The Spanish GP in Barcelona has been a crucial event in the Formula One season for years: the 360° characteristics of the circuit and the position in the calendar, at the beginning of the summer, make it this weekend is important for evaluating the hierarchies of the various teams at around the halfway point of the world championship. In the last four races we have seen a Red Bull under more pressure than in the past, largely due to the steps forward by Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes, but Verstappen and Milton Keynes proved to be masters at seizing every opportunity and win two of the last four stages. In Catalonia we return to a traditional, non-city circuit, where the RB20 will be able to show its full potential again; McLaren also finds a circuit suitable for the MCL38, but engineers and drivers will have to be able to maximize the result, something that the Woking team lacked in Canada. As for Ferrari, the Maranello team will anticipate the package of updates expected at SilverstoneAnd the objective can only be to get back into the fight with Red Bull and McLaren.
Spanish GP: more tailored layout on Red Bull, important updates for the SF-24. Unknown Mercedes
In the last month we have often heard Max Verstappen and the Red Bull men complain about the poor ability of the RB20 to use curbs and climb bumps compared to the competition, this is more linked to the innate inability of the car from Milton Keynes to adopt settings as soft as the competition. At the Spanish GP Stiffer setups will return on a real circuit, and it is there that the advantage over the competition can widen, for this reason it will be important for McLaren and Ferrari to measure the gap not only this weekend but more generally in the Barcelona-Spielberg-Silverstone hat-trick. Updates are expected on the RB20 after those brought to Suzuka and Imola. The MCL38 is at home on most circuits and therefore one can expect a Norris-Piastri couple also competitive in Catalonia. Meanwhile, tension is rising between the leading teams and Red Bull is taking the first steps towards protesting flexible wings, as anticipated by Formu1a.uno and confirmed in recent hours by Helmut Marko, threatening to adopt the same solutions if the FIA should not intervene.
The advanced package on the SF-24 will be very important because, since the introduction of the Imola package, the average performances are quite close to the rivals, however some critical issues have arisen nevertheless revealed to be important, widely discussed in the past weeks after Montreal, that Red Bull and McLaren don’t have. Land low speeds have so far been neglected to build the set-ups around medium and fast performance with the aim of improving tire management in the race, one of the strong points of this single-seater, but the new package will aim to improve competitiveness in slow racing with an expected advantage of just under two tenths.
Mercedes impressed with the progress made in Canada, where layout and weather conditions significantly helped the W15 to enter the optimal operating window. In Barcelona the engineers will find opposite characteristics, with curves requiring different speeds to be taken more compromises from the set-up point of view, but also higher temperatures which in the case of Mercedes could greatly influence performance in a negative way. However, barring any weather-related surprises, temperatures shouldn’t be a big problem for the teams. On the silver arrow we will see further updates planned for some time: the pressure from Aston Martin has weakened as the season continues and Toto Wolff’s team now wants to put the leading group is in the sights to return to fighting for podiums and victories.
Further back, Racing Bulls will also bring updates: another new bottom will debut on the V-CARB01, which from what is collected by formu1a.uno will guarantee a profit of two tenthsnew body parts and a new rear wing, all to try to further close the gap from Aston Martin and the points zone. The single-seater from Faenza has always performed well on high-downforce tracks and at the Spanish GP it could even surprise. Sauber and Williams, among others, will also bring upgrades to Barcelona in an attempt to reduce the gap from the midfield group and have the chance to fight for the points.
Spanish GP: Pirelli chooses the hardest range, pay attention to the weather on Sunday
Twelve months ago, a rather cold race allowed the teams to use all three compounds during a one-stop race over 66 laps on Sunday, but the hotter the conditions become the more degradation will become a major factor. Pirelli has confirmed the three hardest compoundsunderlining how the left side of the cars will be the most stressed: in Barcelona the fastest corners, including turns 3, 9 and the last two are all to the right while the slower ones go to the left. The load levels required are also very high to protect the tires from slipping with high fuel, but the recent layout change has made overtaking on the main straight more likely. At the moment, two hot (but not very hot) days are expected between Friday and Saturday, but there is still uncertainty regarding temperatures and the possibility of rain for Sunday.
