By Ian Lockwood
March 9 2006

The Sakhir circuit, outside Bahrain’s capital city of Manama, hosts its third Formula 1 Grand Prix this weekend. The circuit is one of the most modern on the calendar, its architecture reflecting Arabian themes.

Located in the desert, dealing with the sand surrounding the track is one of the main priorities for drivers and engineers. Only those with very long memories can recall coming up against these problems elsewhere, when the F1 circus used to visit the coastal track of Zandvoort for the Dutch GP.

Baharain itself is liked by many for providing a different culture to the majority of races, although time spent soaking it up is severely limited for the teams. It will be interesting to see how the circuit & country copes with the honour of being the opening race of the season. Melbourne (the normal season opener) is renowned for its welcoming party atmosphere, so there is a lot to live up to.

As for the circuit itself, the 57 laps that make up the 191.529 mile race are not the most demanding for the drivers (if you take the heat of the venue from the equation) - an absence of really high speed corners make it something of a stop / start race with long periods of full throttle, followed by hard braking. It is important for drivers and teams to manage brake wear and engine cooling is also particularly important (ominous for Red Bull, given pre-season problems).

From a drivers point of view, the sand surrounding the circuit can make it a tricky race, with off-line excursions or overtaking attempts resulting in dusty, slippery  tyres for several corners to follow.