Have the updates the teams have brought shaken up the competitive order this weekend? With just four tenths of a second covering the top three teams in practice it’s too early to tell.
There are more factors than usual clouding the picture. The new surface at the Circuit de Catalunya has contributed to lap time gain but is also, according to Fernando Alonso “peaky”. That certainly seemed to be the case as several drivers spun in today’s practice sessions.
Another variable this weekend is the new tyres brought by Pirelli, which have thinner treads. Sebastian Vettel is clearly unimpressed with the decision and has made remarks about it being instigated by Mercedes and Red Bull in testing.The appearance of those two teams ahead of Ferrari on the timing sheets seems to suggest he has a point. But they’ve tended to make bigger gains on race day compared to their rivals – at least on the three most recent tracks where engine power tends to be important.
With so little to choose between the top teams and overtaking usually difficult at this track, the temptation to run an alternative strategy will be strong. However the difficulty teams had extracting good lap times from the softest available tyres indicates all the front-runners may prefer to qualify on the soft instead of the super-soft on Saturday.
That may change if the conditions get cooler, as Alonso explained. “The super-soft I think they were not in the window today,” he said.
“It was a little bit too hot, you overheat them. It happened already in Bahrain, the red tyres, they seem to struggle a little bit with hot tracks. Let’s see tomorrow. it’s supposed to be cloudy and cooler so maybe the red tyres tomorrow are a better choice.”
With the ‘big three’ teams likely to lock out the front three rows as usual it will fall to the best midfield drivers to contest the remaining spaces in Q3. Alonso is eager to get McLaren there for the first time this year. But it would be a mixed blessing, for as Romain Grosjean pointed out starting from the fifth row of the grid on used super-soft tyres is likely to be worse than starting a row further back on fresh rubber.
It looks like being another tough weekend for Williams however. Not only were they slowest, but it won’t have escaped anyone’s attention that their best time was set by the driver who isn’t in the car. And they have chosen more of the unloved super-soft tyres than any of their rivals.
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Longest stint comparison – second practice
This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint. Very slow laps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, right-click to reset:
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Complete practice times
| Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | Total laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’18.148 | 1’18.611 | 71 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’18.997 | 1’18.259 | 61 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’19.871 | 1’18.392 | 52 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’19.187 | 1’18.533 | 65 |
| 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’19.098 | 1’18.585 | 58 |
| 6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’19.499 | 1’18.829 | 35 |
| 7 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’19.906 | 1’19.579 | 48 |
| 8 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’20.637 | 1’19.643 | 67 |
| 9 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’20.083 | 1’19.722 | 60 |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’19.858 | 1’20.035 | 61 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’20.924 | 1’19.962 | 64 |
| 12 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’21.144 | 1’20.024 | 65 |
| 13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’21.159 | 1’20.183 | 69 |
| 14 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’20.508 | 1’20.373 | 61 |
| 15 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’20.984 | 1’20.501 | 55 |
| 16 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’20.665 | 1’20.514 | 52 |
| 17 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’21.053 | 1’20.672 | 59 |
| 18 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’21.373 | 1’21.265 | 62 |
| 19 | Robert Kubica | Williams-Mercedes | 1’21.510 | 24 | |
| 20 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’22.756 | 1’21.556 | 50 |
| 21 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’22.060 | 36 |
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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2018 Spanish Grand Prix
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Mach1 (@mach1)
12th May 2018, 0:19
I know red bull had a new floor, McLaren had a nose job and Ferrari got ears….but other than that, it seems all the major updates have been rather understated.
I guess this is the norm for year two of new regs. Slight evolution, no revolution….
Justin (@boombazookajd)
12th May 2018, 0:45
@mach1
I think that McLaren nose is worth calling a revolution, to be fair, it has 3 rival concepts in one. Force India have brought a new front wing, a new floor, and some new side pods. Ferrari also got a new floor. All I have seen from Merc is a new front upper wishbone addition, a vertical fence.
But yes, overall, I think the Spainish GP updates are usually overblown. Rarely do they truly produce a leap though, Motorsport.com has a great article on the myth of the Spanish GP update
Captain Pie (@captainpie)
12th May 2018, 7:06
@boombazookajd combining existing ideas into one isn’t a revolution it is evolution. I haven’t had a really good look at the new nose yet though so there could be some revolutionary aspect.
Justin (@boombazookajd)
12th May 2018, 13:53
Get a good look at it then. It’s not “revolutionary” but is a revolution of their car.
anon
12th May 2018, 10:58
@mach1, the thing is, if you’re having to make a “revolutionary” change to the car, it might suggest that the car wasn’t working that well to begin with if it needs such a major change in the design to be made to it so early on in the season.
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
12th May 2018, 0:52
“Not only were they slowest, but it won’t have escaped anyone’s attention that their best time was set by the driver who isn’t in the car”
Well I guess that sums up Williams.
Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
12th May 2018, 1:28
Indeed. But Robert had the majority of the updated parts for testing. All this means is that their updates are possibly better than their current package, as they should be. Yet to see if they give the updates to Stroll and Sirotkin.
Captain Pie (@captainpie)
12th May 2018, 7:09
They should have swapped cars to get a true comparison. I guess they are confident in their simulator though where they are at the moment I would leave no doubt if I was in charge.
It may get to a stage where they write off this year and concentrate fully on the new regs and attempt to capitalise on them.
@sundark @jaymenon10
TribalTalker (@tribaltalker)
12th May 2018, 9:00
@captainpie – “They should have swapped cars to get a true comparison” of the cars or of the drivers? I don’t think the two race drivers would much like the latter.
Captain Pie (@captainpie)
12th May 2018, 12:13
@tribaltalker maybe the drivers wouldn’t have appreciated that. But for a true representation of how the new parts are working it would have been interesting.
Otherwise we can assume Kubica is a monster in the car or the new parts are insanely good.
anon
12th May 2018, 11:11
@sundark, it is also worth noting that Stroll hadn’t really set a representative lap time either when he went off – if you look at his times, you can see that the team were not sending Stroll out on proper stints, but tended to send him out and then call him back into the pits again. Kubica’s times, meanwhile, were fairly widely spread as well – he was more usually setting 1m23’s and 1m24’s: basically, most people seem to be getting excited over a single lap time that Kubica set, as most of his laps weren’t that different to what Stroll was doing.