Which team will make the biggest step forward with their Spanish Grand Prix upgrades? Here are five of the big talking points for this weekend’s race.
The development war
The teams are back at the Circuit de Catalunya two months after they began testing their cars. Several of them have found serious problems they need to correct and almost all of them will take the opportunity to introduce substantial aerodynamic upgrades at the first race close to their bases. For some it wouldn’t be a great exaggeration to suggest their season may hinge on how well this weekend goes.Force India believe they can make big gains with their VJM11 by correcting a fundamental problem with its design. McLaren is another team with a lot riding on its new upgrade package for this race.
Williams has been talking about its “huge” planned FW41 upgrade since Melbourne. How badly they need it can be judged by the fact they were slower at the last three races than they were in 2017.
The teams at the sharp end of the field tend to keep their cards close to their chest about what they might be bringing. Last year Mercedes made a significant step at this race. And as the Circuit de Catalunya lacks long straights of the kind Ferrari has thrived on so far this year, it could be a better weekend for the reigning champions.
More power for Renault
Achieving reliability was the key objective for Renault’s power unit programme after a string of breakdowns in 2017. They’ve clearly made some gains in this area, though the fact several Renault users are already on their second power unit elements shows all is not quite right yet.
Nonetheless they are pressing ahead with a power upgrade which should arrive this weekend. Whether it will be raced remains to be seen, but with Red Bull in the mix for race victories and Renault and McLaren near to the front of the midfield, it has the potential to be a step which has a significant bearing on the competition.
A different kind of race?
This all adds up to a lot more strain on the tyres. Despite this, wear rates are not too high, which explains why Pirelli has chosen to reduce the tread on its tyres for this race. This should help teams keep their rear tyre temperatures under control. However it is another variable thrown into the mix at a time when none of the teams seem to have fully mastered the 2018 rubber yet.
On top of that this weekend’s tyre range is considerably softer than what was used last year. For the first time in 2018 teams had the benefit of having run their 2018 cars in testing before selecting their tyres for the race. The result has been an unusually broad range of different choices.
The Circuit de Catalunya has an unenviable reputation for processional races, part of which is blamed on how well the teams know the track because of how often they run there. But this year there are more unknowns than usual.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Pressure rising on Grosjean
But Romain Grosjean has vastly more experience and a much more competitive car. He’s started in the top 10 twice but hasn’t finished there yet.
The last race was surely the nadir, as he went off in qualifying and crashed under the Safety Car in the race. He needs a fresh start as the ‘European season’ begins.
Williams’s Azerbaijan appeal attempt
Sirotkin goes into the weekend with a three-place grid penalty after Williams’ attempt to have it reviewed was rejected on multiple counts.
The FIA’s dismissal of their attempted appeal – which involved eight drivers involved in five separate incidents – could hardly have been more emphatic. It was rejected on 10 counts and centred on the point that they had presented no new information which merited any of the cases being reopened.
The team can expect to face probing questions about what motivated this course of action and what they expected to gain from it.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2018 so far
RaceFans’ readers verdicts on the season to date.
Rate the Race
| 2018 Australian Grand Prix | 6.096 |
| 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix | 8.322 |
| 2018 Chinese Grand Prix | 8.616 |
| 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix | 8.536 |
Driver of the Weekend
| 2018 Australian Grand Prix | Kevin Magnussen | 29.6% |
| >2018 Bahrain Grand Prix | Pierre Gasly | 56.7% |
| 2018 Chinese Grand Prix | Daniel Ricciardo | 67.4% |
| 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix | Charles Leclerc | 42.9% |
Over to you
Who do you think will be the team to beat in the Spanish Grand Prix? Have your say below.
And don’t forget to enter your predictions for this weekend’s race. You can edit your predictions until the start of qualifying:
2018 Spanish Grand Prix
- 2018 Spanish Grand Prix Star Performers
- F1’s Spanish stars remain closely matched in fourth season as rivals
- Top ten pictures from the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix
- Commanding win puts Hamilton’s bid for a fifth title on track
- Sirotkin was in severe pain from “dangerous” seat problem
Jere (@jerejj)
9th May 2018, 11:57
”A different kind of race?” – Possibly, although I don’t expect much from this circuit overtaking or quality of racing-wise despite the tyre compound combination choice and the relatively recently resurfaced tarmac.
”Who do you think will be the team to beat in the Spanish Grand Prix?” – Difficult to predict at the moment for a variety of reasons.
Jonathan Parkin
9th May 2018, 14:34
I think it needs to rain for It to be a different kind of race
Sviat
9th May 2018, 20:14
No, it’s easy: Ferrari will win unless an unexpected safety car will come out from the pit lane.
Ferrari was easily the fastest team in Bahrain, China and Azerbaijan on three absolutely different race tracks and different race conditions.
Big Joe
9th May 2018, 21:11
Mercedes only have to get their tyres to work better and they will *easily* beat Ferrari. Martin Brundle has pointed out in 2 races so far how much more stable and planted the Merc is, Merc have more power and less stretched power units too. It’s only a matter of time.
Todfod (@todfod)
9th May 2018, 14:36
I’m excited to see what Renault brings in this update. They constantly reminded everyone that they haven’t chased performance at the start of the season, and will only bring the performance improvements to Barcelona. I’m especially keen on seeing whether they’ve developed their qualifying mode to give them a little extra in 1 lap pace.
It’s hard to take their deliverables seriously at times because they have failed to deliver on many occasions, but I’ve got my fingers crossed that they can find a couple of tenths extra in Q3. Should make for interesting season if Red Bull can find that little extra pace on Saturdays.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
9th May 2018, 15:16
@todfod have they failed to deliver tho? They didn’t promise anything at the beginning, they are making reasonable steps in the development of car and engine, it’s Red Bull who’s in a hurry (obviously). It’s not like Honda who claimed impossible things that were not true… Renault knows it’s lacking but it’s taking all the necessary time to address every issue.
Todfod (@todfod)
10th May 2018, 6:39
@fer-no65
Previous seasons they definitely failed to deliver. There was a lot of talk about them closing the gap to Mercs in 2015, only for them to have gotten slower and less reliable compared to Mercedes with following updates. I agree they’re nowhere as disastrous as Honda… but they aren’t really making any strides on the PU side off late.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
9th May 2018, 23:36
@todfod
Me too.
I’m very interested in whether they bring one at all, and if they do, who gets it.
Will it be everyone or just Renault?
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
10th May 2018, 13:41
@todfod I read that this power upgrade is actually a fuel upgrade, and thus Red Bull is not concerned by it but McLaren yes.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
9th May 2018, 16:10
I do think Grosjean certainly needs to step up, but the fact he has no points doesn’t reflect that he’s been terrible every race.
I think he was very nearly on Magnussen’s level in Australia. He was 0.152 off in qualifying and although Magnussen had did an overtake at the start of the race, once Grosjean was directly behind him, the gap was between 1.5 seconds and being in the DRS range. I’m not even convinced Magnussen had more pace than Grosjean at that stage given how difficult it was to overtake here. Even with a really quick car, Bottas showed how hard it was. So given how many voted Magnussen for being DOTW here, I think it can also be said that Grosjean did also do a very good job. He does have one very positive race at least. The next few races however were not good from him. Especially Bahrain and Baku. But the driver who to me has looked worse is Verstappen. At leased Grosjean has one race where he did pretty much do all he could. I think Magnussen doing better than him made him look worse than he really was that day.
Understeer (@abdelilah)
9th May 2018, 18:12
@thegianthogweed GrosJean keeps doing silly mistakes, it is the second time he crashes behind the safety car, it must be a record, on the other hand teams recruit drivers to get points from them, if he does not deliver excuses will be useless for him anyway (understeer, oversteer, tyres …)
bwells88 (@bwells88)
9th May 2018, 19:24
Let’s hope Pirellis choice to change the tires for this and other races doesn’t effect the championship… It’s a known fact that Mercedes is having an issue this year with tire temperatures, this could help them the most… should be interesting to see if they are way ahead of the field again this weekend…