[Official] Round 5 Spanish Grand Prix

[frostie]

Formula 1 returns after a three week break this weekend, with the Circuit de Catalonya hosting the Spanish Grand Prix.

Traditionally this race has tended to be pivotal to the outcome of the world championship as teams debut major developments on their cars. Ross Brawn, team manager for Mercedes, illustrates the optimism of the teams. “The start of the European season is the first opportunity to make significant changes to the car and the Spanish Grand Prix will see the first step in our development programme. We look forward to evaluating the impact on our pace whilst remaining conscious that this is very much a first step in improving our competitiveness.”

Each team will have major aerodynamic upgrades on their cars and a true picture of the form for the remainder of the season will begin to take shape. Red Bull has dominated qualifying this season with its one lap pace leading to pole position at every race thus far. The team however has struggled in races to turn their low fuel speed advantage into victories. Speculation has been rife as to the reasons for their low fuel pace, most linking the team to ride height control systems, but it will be interesting to see if they can maintain the advantage now that their opposition will bring new development parts to each race weekend.

The Circuit:

As a result of the new packages this has the potential to be a very telling race as to what to expect for the rest of the year. No circuit places a greater level of importance in aerodynamics than Barcelona. With a mixture of fast corners, slow corners and a 1km straight where cars can reach speeds of 200mph teams face great challenges to achieve the required balance in their cars. Drivers need to have as little aerodynamic drag as possible; drag is the limiting factor in the top speed achievable by a car. However they also need to allow the driver to have sufficient grip in the corners to have the confidence to push the car as hard as possible.

Weather for the Spanish Grand Prix:

The other factor that teams need to concern themselves with is the weather. The conditions are generally very pleasant in Spain at this time of year with clear skies and high temperatures and the forecast for this weekend is for more of the same with a 20% chance of rain on Saturday and Sunday and temperature in the region of 20 degrees come the start of the race, making this a great race for spectators but it could create issues for the teams with their cars.

The high temperatures make tyre degradation an issue for the drivers. Barcelona loads up the left front tyre for prolonged period of the lap and also has quite an abrasive surface. When this is mixed with high temperatures drivers can have problems nursing their tyres to the finish and require additional pitstops to the one stop race expected. For each stop a driver will need a window of 20 seconds to their rival.

This season the Red Bull has had a tendency to wear their tyres out faster than rival teams and this could be the chink in the armour for Ferrari and McLaren to exploit. The Ferrari’s have been very kind on its tyres and with Fernando Alonso racing in front of his home fans he should be supremely motivated to add to his season opening victory in Bahrain. Championship leader Jenson Button has also shown the ability to nurse his tyres efficiently and this could set him in good stead for this weekend.

Statistics for this race:

Qualifying is even more crucial here than at other venues, the driver on pole position has gone on to win 15 times since 1991 and has been the victor for each of the last nine years. Only Michael Schumacher in the wet of 1996 has won from off the front of the grid, and even then he qualified third on the grid. As a result it is pivotal for a driver to qualify at the sharp end of the field if they are to challenge for victory.

What to expect:

The expectation will be for Red Bull to once more have the fastest car over a single qualifying lap even with the various upgrades implemented by rival teams. Red Bull though has shown possible marginal wear on their tyres at times this season and an intriguing fight for victory could ensue if a Ferrari (easier on their tyres) or McLaren can qualify alongside one of the Red Bulls on the front row of the grid. This race will tell us exactly where each team stands, and also what work they will need to do over the summer.

Schedule(BST):
Fri 7 May Practice 1 0900-1030
Practice 2 1300-1430
Sat 8 May Practice 3 1000-1100
Qualifying 1300
Sun 9 May Race 1300

Past Winners:

2009 Jenson Button Brawn

2008 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari

2007 Felipe Massa Ferrari

2006 Fernando Alonso Renault

2005 Kimi Raikkonen McLaren

2004 Michael Schumacher Ferrari

2003 Michael Schumacher Ferrari

2002 Michael Schumacher Ferrari

2001 Michael Schumacher Ferrari

2000 Mika Hakkinen McLaren

1999 Mika Hakkinen McLaren

1998 Mike Hakkinen McLaren

1997 Jaques Villeneuve Williams

1996 Michael Schumacher Ferrari

1995 Michael Schumacher Bennetton

1994 Damon Hill Williams

1993 Alain Prost Williams

1992 Nigel Mansell Williams

1991 Gerard Berger McLaren

[Marbot]

Good intro, needs a 'sticky'.

Will it rain? Well yes it will, but not necessarily when we want it to.

Will MS find his form? Will Massa get his own back on Alonso? Will Lotus close the gap to the midfield? Will any of this matter if the Conservative party wins the UK election? All these questions and many more.....

[ralf fan]

Barcelona. *snooze*

[Bononi]

Aaaaahhhh... finally a race weekend, I was going paranoid with the forum drifting away with... err... nevermind.


Nice intro, stuck and official !!

[Sodemo]

***Do not operate heavy machinery whilst watching this race...***

[Marbot]

Going back a year, this is the race that gave us 'Blah!' 'Blah!' 'Blah!' and, err.........not much else really. The rain, bring it on!

BBC forecast.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/2066

Joy!

[broadrun96]

Maybe a nice messed up grid for Sunday's start, unless Ferrari has learned to go out early and bank one. Even if the track gets faster you can always go back out, hard to roll the conditions back if it starts raining harder.

[herowassenna]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Maybe a nice messed up grid for Sunday's start, unless Ferrari has learned to go out early and bank one. Even if the track gets faster you can always go back out, hard to roll the conditions back if it starts raining harder.

If it rains, i hope it's constant throughout.
But, and its a big but... if it rains like 1996, Schumi's historic first win for Ferrari, will they run behind the safety car nowadays?

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by herowassenna

If it rains, i hope it's constant throughout.
But, and its a big but... if it rains like 1996, Schumi's historic first win for Ferrari, will they run behind the safety car nowadays?

Don't they always run behind the safety car ?

[Grandpa_Rob]

forget the rain, l want a dry race with slipstreaming passing and overtaking into corners, lets hope for that.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Grandpa_Rob

forget the rain, l want a dry race with slipstreaming passing and overtaking into corners, lets hope for that.

Hope is all we got.

[Ralf's Girl]

Originally Posted by Grandpa_Rob

forget the rain, l want a dry race with slipstreaming passing and overtaking into corners, lets hope for that.

This is the Spanish Grand Prix we're talking about here...

[BertMk2]

Klein was in for HRT in the first session - seems that the regular drivers weren't too impressed with Klein being brought in though:

Originally Posted by Bruno Senna

We need every lap that we can do in the car. We haven't tested before the season and this is not our choice.

Originally Posted by Karun Chandhok

I'll be amazed if he goes half a second quicker than Bruno on Friday morning; I highly doubt it.

Times from the first session?

Christian Klien HRT-Cosworth 1:27.250
Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:27.752

[ECW Dan Selby]

lmfao I was going to look in to that. How funny!

Selby

[Iron Ripper]

No surprise.
As we should anticipate, most of us predict that Vettel will be on pole
Vettel: 36
Alonso: 7
Webber: 3
Hamilton: 1

Fastest lap in our thoughts will go to Fernando Alonso (as it is his home track)
Alonso: 18
Vettel: 16
Webber: 6
Hamilton: 4
Rosberg, Button, Massa: 1

And of course Vettel is our most predicted winner, no doubt (average predicted place)
1. Vettel: 1,81
2. Alonso: 2,89
3. Hamilton: 3,87
4. Webber: 4,40
5. Button: 5,11
6. Massa: 5,43
7. Rosberg: 5,50
8. Schumacher: 7,86
9. Kubica: 8,11
10. Sutil: 9,47

We prefer Alonso 39 times to have better result than Massa (has 8 better than Alonso)
And Vettel: Webber 43:4
Hamilton: Button 35:12
Rosberg: Schumacher 39:8

[ECW Dan Selby]

Must say that HRT is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. It's like a blast from the past. If only they'd rid of those vanes next to the intake on the sidepod.

Great to see Schuey back up there.

Selby

[foreversideways]

Looks like the Mercedes is finally starting to do what Schumi wants it to do.

[herowassenna]

Originally Posted by Bononi

Don't they always run behind the safety car ?

That's my thinking. The 1996 Spanish GP was run from start to finish without a safety car, they started using it during 1997.
They started the 1997 Belgian GP behind the safety car, which Schumi started on inters and when the safety car finally pulled in, he disappeared as he was only one on inters.
Now, they're so politically correct, even if it's raining lightly they start behind the safety car...

Originally Posted by ECW Dan Selby

Great to see Schuey back up there.

Selby

Hate to throw a spanner in the works, but it is only Friday...

[Iron Ripper]

Originally Posted by ECW Dan Selby

Great to see Schuey back up there.

Selby

Not so fast. In China Schu was fourth in prac2, but what happened in quali: almost lost to Barrichello and was out of Q3. We'll see only tomorrow.

[Marbot]

Did anyone else notice the weird Mercedes air intake?

[skells22]

i better warm everyone that the EPG is wrong if on Sky as i have found out that due to something on BBC1 F1 will be shown on 12.45pm.

[herowassenna]

Originally Posted by Marbot

Did anyone else notice the weird Mercedes air intake?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but without a dorsal fin, can they still have an effective F duct?

[AussieTimmeh]

Originally Posted by herowassenna

Correct me if I'm wrong, but without a dorsal fin, can they still have an effective F duct?

They were discussing this on the coverage I watched because you are right, it is an issue. If I interpretted them correctly, they are working on a self-stalling but non-moving or bending wing to start with, and if it's not good enough, working on a different system later.

It's worth pointing out that Schumacher and Rosberg were trying different setup paths, Rosberg saying that the direction on his car was wrong and expect to see improvement from him tomorrow when they apply the better setups to both cars.

Three weeks between races is too long, I can't wait!

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by herowassenna

Correct me if I'm wrong, but without a dorsal fin, can they still have an effective F duct?

Probably not. Maybe McLaren's is the only one that really works well anyway?

They'll probably be banned for next season. Although I'd sooner see teams gaining performance from things like that rather than just have them bolting on a superior set of 'consumable items'.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by Marbot

Did anyone else notice the weird Mercedes air intake?

Here we go Michael! Now get on with it...