Four races complete, and the Formula One circus heads back to Europe proper for the Spanish Grand Prix. So far, things are all still going Red Bull’s way, but with rumours of the blown diffuser being banned – although not at this race – could we be about to see the tides turn?
Event Schedule
Although Sebastian Vettel is dominating the championship so far, McLaren aren’t going to let him run away with it yet. For Barcelona, they’re bringing at least ten new upgrades, particularly bringing on board something that should have been in place in Turkey.
Pirelli have confirmed they’ll be bringing the new hard compound tyres that were tested in practice in Istanbul. The gap between the soft and the hards should be bigger, and the ideal strategy is meant to be a three-stopper. However, Pirelli point out that visiting the pits takes longer in Barcelona, so that will play into strategies too.
| Date | Day | Session | Time (GMT+1) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 May | Friday | Free Practice 1 | 09:00 | |
| Free Practice 2 | 13:00 | |||
| 21 May | Saturday | Free Practice 3 | 10:00 | |
| Qualifying | 13:00 | |||
| 22 May | Sunday | Grand Prix | 13:00 |
The Weather
Forecasts for the coming weekend show plenty of warm weather and beaming sunshine, with perhaps just a few clouds on Friday to put a shadow over the action.
It doesn’t look as if there’s any rain on the horizon but long range predictions are always to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Friday, 20 May
- 23℃
- Low: 13℃
- Humidity: 46%
- Sunny intervals
- 24℃
- Low: 13℃
- Humidity: 42%
- Sunny
- 25℃
- Low: 14℃
- Humidity: 51%
- Sunny
Circuit Map
The Circuit
| Name | Circuit de Catalunya |
| Location | Spain |
| Timezone | GMT +0200 |
| First Race | 1991 |
| Laps | 66 |
| Length | 4.655 km |
| Distance | 307.104 km |
| Start / Finish Offset | 0.126 km |
From Turkey, with the intimidating Turn 8, Barcelona is less of a struggle, helped by the fact that the teams have enormous amounts of data from previous testing days at the circuit. The hardest corner is Turn 3, where the flat-out speeds give drivers oversteer to deal with.
Overtaking is notoriously difficult, but with the addition of DRS and KERS, it will be interesting to see what difference that will make.
Tyre Compounds
