All info you need to see before the next Spanish GP starts

As Formula 1 arrives in Spain, the picture of the championship seems to be different from what was expected before the previous race. Now, there is the belief that Red Bull’s Max Verstappen might mount a title challenge against Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

If temperatures are high and Mercedes cannot solve their tyres issues, then the Dutchman might have a shot for the win and maybe structure a championship challenge, though he is 30 points behind the six-time champion.

Red Bull looked fantastic last Sunday, without any tyre trouble and an amazing pace by the Dutchman, and even the recovering Alex Albon, who finished fifth and put some great moves on several rivals, showed good speed.

Mercedes, on their side, suffered their first defeat of the year at the hands of Verstappen and the RB16’s efficiency on the Pirelli tyres and will be eager to clap back at Spain, where Hamilton has won the last three races consecutively.

Racing Point’s controversy

Despite all the noise about Verstappen’s victory last Sunday, the theme which has been on center stage since Friday was Racing Points’ penalty for their brake ducts failing to adhere to the Sporting Regulations. The penalty was constructed by a EUR 400,000 fine and the deduction of 15 of the team’s points.

Renault, which was the first to protests against the rear brake ducts of the RP20, pointing that those were the exact same designs (externally and internally) than the ones of the Mercedes W10 of 2019.

On its side, Racing Point will appeal the verdict against them and the case will now go to the FIA’s International Court of Appeal on a “date to be determined”, Formula1.com published.

Lawrence Stroll, Owner, Racing Point, speaks to the media

Lawrence Stroll, the leader of the consortium group which bought the team in 2018, released a video in which he showed a strong defense of his team and accused its rivals of “poor sportsmanship”.

Renault and Ferrari will also appeal against the decision since they believe that this type of penalty and allowing the car to still compete with the same brake ducts is not harsh enough. Racing Point will be handed reprimands after each race in which the car races with the questioned brake ducts, which makes the results of those races provisional. McLaren and Williams also showed displeasure for the lack of a bigger penalty, but both decided not to go into an appeal process.

Zak Brown, McLaren’s boss, even went on to call Racing Point’s remarks about using photographs to design a similar car to the W10 as “BS”. Brown also said that since he believes RP’s explanation was “BS”, there was room to question “anything else around that car”.

Otmar Szafnauer, boss of RP, slammed Brown’s words by saying he was “surprised at how little he (Brown) knows about F1”.

Sergio Pérez or Nico Hulkenberg?

Ricciardo & Verstappen congratulate Hulkenberg after securing third on the grid

Another key part of Racing Point’s weekend in Spain will be if they can have back Sergio Pérez on the car or if they will need to give Nico Hulkenberg another chance. The German had a good outing at Silverstone last week, qualifying third and then running high in the race before a late tyre vibration forced him to pit and finish seventh.

Pérez missed the last two races due to a positive COVID-19 test and he said he is ready to race at Spain, where the RP20 was fast in the winter testing. Today the Mexican driver has been announced to race in the Spanish Grand Prix after being tested negative for COVID-19.

Ferrari and their double standard

Double standards are the order of the day in many walks of life, sadly. With Ferrari appealing against an FIA-mandated penalty against another team, the Italian team does not look very good, after they reached a ‘secret’ agreement with the FIA during the investigation of the fuel-flow limit of their 2019 Power Unit.

Mattia Binotto walks to the Ferrari pitwall

If anything, the secrecy of that deal has been revealed by the SF1000 lack of pace and engine power to compete against Mercedes and Red Bull. Anyway, Ferrari has the right to protest against RP’s penalty and that’s what they will do alongside Renault. Mattia Binotto, the Team Principal at Maranello, even went on to say that what Racing Point did was like “copying in a school test”.

Also, the red team informed that they will be giving a new chassis to the struggling Sebastian Vettel for the race at Spain after a “small fault” was discovered. A heavy impact with a kerb was signalled as the probable cause of the “fault”.

On the other hand, Charles Leclerc had two good results with third a fourth at Silverstone. On Leclerc’s hands, the SF1000 looks like the third-best car of the grid, whilst Vettel’s car was good enough for only one point in the two races at Great Britain. Double standards.

2020 Spanish GP Facts & Figures

This will be the sixth round of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship and the 60th Spanish Grand Prix in history.

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.

Graham Hill (1968)

The race on Sunday will be the 50th World Championship Spanish Grand Prix. The first-ever World Championship of Drivers’ race at 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 his first World title.

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 tragical loss of the Scottish legend.

Jarama and Montjuic hosted nine and four World Championship Grands Prix 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 which 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.

Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell provided a great fight for the win in 1986, with the Brazilian beating Mansell by just 14 thousands of a second. In 1990, Martin Donnelly suffered a big crash in his Lotus which ended his career.

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 30th 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, which was 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, whilst Max Verstappen’s first-ever win was in Spain in 2016, after Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes collided towards turn 4 after the start.

Schumacher is the all-time leader in terms of wins in Spain, with six, while Hamilton is second with four. Regarding teams, Ferrari has been the most successful in Spain, recording 12 wins. McLaren and Williams have eight wins each, though one of Williams’ triumph was in the 1980 non-championship race.

Mercedes, on its side, will be looking to win their sixth race in Spain. Red Bull won three times at Spain, with Mark Webber in 2010, Vettel in 2011 and Verstappen’s maiden victory.

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

A challenging track, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a 4.655 km park with 16 corners. It probably is one of the places drivers and teams know to perfection since winter testing usually takes place at the venue.

The track is aerodynamically demanding while having a long straight, which makes the setup aspect a very difficult one. 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. Also, the final sector was originally fast, with the last two corners being two sweeping right-handers. Since 2007, a chicane in the final sector was added.

The lap records for the track are held by Valtteri Bottas (1:15.406 in the 2019 qualifying - outright record) and Daniel Ricciardo (Fastest Lap during the race: 1:18.441 in the 2018 race).

What happened in the 2019 Spanish Grand Prix?

Bottas broke the lap record during Q3 and qualified on Pole Position six-tenths ahead of Hamilton, who struggled in Q3.

Start of the 2019 Spanish F1 Grand Prix

At the start of the race, Hamilton went side by side with the Finnish driver and Ferrari’s Vettel and had the inside line to claim the lead into Turn 1. Hamilton led the race comfortably and it was Mercedes’ fifth straight 1-2 to start the year, extending their record.

Verstappen took advantage of his good pace and Ferrari’s strategic confusion between Vettel and Leclerc to score a solid P3. Ferrari reversed their drivers’ positions twice during the race, but both times it looked like a late call.

Vettel finished fourth and Leclerc fifth for Ferrari, while Pierre Gasly was sixth for Red Bull. Kevin Magnussen’s strong defense kept seventh for his Haas, while Carlos Sainz finished eighth for McLaren. The Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat and Romain Grosjean in the other Haas rounded the top 10.

The race was run with the C1, C2 and C3 tyres, Pirelli’s harder choice and the same designated for this year’s race.

2020 Spanish Grand Prix - Tyres

The tyres will be the same from those used at Spain last year and the ones used in the 2020 British Grand Prix: C1 as P Zero White hard, C2 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C3 as P Zero Red soft.

Mario Isola, Pirelli’s head of motorsport, explained that the choice comes due to the expected temperatures for the race and due to the speed of the cars at a track which has some sweeping corners that demand a lot from the tyres.

"Barcelona concludes the second triple-header of this intense season to date. Although it will be the third time that the teams drive at the Circuit de Catalunya this year, following the two pre-season tests, the conditions they will encounter this weekend are likely to be very different: both because of the warm weather, and all the improvements made to the cars since winter testing. The expected high temperatures in Barcelona in mid-August will increase thermal degradation on a track already well-known for being tough on tyres, so it’s going to be particularly important to manage them and control any overheating that affects traction”, Isola said.

Reasonably, the Friday sessions will be the main priority for several teams before the race, especially Mercedes, given their woes last week.

The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 23.0 PSI (front) and 20.5 PSI (rear).

Last year, the top runners started the race with the soft tyres and the earliest to stop was Vettel on lap 19, but he had flat-spotted his tyres in the first corner of the race. Hamilton, with clear air at the front, pitted on lap 27 for the C2 tyres, and they all took advantage of a Safety Car to put the soft tyre again for the closing 20 laps.

Temperatures will be very different from last year and we might see most cars two-stopping or maybe three-stopping. After Red Bull’s strategy to start with the hard tyre at Silverstone paid off, we would not bet against various teams trying it for the upcoming event. Q2 will be interesting.

2020 Spanish Grand Prix Weather Forecast

According to AccuWeather, we will have a sunny and hot weekend with a small chance of rain for Sunday.

Friday, Aug 14th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Sunshine and patchy clouds
Max. temperature: 31°C
Chance of rain: 3%

Saturday, Aug 15th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Sunny
Max. temperature: 31°C
Chance of rain: 2%

Sunday, Aug 16th - Race
Conditions: Sunshine and patchy clouds
Max. temperature: 39°C
Chance of rain: 25%

Who will be on the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix Podium?

Having Red Bull in a better condition than Mercedes due to the blistering tyres of the German team is a rather interesting sight for the race in Spain. The track is demanding on the tyres, but the tyres are harder than last week and the exact same used in Barcelona last year.

2019 Spain podium: 1. Hamilton, 2. Bottas, 3. Verstappen

Obviously, conditions will be different from last year and the recent memory tells us Mercedes will need to get their act together for this event. Also, Red Bull focusing on solely one driver gives Max Verstappen the certainty of always knowing he will be in front fighting Mercedes without his teammate interfering, while Mercedes giving both drivers the same chances (both at their own level) will take points from both and it was a factor last week, as the first stint of the Mercedes’ cars was compromised by Bottas’ controlled pace at the front not being enough.

Obviously, we do not expect teams to enforce team orders in such an early stage of the championship, but it is a fact that Mercedes’ philosophy has this downside, especially if their car is not dominant.

Ferrari will probably be another one-man team again and their SF1000 might not suffer as much on a twisty and technical track like the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, although the straight will be a challenge to them. Leclerc should be able to perform well and maybe even get close to another podium finish if the circumstances favor him and if he can preserve tyres as well as he did last week.

Racing Point, even with the noise, showed up well at Hungary, a twisty track, and might be a factor this weekend, though they do not exactly know who will be driving one of their cars.

Given all these factors, momentum seems to be well inside the Red Bull garage and we will be expecting Verstappen to achieve his 10th Grand Prix win at the venue in which he became Formula 1’s youngest-ever winner in 2016.

The top three prediction for the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Charles Leclerc.

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