John N
Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz were the centers of attention at this week’s Spanish Grand Prix, with thousands of fans lining the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hoping for success from one of their own. Here are five things we learned from the two 60-minute practice sessions.
1. Mercedes Knocking On The Door
Mercedes brought significant upgrades to Spain, headlined by a revised floor. The early signs are incredibly positive, as Lewis Hamilton described himself as “super happy” with the team’s progress.
He was, by far, the happiest he’s been on a Friday all season. His teammate George Russell was pretty satisfied with his efforts, too. They had both cars in the top three in FP2—the most representative session of the day—but eradicating the porpoising on the straights has given them hope this could be a turning point of their year.
Their performance on the straights was impressive: they were the fastest. While new power units for both would have given them a few extra horses, their lack of bouncing helped here instead! They aren’t on par with Ferrari or Red Bull yet, but they finally seem to have some answers about why they have been struggling this season.”
2. Red Bull Is Leading The Way In Race-Trim.
Neither Max Verstappen nor Sergio Perez was pleased with how the RB18 – which features only a few little tweaks rather than a sizeable upgrade – felt on Friday in the searing Barcelona heat, particularly on low fuel.
Verstappen, who had won three of the first five races, struggled to find the balance, but when they piled on the fuel, the four-time world champions emerged as the strongest of all.
If they can find solutions to their qualifying pace overnight, they could well be the ones to beat this weekend.
This, is why we love Formula 1 🥰
Nothing beats the sight and sound of these incredible cars 💫#SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/yerrCKLjlB
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 21, 2022
3. Ferrari Holds The Edge On Low fuel.
Ferrari has shown superior one-lap pace for most of the season – and the pattern continued into Barcelona, as the Italian team unveiled their first upgrade package of the season for what is Sainz’s eighth home Grand Prix.
The initial read is that the updates worked as expected, but there remains some fine-tuning to get the most out of the new parts.
Data shows that they hold nearly one and a half tenths of a second advantage over Red Bull in qualifying trim – however they trail by 0.1s in the long runs. Championship leader Charles Leclerc said the high fuel performance “looks difficult,” and they have a lot of work to do overnight.
4. ” Green Redbull” shows potential
Aston Martin made a splash when they unveiled their new car ahead of this weekend’s race in Barcelona. The AMR22 features a new floor, sidepods, engine cover, rear wing, and halo. After the governing body launched an investigation, the FIA gave the all-clear as some parts “resembled those of another competitor”.
On the track, it looked like a good improvement—with Sebastian Vettel—one of only two drivers to achieve his ideal lap on Saturday morning, suggesting he felt comfortable with the car—saying he thinks they are heading in the right direction.
And while that wasn’t translated into pace on the timesheets—they were eighth in both short and long-run rankings—the team will have focused on gathering data on the new parts rather than chasing performance.
5. Alpine and McLaren Lead The Midfield
Alpine and McLaren are likely to battle for best of the rest status in the race despite having contrasting results in Friday practice. Alpine looked very strong in qualifying trim, finishing fourth fastest, just two-tenths of a second behind Mercedes.
In race trim, they drop to fifth behind McLaren – however, that is an improvement, with the French manufacturer struggling to carry their low-fuel pace into Sunday.
Esteban Ocon reckoned they had made a step forward, with a large part of their program focused on getting the best out of the car when it’s high on fuel.McLaren had a host of new updates – and they ran a series of different tests across both cars that were back-to-backed so they could get solid comparisons.
Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris were reasonably happy – though Norris was frustrated to have made a mistake by damaging the car and limiting his running to just six laps in FP2.
Points should be the minimum expectation for both teams this weekend.
