The Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir debuted in F1 exactly 20 years ago in 2004, and it’s solidified it’s place as the season opener for several years now. It’s also a fan favourite for league racing, as the layout lends itself to overtaking, and the track visuals are great on recent games, including F1 24.

 

For a setup here, the best pure lap time can be found with medium-high downforce setups. But for races, I’m finding you realistically need a medium downforce setup to ward off AI cars on the straights (as with the last few games, straight line speed and the ERS/DRS combo is insanely over-powered).

For my first career mode go round here, I’ve actually gone for my template setup that I start with, just with the wings adjusted a bit.

Here’s my current general dry race setup for Bahrain for a pad user:

• Wings – 24/26 or 26/28
• Diff – 10/50/50
• Camber – -3.50/-2.20/0.00/0.20
• Suspension –  39-5-15-9-25-58
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/53% Bias
• Tyres – Fronts middle pressures; Rears max pressures

Hotlap With This Setup

 

Additional Setup Tips

Here’s some more analysis and pointers for creating your own ideal setup for Sakhir.

Wing levels – This is really tricky to nail round here. This has been modded since I first played the game. In my first season I tried higher wings in the 30s, but just got blown past on the straights. lowering the wings down to 26/28 worked much better second time around here, and I may go even lower to 24/26 next time. Bottom line – you need straight line speed round here to defend. Have your rear wing around 25, give or take a few clicks.

Wing spacing – As with the ’23 game, I’m finding I need the rear wing 2 clicks above the front for best stability and consistency in races, especially as the tyres start to go off and traction gets trickier. More aggressive wheel users are setting the rear wing many clicks lower than the front, but I find this unworkable on a pad. Experiment to see what works for you, but setups that feel OK in Time Trial can be a nightmare to control on worn tyres in a race.

Tyre Pressures – Tyre temps creep a little higher here than other tracks, so the rears need to be at maximum pressures to stay safe. With the fronts you have a bit more flexibility, depending on personal preference (you can set them at minimum for Quali). Higher pressures give more high speed responsiveness whereas lower pressures give slightly better traction and low speed grip and a more planted feel to the handling. I prefer them in the middle.

Intermediate Conditions – You’re not going to ever encounter this in career mode, but if someone’s created a wet online race at Bahrain just for fun, your dry setup will work OK as a base. Just raise the wings 1-2 clicks, and space the rear wing 3 clicks above the front if using a pad for better stability. Use minimum On Throttle Diff and you can very slightly soften the suspension and raise the ride height if desired.

Full Wet Conditions – For full wet races, you’ll need a few more adjustments for better traction and stability.

Here’s a starter wet race setup for Sakhir for a pad user:

• Wings – 32/35
• Diff – 10/60/50
• Camber – -3.50/-2.20/0.00/0.20
• Suspension –  36-4-12-6-28-61
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/53% Bias
• Tyre pressures – Middle pressures front; Max pressures rear.

Again, this is just a starting point and you might need to tweak to your preference. But you’re almost never going to get this at Bahrain, so it’s not worth worrying about too much.

More Setup Resources For Bahrain

I think this track gets a HUGE amount of play time on all the games because it’s so popular, so setups here are very well developed and refined.

My setups are designed to be easier to control, but if you’re looking for more aggressive TT style setups, here are some more resources to check out:

• For a more aggressive race setup, be sure to check out the SimRacingSetups channel Bahrain setup, but be aware it was created using a wheel and may not translate well over to a pad user. You might want to port over my own wing and Diff settings from above. It might feel to nervous and difficult to control on worn tyres, but can be a potentially faster if trickier race setup to try.
• F1laps.com Bahrain page – Another car setup forum with pages for every track, and loads of custom setups posted, both TT and race, all cars, all conditions.
• F1gamesetup.com – An even more specialized resource with custom setups, every car and every track, wet and dry weather.
• Sim Racing Centre (Premium) – Need to pay for these, but more advanced and specialized setups that can be faster, but also wheel based and therefore harder to control on a pad. Can buy setups for individual tracks or all tracks in one pack.

Racing & Strategy Tips

Bahrain is usually pretty straightforward, but here’s a few extra tips for racing here.

Tyres – Bahrain is rear limited, meaning the rear tyres overheat and wear more quickly and traction gets trickier as the tyres wear (lower your On Throttle Diff to make this easier towards the end of stints). Also max rear pressures is a must round here to keep temps down. Because of the overheating, it’s also mostly going to be a medium-hard strategy for the races. You can use the softs for shorter 25% races, but the rears will likely be overheating within 3-4 laps.

ERS (Quali) – You used to have around 7-8 seconds of Overtake mode to use, but after patch 1.10 you’ve got basically as much as you w  so I use a few seconds each along with DRS on the main straight starting the lap (boosts top speed), exit turn 10 onto the back DRS straight and Turn 15 back onto the pit straight to finish the lap. Keep an eye on the green ERS bar on Quali laps and try to time the use so you drain the bar just as you complete the lap.

Strategy – Degradation is also high round here, meaning you get a few good laps on fresh tyres and then pace falls off. For this reason, the undercut – where you pit  early and use the pace of fresh tyres to overtake cars in front – can be very effective. The white hard tyre also holds up very well so you’ve got flexibility on your pit lap – come in 1-2 laps earlier than planned if you’re stuck behind a bunch of fighting cars that you want to try and leap-frog.

Defending (Race) – With 3 DRS zones here, using your ERS widely and strategically is a must to hold position. Here’s the main places you need to deploy your Overtake mode to defend in a race:

• Coming onto the straight before the last corner.
• Coming out of the last corner until you reach the start-finish line
• A few seconds also coming onto the back DRS straight after turn 10.
• Coming out of turn 2 if you get a poor exit (but not if you don’t need to).
• Otherwise, don’t deploy the ERS anywhere else in the lap and let the battery recharge to repeat this strategy each lap to hold position.

In other words, you’re just using Overtake for a few seconds each on the main two DRS zones, and that’s it. Stick to this strategy and the ERS can recoup so you can keep repeating this to hold off the AI. Be sure to get good exits out the crucial corners, and move to the inside if you have to defend position. And I wouldn’t advise settings your rear wing any higher than 28, or you might not be able to defend (you can go down to to 24-26 as well if you want to be even safer on the straights).