After a dramatic weekend in Bahrain, Formula One remains on the Middle Eastern island for a second race in the desert. But things did not let off in the following days. Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton will not race this weekend in Bahrain due to a positive COVID-19 test. George Russell has moved across from Williams for this race and will drive the champion’s Mercedes, whilst Jack Aitken makes his debut for Williams. Whilst Pietro Fittipaldi stands in for Romain Grosjean as the Frenchman recovers from his burns.
This time Formula One enters unchartered territory, as they will be racing on the ‘Outer’ configuration of the circuit with laptimes easily expected to be under a minute. This layout bears some resemblance to an oval. With the track consisting of mostly straights, Monza downforce levels are to be expected and we can certainly expect to see a lot of slipstreaming around the 3.543 kilometre layout. The two DRS zones are on the main straight and on the run to Turn 4.
Here is a video guide to the circuit.
The big question everyone is asking ahead of this weekend is how will George Russell make use of this opportunity? Can he win? He has historically proven to be able to adapt to new machinery quickly. So whilst he can be forgiven for being a little bit behind due to not getting up to speed quickly, it would not be surprising to see him instantly on the pace of Valtteri Bottas and challenging him for the win. And how will rookies Jack Aitken and Pietro Fittipaldi get on? The other major question is what sort of challenge will this layout throw up? There are a lot of concerns that we could see issues with congestion on the short layout and drivers fighting to pick up a slipstream. The final question is regarding the main feeder series Formula 2, who’s title battle will be settled at the weekend. Haas bound Mick Schumacher is the favourite to win the title, however he has a fired up Callum Ilott pursuing him, he does not have the funding for another season in F2 so he wants to make his mark.
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As mentioned last week, the Midweek Recap is no more, but all the features have been separated. But the streams at the end of each day will remain as they are. Here is the weekend schedule.
Friday 4th December: Friday Recap – 22:00GMT
Saturday 5th December: Qualifying Day Review – 20:30GMT
Sunday 6th December: Race Review – 21:00GMT
Monday 7th December: Road To F1 Review – 18:00GMT
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