What to Expect of the 2019 Spanish F1 GP?
Ferrari's expectations certainly started very different than the outcome of the 2019 season so far. Their main rivals, Mercedes scored a record breaking 4th 1-2 finish in the first four races of the season. Will they do it again at the first race in Europe and score their 5th?
In 2015 Mercedes won twelve 1-2 finishes in total and had a really dominated the season with Nico Rosberg and Hamilton. The strange thing this season is that Mercedes hasn't been very dominant during testing and practice sessions.
The only explanation for Mercedes their performance this year is that they have a very sophisticated simulation programme in which they can predict their speed based on data from their car without trying to hard on the track. The great thing of this method is that the W10 car isn't put to it's limits before the race and that's great for reliability of all mechanical parts during the race.
The German team amd drivers also have been flawless, while the Ferrari team wasn't. If Ferrari would not have had their bad luck and made their strategic mistakes, than Charles Leclerc would have finished as 3rd in Australia, won in Bahrain, finished on P3 in China and won in Azerbaijan.
The championship would have been very close with equal points for Valtteri Bottas and Lewis |Hamilton (76) and Charles Leclerc leading with 77 points. But that's a fairy tail story. The reality is that Mercedes is leading the constructors championship with 173 points and Ferrari is looking to a major gap of 74 points on 2nd place. Bottas leads the drivers championship with 87 points. The Finn leads with 1 point to his team mate Hamilton. Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel is on P3 with 52 points.
Next race is the 49th Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix driven on Catalunya Circuit. Ferrari was the quickest during winter testing, so If they can't win in Barcelona, then it will become very difficult for them to have a shot at the title.
2019 Spanish GP Facts & Figures
The first Spanish Grand Prix was held in 1951 and was held on Pedralbes Circuit. It was a street circuit in the city of Barcelona. Juan Manuel Fangio won the first race for Alfa Romeo. Five different circuits have been used in total. Catalunya circuit is on the calendar since 1991 and has held the most F1 races with 28.
Successful Drivers
The most successful driver of the Spanish F1 GP is Michael Schumacher. The German driver won 12 podiums and won 6 races. He also scored the most poles in Spain with 7. Out of the current drivers Lewis Hamilton is best with 3 victories, just like Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Mika Hakkinen and Jackie Stewart. Kimi Raikkonen won twice, while Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen won once in Spain.
Successful Teams
The most team victories are scored by Ferrari in Spain. The team from Maranello won 12 Grand Prix' and 30 podiums! It's also the only team who participated in all 48 earlier races. The second most successful team is McLaren with 8th wins.
All this info can be found on our Spanish Grand Prix info page.
Catalunya Circuit
The Catalunya Circuit is driven clockwise. The track is a mix of fast and slow corners, it's 4.655 km long and drivers can drive it with their eyes closed, because of winter testing when they drive around 500 laps here. This year it's the first race in Europe.on the 2019 F1 Calendar. The circuit has 2 DRS zones and has 16 corners. 9 left-handed and 7 right-handed turns.
The slowest corner of the track is turn 10 and taken in 3rd gear with 95 km/h. The fastest corner is turn 3, which is a corner that drivers take with 265 km/h.
The official lap record is 1:18.441 min and is set during last years race by Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull RB14.
2019 Spanish Grand Prix Infographic
What happened in last years 2018 Spanish F1 GP?
Top three finishers Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen celebrate on the podium with Mercedes race engineer Peter Bonnington during the Spanish GP F1/2018.
The 2018 Spanish Grand Prix started with a big crash In turn 3. After the start Romain Grosjean had to do an avoiding move in the Haas, because his team mate Kevin Magnussen lost his rear in turn 3. Grosjean spun and slammed the gas, which caused a cloud of smoke and zero visibility. Nico Hulkenberg in the Renault and Pierre Gasly in the Toro Rosso could not avoid a collision and retired with severe collision damage.
After 5 laps behind the safety car the race resumed. In lap 18 Sebastian Vettel pitted and switched to medium (white) tyres. One lap later Bottas did the same and came close to 2nd place.
in lap 24 Kimi Raikkonen had turbo problem on his Ferrari SF71H. He drove slow on the track, but was able to recover get to the pit and retired.
In lap 41 Esteban Ocon retired with an engine problem and caused a virtual safety car period. During the VSC Vettel pitted and lost his P2 to comeback on the track as 4th. Max Verstappen lost the wing-end plate on the left front wing when he hit Sergey Sirotkin at the end of the VSC period.
Stoffel Vandoorne also had to retire his McLaren with a gearbox problem on the start/finish straight in lap 47.
Lewis Hamilton drove a very strong race and created a 19 second gap to his Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas. Bottas scored his 26th podium
After a bad start in the 2018 F1 season Max Verstappen also had a strong performance again and scored his 13th podium.
Spanish F1 GP 2019 Tyres
Of all the Formula 1 circuits, Barcelona is probably the best known to all the teams as it is a familiar testing venue – including for eight days at the start of this year. But that doesn’t make it any less challenging. Pirelli is bringing the three hardest tyres in the range for the second time this year after Bahrain – C1 as the White hard compound, C2 as the Yellow medium compound, and C3 as the Red soft compound. These should be well-suited to the high-energy demands and warm weather of the Barcelona circuit, as the European season gets underway.
- The track was resurfaced last year, which changed its previously bumpy and abrasive nature. However, the surface has since matured, making it more similar to how it was previously.
- Although the teams had a free choice of all the 2019 P Zero Formula 1 tyre range for pre-season testing, they tended to concentrate on the softer compounds (more commonly used during the year). So they may be missing a bit of data on the hard and the medium.
- Barcelona is a good all-round test for a car and tyres, which is why it is so often used for testing: the famous Turn 3 takes the most energy out of the tyres, while the front-left is the most stressed.
- Last year, the race was won with a one-stopper: the same strategy being used by all the top three. Lewis Hamilton claimed victory for Mercedes after starting on the soft tyre and moving onto the medium. There were also some two-stoppers and three-stoppers.
- This year’s C1 compound is slightly softer than the 2018 hard, with the C2 being roughly equivalent to the 2018 medium and C3 to the 2018 soft. The selection for this year’s Spanish Grand Prix has been made to enable drivers to push hard from the start to the finish of each stint in what are likely to be warm conditions, without resorting to pace management.
Selected sets for the 2019 Spanish F1 GP
Spanish GP Weather Forecast
The weather forecast this weekend around the Catalunya circuit is quite steady with a small chance of rain.
Friday, May 10th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Partly cloudy
Max. temperature: 24°C
Chance of rain: 20%
Saturday, May 11th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Mostly Sunny
Max. temperature: 21°C
Chance of rain: 10%
Sunday, May 12th - Race
Conditions: Partly cloudy
Maxi. temperature: 22°C
Chance of rain: 0%
Who will be on the 2019 Spanish GP Podium
All teams will bring a lot of upgrades to Barcelona. So it all comes down who's home work turns out best. Ferrari will even bring an early engine upgrade,.to try and stop Mercedes from their 5th 1-2 finish. Racing Point will also bring a lot of updates to complete their transition from the 2018 to 2019 car version.
We can forget the winter test results of February. The cars have changed to much to compare them with the version after launch. Ambient temperatures are also a lot higher than during winter testing. The long sweeping turns at Catalunya circuit ask for a lot of downforce to go fast. As you know Red Bull Racing RB15 is lacking downforce. We know Adrian Newey is more than capable to build a car with huge downforce. So we expect Red Bull Racing to do very well in Catalunya as they always do.
Our podium prediction is very hard to do until FP3. But if you want to do some online betting, I would we choose: 1. Charles Leclerc, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Max Verstappen.
The race starts on Sunday 12th of May 2019 at 14:10 GMT, 15:10 (local/CET and 6:10 (PT).
Don't forget to take part in our F1 Poule to win 2 tickets for the 2020 Belgian or British F1 GP.
You can change your prediction until the start of the qualifying session. The race prediction can be changed until the start of the race..
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