Round 4 of the Formula 1 World Championship brings us to the Bahrain International Circuit in the Gulf state of Bahrain.

The circuit has a good blend of high to medium speed corners, heavy braking zones and long straights to test just about every aspect of a F1 car’s handling characteristics. Teams will need to find the balance between optimum down force and straight line speed. The tyres play an important part in the race as the rough asphalt at the circuit accelerates thermal degradation.

Pirelli have brought the yellow soft(option) tyre and the white medium(prime) tyre to the circuit for the weekend. This is the same tyre that was nominated last season the only difference this season is that the tyres have a different construction with a slightly altered compound.

Because the track is surrounded by desert, the is a large amount of sand that is blown onto the circuit which results in reduced grip levels at the beggining of a session. As the session progresses the sand gets cleaned away and the track rubbers down. Picking the right time to go out in qualifying will be crucial. Drivers will want to hit that sweet spot during the track evolution cycle during qualifying.

During the day the temperatures are high, which means the tyres degrade quicker, but this is not representative of the race. We’ll get a true sense of pace during FP2 when track temperatures have dropped slightly.

With the race taking place in the desert, the weather outlook is sunny and hot throughout the weekend during the day with temperatures hovering in the high twenties and lower thirties. The one thing that may put a damper on things is the wind. There is a sandstorm forecast for Saturday’s qualifying session with a northerly wind remaining steady at around 40km/h forecast throughout the day. Evening temperatures are much cooler with ambient temperatures dropping to the mid twenties in the evening. This should help with tyre degredation.

Below is a snapshot of this weekend’s weather and a live forecast that updates throughout the day. Be sure to check in before each session to get the latest weather conditions.