Saturday Night With a Race Engineer
A conversation with race engineer Sophie Marchetti about the hours between qualifying and the race, parc fermé rules, setup compromises, and how a strategy plan is written and then abandoned.
Why the One-Stop Won in Bahrain
0:00 / 1:02
This episode is for members. Sign up free or log in to hear the whole episode.
Show notes
Bahrain, lap by lap
The winner in Bahrain did not have the fastest car on Sunday. Rashid explains how the hard tyre's degradation curve opened a one-stop that most teams did not trust, why the undercut window was so short on a track that rubbers in quickly, and what the race engineer meant by the radio call at lap 24. Emily reports on the paddock mood afterwards.
- Tyre degradation explained with a simple curve
- Why Bahrain punishes the rear tyres
- The undercut, the overcut and the window between them
- The lap 24 radio call decoded
- Emily on what the teams said on Monday
Next week, a race engineer explains Saturday night in the garage.
Transcript
Welcome to Pit Wall Radio. I am Rashid Al Mazrouei, I spent four seasons on the tyre side of a Formula 1 garage, and with me is Emily Hartigan, who spent even longer on the press side. This is the show that starts where the television coverage stops, with the question why. Today, Bahrain. The car that won was not the fastest car on Sunday, and that is exactly why we love strategy. I will show you the tyre degradation curve that opened a one-stop most teams were afraid of, explain why the undercut window was so tiny, and decode the radio message at lap 24 that actually decided the podium. Emily will tell you what the paddock was saying on Monday morning. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts. Box, box.
Open as text