Team principal Colin Kolles and chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne are in similarly buoyant spirits ahead of
Force India's Middle Eastern desert challenge, describing the Hermann Tilke-designed Bahrain International Circuit in the Sakhir region as one of the most demanding venues on the
F1 calendar, due to its undulating nature, combination of long straights with tight, narrow corners and sand and dust from the surrounding dunes being blown onto the track by the swirling Gulf winds, rendering what is an already coarse surface particularly gritty.
The long straights mean engine performance is especially important, and Bahrain has one of the highest wide-open throttle times per lap of anywhere else in the championship with the exception of Monza. What's more, after all those long straights, braking down into the slower corners gives a high wear rate for brakes – possibly the highest of the season.
“I am particularly looking forward to the Bahrain Grand Prix after such a strong showing in the first two races of the year,” enthused Kolles. “Although the results do not ultimately show the full progress we have made, the improvement we demonstrated in Australia and Malaysia from this time last year emphasises the fact that we are heading in the right direction.
“Our aims for this race have to be to get into Q2 and achieve a double finish. This is, I believe, a realistic goal as we have new aero parts for this race that should give another improvement, and I am confident we have addressed the reliability issues on Adrian's [Sutil] car.
“Giancarlo did a fantastic job in Malaysia, and hopefully should be rewarded with a position in Q2 in Bahrain and a good result on Sunday. Adrian was unlucky in the first two races, but I am sure that in this next event he will have the opportunity to show his real potential.”
![Giancarlo Fisichella - Force India-Ferrari VJM01 [pic credit: Force India/Sutton]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/410307.jpg)
