From a purely selfish point of view, I wholeheartedly support the idea of winter testing in Bahrain.
While the ongoing debate among the F1 teams over the location of 2017's pre-season testing is one of cost, safety, and the show, from a personal perspective the F1 circus currently spends one month a year in and around the Circuit de Catalunya when pre-season tests, the Spanish Grand Prix, and the in-season test are all taken into consideration, and it gets very old, very fast.
Sure, Barcelona is one of the great cultural capitals of Europe, but for the bulk of us who make up the F1 travelling circus Barcelona is a commute too far when the early starts and late nights are taken into account. Instead, we tend to stay in and around Granollers, a one-horse town that's fine for a long weekend, but rather bereft of options when it comes to finding a decent meal and a cold beer after a long hard day at the track.
While Spanish winters are certainly a step up on England's February chill, pitlane launches see the assembled press pack wrapped up in hefty coats and wooly jumpers, our breath turning into steam as we wait in the darkness for a sheet to be lifted off that year's contender in dramatic fashion.
By midday the paddock is warm enough to wander around in a long-sleeved tee-shirt (something only a Geordie would be brave enough to do in February in Britain), but the early mornings often begin with a light dusting of frost on the circuit -- not a situation that can be said to be remotely representative of the racing conditions we enjoy during the season proper.
In Bahrain, however, warm weather is a given (the hailstorm that struck when I was driving into the circuit on Thursday this year notwithstanding) and the Sakhir track enjoys year-round conditions comparable with those seen on the flyaway circuits that now make up the majority of the F1 calendar.
Given that 2017 will see the greatest change in tyre design in recent memory, it makes sense to put the new rubber through its paces in an environment likely to be repeated when the racing action gets underway. The biggest obstacle is that of cost, and from where I'm standing it makes sense that the regulator and commercial rights holder between them find a way to subsidise the cost of safely testing the new cars and rubber which will have been designed to specifications that they themselves requested.
As things stand at present, seven of the sport's 11 teams support testing in Bahrain, and have written to the FIA to say as much.
The opponents are Red Bull (and by extension Toro Rosso, who are beholden to Red Bull's opinion irrespective of their own preferred position), Williams, and Manor. Williams and Manor point to the added cost of a flyaway test as the cause of their opposition, which could be easily circumvented through CRH testing subsidies, while Red Bull's position is based on their desire to develop new components throughout the pre-season test. Flying parts from Milton Keynes to Barcelona is the work of a couple of hours, while sending the same parts to Bahrain is an overnight job.
Speaking in the Friday team personnel press conference in Suzuka, the tech bosses put their individual opinions to the media, with Paddy Lowe supporting the official Merc position of being pro-Bahrain, while Renault's Bob Bell and Haas' Ayao Komatsu were personally against the idea despite their bosses' support of it and subsequent signing of the FIA letter.
"The situation is that we have the biggest change in tyre regulations probably for one or two decades and Pirelli have asked the FIA if they would support testing in Bahrain, which is outside Europe," Lowe said. "So by regulation it requires a process to get there. As I understand, a majority of teams support that request.
"For me, the important point that Pirelli were asking for is some hot condition testing of the compounds particularly. The structure of the tyre is created and tested in the lab but the compounds they can only evaluate in real circuit conditions and unfortunately the mule car programme which is running at the moment has delivered three cars which are very helpful to the process but they are not delivering the level of aerodynamic load that will be seen next year.
"For me it's a matter of supporting Pirelli's request to contain the risk of arriving at the first race as being the first event with hot conditions and there's real risk to the show," Lowe concluded. "We've seen what can happen; for example, in Indianapolis 2005. We mustn't forget that we need to put on a show; we need to run a 300kms race with sensible numbers of tyres, so that's not an inconsiderable risk and should be covered. That's why we particularly support that request."