Berra: We won't see a repeat of what happened in Suzuka.

      The balance of power in Bahrain this weekend is determined by the teams' ability to work effectively with rubber in hot conditions.…

      Simone Berra, Pirelli's chief engineer: "When part of the Grand Prix program is held under artificial lighting, some training sessions are always more useful. Today we were convinced of this again – only the second training session allowed us to draw the right conclusions for tomorrow and Sunday.

      The teams have enough data on the performance of the new machines obtained during the three days of winter testing. But the conditions are completely different now, the temperature did not rise above 19 °C in the tests, and today at 18:00 it reached 38 °C.

      Obviously, this weekend we won't see a repeat of what happened at Suzuka a week ago, despite the same tire compositions. The track and the weather are very different, and the level of thermal degradation of tires in Bahrain, not only on the rear axle, but in some cases on the front, is very high.

      The race may well take place with two pit stops, all three compounds can play a role. It is no coincidence that, unlike last year, seven teams have already used a set of Hard tires.

      We didn't notice any special problems with tire wear, the level of surface abrasion was very low."