a straight at the speed over three hundred kph. The Sun managed to set and rise again before his engineers retrieved his Renault into the original shape.
The road will not be much better today. The light breeze has been laying new microscopic sand bits. The day before yesterday the island saw a strong storm. There were puddles and dirty track left afterwards, the grip generating rubber washed away...
Formula 1 hates the sand, but a monopost, though not working, might be built of it. There are two specimen scraped directly in the paddock.