All Info You Want to See Before the 2024 Spanish F1 GP Starts

The 10th race of the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship season will be celebrated this weekend. The 2024 Spanish Grand Prix will kick off a triple-header that will probably give us some nice racing if we consider the last few races as a clear trend of what's coming.

Can Leclerc & Norris Get Closer to Verstappen?

Red Bull could be set to continue on the winning path, with Max Verstappen arriving at Barcelona with a chance for a third straight victory in the venue. The Dutchman has won six of the first nine races so far and leads the World Drivers' Championship with 194 points.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc is second with 138 points and is coming off his first retirement of the season and the first race without points scored. Lando Norris is third for McLaren with 131 points. Both Leclerc and Norris should take points off Verstappen's lead to put some pressure on the WDC and open up a fight for the remainder of the season.

Mercedes, with a new floor, could give George Russell and Sir Lewis Hamilton a fighting chance for the Spanish Grand Prix. Still, things have been far from smooth for the team so far, but on and off track.

Red Bull ―Verstappen and Sergio Pérez― (301 points) leads the World Constructors' Championship comfortably from Ferrari ―Leclerc and Carlos Sainz― (252 points). Meanwhile, McLaren (Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri) inched closer to the Italian outfit and sits in third place with 212 points.

Mercedes remains fourth with 124 points, with Aston Martin (Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll) in fifth place with 58 points. Kick Sauber (Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu) remains the only team without any points scored in 2024 so far.

2024 Spanish GP Facts & Figures

This event will be celebrated on 23 June and will be the 66th Spanish Grand Prix in history. The race will go for 66 laps and a distance of 307.236 km.

The first Spanish Grand Prix was held in 1913. The race was part of the pre-war World Manufacturers’ Championship and the European Championship in 1927 and 1935, respectively.

The race on Sunday will be the 54th World Championship Spanish Grand Prix. The first-ever World Championship of Drivers’ race in Spain was at Pedralbes in 1951 when Juan Manuel Fangio’s 18-inch tyres proved to be too much against Ferrari’s 16-inch tyres and the Argentine emerged with the win and the first of his five F1 championships.

The race was sporadically in the championship during the early years. It took place in 1954 before disappearing for over a decade. It made its return in 1968 with Graham Hill winning for an emotional Lotus team at Jarama, as Jim Clark had died weeks before and that race was the first after the tragic loss of the Scottish legend.

Jarama and Montjuic hosted nine and four World Championship Grands Prix, respectively, between 1967 and 1981, with Jarama also hosting non-championship races in 1967 and 1980. At Montjuic, in 1975, a dark day occurred after a rear-wing failure in Rolf Stommelen’s Hill car caused an accident that tragically took the lives of four spectators.

The race again disappeared from the calendar for several years before returning in 1986, at Jerez de la Frontera.

This is what was left over of the car of Martin Donelly after his crash in during practice for the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix

Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell gave us a great fight for the win in 1986, with the Brazilian beating Mansell by just 0.014 seconds. In 1990, Martin Donnelly suffered a big crash in his Lotus which ended his career as he suffered major leg injuries and brain and lung contusions.

Barcelona arrived in the Formula 1 championship in 1991 and the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has hosted the Spanish Grand Prix ever since and it will be hosting its 34th straight Grand Prix.

The track has provided some awesome moments like Mansell and Senna again battling with just inches between their cars in 1991 or Michael Schumacher’s stunning win in the wet 1996 GP, the first of his 72 wins for Ferrari. Also, Williams took its last win to date in Barcelona, with Pastor Maldonado shocking the paddock in 2012.

Fernando Alonso took his last GP win to date at Barcelona in 2013, while Max Verstappen’s first-ever win was in Spain in 2016, after Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes collided at the start.

Schumacher and Hamilton are the all-time leaders in terms of wins in Spain, with six apiece.

Verstappen has won the last two editions of the Spanish Grand Prix and has three victories in the event.

Regarding teams, Ferrari has been the most successful in Spain, recording 12 wins.

Mercedes, on its side, has won nine races in Spain, and seven of those came during championship races.

McLaren and Williams have eight wins each, though one of Williams’ triumphs was in the 1980 non-championship race.

Red Bull won five times in Spain. Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel gave the team consecutive wins in 2010 and 2011, while Verstappen took his maiden win in Spain in 2016 and has won the last two editions of the race.

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya Track Info

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is challenging and well-balanced. For the 2023 race, the chicane added to the final sector in 2007 was eliminated and the track returned to its traditional layout, with two sweeping right-handers before the main straight. The changes made the layout a 4.657 km park with 14 corners. It is one of the places drivers and teams know to perfection since winter testing often celebrated at the venue.

The track is aerodynamically demanding while having a long straight, which makes the setup aspect very difficult. Its layout has been slightly altered over the years, with a slower Turn 10 (La Caixa) added instead of a sweeping left-hander in 2004.

For the 2021 event, the track suffered a new change in Turn 10 (La Caixa) as the corner was given a new shape that resembles a bit of the original track layout, and the change was made to enhance safety in that sector.

The track has hosted 33 rounds of the Spanish Grand Prix since 1991.

The lap records for the track in its previous layout are held by Lewis Hamilton (1:16.741 min in the 2021 qualifying) and Max Verstappen (Fastest Lap during the 2021 race: 1:18.149 min).

2024 Spanish Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix will be the C1 as P Zero White hard, C2 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C3 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli explained their choice with a statement in a press release: "The tenth round of the season is a “hard” event for Formula 1. As usual, the Spanish Grand Prix takes place at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit, which is one of the most technically demanding tracks for the cars and also for the tyres. Therefore, it’s no surprise that once again for this event, Pirelli has chosen its three hardest 2024 dry tyre compounds – C1 as Hard, C2 as Medium and C3 as Soft, the same three selected for the opening round of the year in Bahrain.

The track is one of the most complete of any circuit in the world, not just those on the Formula 1 calendar, in terms of the challenges it presents. Apart from its straights, it boasts every possible type of corner, with some of them, such as turn 3 and the combination of 13 and 14 which lead onto the main straight, taken at very high speeds. The lateral forces exerted on the tyres, especially on the lefthand side of the car are particularly high, partly because nine of the 14 turns are to the right.

For many years, this circuit was home to winter testing for the teams and also marked the start of the European part of the season, which also signified the arrival of the first major upgrades of the year. Recently, changes to pre-season testing and the calendar mean this is no longer the case, but Barcelona is still a probing test, met with trepidation by all the teams because – and in this case the cliché is true – if a car is competitive here, it should be quick at all types of track.

In 2023, the original configuration, used since 1991 when this track first appeared on the Formula 1 calendar, was reinstated. It was changed in 2007 with the insertion of a chicane before the final corner, with the aim of creating another overtaking opportunity, but this did not materialise. In fact, the removal of the chicane, combined with the aerodynamic configuration of the current cars has seen an increase in overtaking here so that last year this track went from being midrange in terms of passing opportunities to one of the top four.

This year’s race takes place three weeks later than in 2023 so it could be hotter and that could add another factor to tyre management. This thermal issue could put the C3 at a disadvantage, whereas last year that compound had been quite competitive even in the race, chosen by 16 of the 20 drivers for the first stint.

In terms of strategy, a two-stop should be the quickest option with all compounds possibly coming into play. If degradation is higher, then even a three-stop might be feasible, especially as last year’s race proved that overtaking is easier than in the past.

Another consideration at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit is the importance of qualifying. In no fewer than 24 races here, the pole sitter has gone on to be first past the chequered flag and adding to the importance of this statistic is that on four other occasions the driver who was quickest in qualifying retired from the race.

After the Miami Grand Prix, this weekend is the second of the year in which all four championships for which Pirelli is the sole tyre supplier will be on track. Apart from Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3, Barcelona hosts the third round of the all-women F1 Academy series, now in its second season.

This year’s race is the 54th edition of the Spanish Grand Prix, the 34th to be held at the current venue. It first appeared on the calendar in 1951, becoming a permanent fixture in 1986. The Montmelo track is the fifth to host this Grand Prix: previously it was held at two street circuits in the capital of Catalunya, twice at Pedralbes and four times at Montjuic. It was also run at the permanent venues of Jarama on the outskirts of Madrid (nine times) and at Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia (five times). Spain has also hosted a further seven rounds of the world championship, all of them going by the name of the European Grand Prix: in 1994 and 1997 at Jerez and from 2008 to 2012 on the Valencia street circuit.

Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton are the most successful drivers at the Spanish Grand Prix, with six wins apiece, while a win in the 1994 European Grand Prix makes Schumacher the most successful when it comes to F1 races on Spanish soil. The German also heads the table for pole positions on 7, fastest race laps (7) and podium finishes (12). Of the constructors, Ferrari leads the way with 12 wins, 14 pole positions and 38 podium finishes."

The minimum starting pressures will be 25.5 psi (front) and 21.0 psi (rear).

2024 Spanish Grand Prix - Weather Forecast

Friday, June 21st - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Partly sunny
Max. temperature: 26°C
Chance of rain: 7%

Saturday, June 22nd - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Partly sunny
Max. temperature: 27°C
Chance of rain: 17%

Sunday, June 23rd - Race
Conditions: Cloudy with a shower in spots
Max. temperature: 23°C
Chance of rain during GP: 19%

Who will be on the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix podium?

Lewis Hamilton (2nd) and David Mart, Lead Powertrains Engineer at Red Bull Racing, Max Verstappen (1st) and George Russell (3rd_ celebrate on the podium during the F1 2023 Grand Prix of Spain at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

Last year, Max Verstappen won from Pole Position ahead of the two Mercedes drivers; Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

The picture might not look as great for Mercedes in 2024 so far, but the team could again have one of the best cars around Barcelona this time round. Coming off a Pole Position in Canada, the W15 could find the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya at the best possible moment, especially with a new floor coming up.

Moreover, it could be a big chance for Red Bull to steer the RB20 back into the path of dominance, in a favorable track for the team.

Max Verstappen is the favorite to take his seventh win in 10 rounds in 2024, and it could be the Mercedes guys again finishing behind him on track. Of course, that is if Lewis Hamilton manages to find the right temperature for his tyres in qualifying. Ferrari and McLaren should be in the mix, with both outfits desperate to stop Red Bull from racking up victories if they want to truly fight for both championships.

The prediction for the top three of the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Lando Norris.

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