The 2024 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix arrives with nine of the ten teams having enjoyed a points finish this year.
Sauber, however, is still seeking their first positive result of the campaign.
While both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu have shown pace at times this season, the team still has nothing to show for their efforts over the 2024 F1 campaign. Earlier in the season the team was undone by a problem in the pits, and continued lengthy pit stops turned promise into heartbreak.
Now they arrive at the Spanish Grand Prix, the first race of an F1 tripleheader, knowing they need “comprehensive improvements” yet still “confident” in their ability to finally break through into the points.
“We return to Europe after a challenging weekend in Montreal, determined to bounce back at the first possible occasion. The team is united, we understand that comprehensive improvements are essential across all areas, but we remain confident in our ability to compete for points once again,” described Team Representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi.
“The tight margins in this sport mean that even the smallest enhancement can be pivotal, particularly in qualifying. Improving our single-lap performance is vital to positioning ourselves better on race day and targeting a top-10 finish,” continued Alunni Bravi. “Our dedication and hard work will be key to turning our season around and everyone, both trackside and back in Hinwil, is ready to embrace the challenge ahead.”
While Bottas has yet to secure his first points of the F1 season, the driver is coming off his best athletic result of the 2024 calendar year. The driver and his partner Tiffany Cromwell participated in the FNLD GRVL cycling event this past week the duo helped organize.
Bottas captured his first gravel race win, while Cromwell secured victory in the women’s 177 kilometer race
Having tasted success on the bike recently, Bottas is now hoping for more success on the track.
“It’s good to be back in Barcelona, a place that we know like the back of our hands. This is a place that always suited me and feel I can be at my best here. It’s a circuit that has no secrets for the teams: we have reams of data about it, in every condition and with every variable accounted for so, once again, it will be the finest details that will make the difference, especially on Saturday,” described Bottas. “Although we haven’t been as strong in the last few races as we should be, we are confident in our abilities. The team has put in tremendous amounts of effort to understand our issues and improve our performance. It’s a tight field, but with improved qualifying, we know we can be back in the fight for points again.”
While his teammate is not coming off similar athletic success during his week away from the track, Zhou is also hopeful for a positive result in Barcelona.
“I’m excited to be back racing again, and I am determined to get back into the fight for points,” described Zhou. “Unfortunately, the last few races didn’t go well for me and the team, but we are determined to bounce back. We’ve used our little break wisely to identify issues and work hard to be competitive again.
“I have some good memories of Barcelona – last year’s race was a lot of fun and I brought home some points, too. It’s a track we know well and that should mean there will be no surprises – it’ll be all about ultimate performance,” added the Sauber driver. “It’ll be crucial for us to start strong: nailing our setup early into the free practice sessions with lots of running to put us in a good position for qualifying and ultimately the race.”
To date, the team’s best results have come in the past two weeks, when Bottas placed 13th in the Monaco Grand Prix, and then 13th again in Montreal during the Canadian Grand Prix. Perhaps that momentum — and Bottas’ success in FNLD GRVL — gives the team the boost they need to finally open their account in Barcelona.
This weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix markes the first of three-straight races on the Formula 1 calendar, a fact that poses challenges for all ten teams.
Including Haas.
In the team’s media preview of the Spanish Grand Prix, Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu noted that the sport has reached that part of the schedule where everyone is “feeling it,” a fact that makes the upcoming tripleheader even tougher for the teams.
“A triple-header is always pretty tough, thankfully a lot of our team is UK-based so it helps that the last race of this triple is in the UK, but it is still very hard,” described Komatsu. “It’s getting to that point of the season where everybody’s feeling it, so it’s very important that we look after ourselves to be able to perform at our best, to be efficient and focused, especially on the back of two events where our trackside operations weren’t the best. We can’t let that happen, so we need to look at ourselves and see how we can operate at our best.”
This weekend also marks the return of reserve driver Oliver Bearman to the VF-24, as the reserve driver and Ferrari supersub participated in FP1 ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, driving Kevin Magnussen’s car. This weekend Bearman will again participate in FP1, this time replacing Nico Hülkenberg.
The practice session comes amid consistent rumors that Bearman will be tapped for a full-time seat with the team next season.
Komatsu is hopeful that the team’s recent upgrades will mesh well with the many high-speed corners Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has to offer.
“Spain is the first circuit since we introduced our upgrades which has proper high-speed corners, so I’m really looking forward to assessing our update at that circuit and see what it’s like,” added Komatsu. “We have Bearman joining us again for FP1, this time in place of Nico, so he can continue from where he left off in Imola.”
Like his boss, Hülkenberg is also lookign forward to the high-speed corners the Spanish Grand Prix has to offer.
“It’s one of the classic circuits we’ve been going to over the years. It’s obviously a very high-speed circuit and I think it’s going to be very hot there this year, it used to be the first race of the European season,” added Hülkenberg. “I expect there’s going to be very hot, Spanish, temperatures. The vibes in Barcelona and the Spanish lifestyle are pretty cool and go well with a fun race. I like triple-headers, we’ve known them now for a few years and June is that month when things get quite busy.”
While Hülkenberg has already announced his 2025 plans, as the German driver will head to Sauber for next season ahead of the organization becoming the Audi works team in 2026, Magnussen is one of the drivers currently on the grid facing an uncertain future. But the Danish driver is simply looking forward to the high-speed circuit, and the racing that it offers.
“It’s one of the most well-known tracks for all the drivers, probably the track I’ve done most laps of out of them all. It’s a good track, lots of high-speed corners there, and can be quite difficult to overtake,” described Magnussen. “It’s become better, the track is more enjoyable after they’ve removed the last chicane and that’s also helped overtaking a little bit, so hopefully we can be competitive there. It’s a triple-header, but it’s nice to be in the European part of the season, it’s all familiar surroundings, short flights and no jet lag.”
Two weeks ago the Formula 1 grid arrived in Montreal with visions of a true title fight on the minds of fans and drivers alike. “I don’t think either championship is over by any means,” Oscar Piastri declared to me when I sat down with the McLaren driver for an exclusive interview following his second-place finish in the Monaco Grand Prix.
“The Constructors’ [Championship] I would say is still open. We’re still a third of the way through the year. So it’s definitely still all to play for. I would say, of course, we’re at a bit of a disadvantage being as far back as we are, but it’s certainly not impossible,” continued Piastri “And yeah, I think even in the Drivers’ Championship, it’s not done and dusted yet.”
However, Max Verstappen had something to say about that latter point in Montreal.
Verstappen’s win in the Canadian Grand Prix, coupled with a DNF for Charles Leclerc, his closest challenger in the Drivers’ Championship, meant the Red Bull driver pulled 25 points further head of his nearest threat. Even with Lando Norris’ P2 in Montreal, Verstappen’s first-place finish saw him gain a few more points on the McLaren driver.
Now, the Constructors’ Championship was another matter. Sergio Pérez suffered a DNF of his own, so while Verstappen added 25 points to Red Bull’s account with his win, Norris’ P2 and Piastri’s P4 saw McLaren bank 28 points in the Canadian Grand Prix. Those two results, coupled with the Ferrari double DNF, meant the field on the Constructors’ side of things tightened up even more in Montreal.
As Piastri said, neither championship is “done and dusted” just yet. And things have only tightened more in the Constructors’ Championship these past few weeks.
Will things tighten even more in Barcelona? That is surely the biggest storyline to watch this week as the F1 grid heads to the Spanish Grand Prix.
But it is not the only one.
What awaits on the driver market front?
Will the fluid driver transfer market deliver more news this week?
With the F1 world descending upon Barcelona, the focus likely shifts to Carlos Sainz, Jr. The Spanish driver has yet to confirm his plans for the 2025 season, when Lewis Hamilton slides into the seat Sainz currently occupies at Ferrari.
Rumors have surrounded Sainz ever since that announcement, with teams such as Mercedes, Sauber — soon to become the Audi works team — and most recently Williams linked with the accomplished driver.
Late last week reports surfaced that despite expectations that Sainz would move to Sauber, ahead of the transition to Audi, that Williams was in the driver’s seat to land the driver. According to these reports, Williams has offered Sainz a four-year deal, giving the driver a potential out after two seasons if he believes the team has not made sufficient progress in his mind.
Of course, nothing is official until ink is put to paper, and Sainz himself has brushed aside various reporting already this season.
“The only thing I can tell you is there is nothing locked in. I’ve seen reports, I don’t know if it’s in Spain, people saying I’ve signed. I look at those things and it makes me laugh because I remember seeing reports three months ago that I had signed for Mercedes, reports that I had signed for Red Bull. Now obviously those places are not going to happen,” said Sainz earlier this month.
“So it’s funny now seeing people say I’ve signed for Williams. It makes me laugh that this goes a bit unpunished for some media person. It concerns me that people can get away with that kind of stuff,” added Sainz. “When I have something to announce, you guys will be the first to know and I will be here openly talking about my future.”
Now Sainz is just one of the drivers yet to announce his future plans. Other drivers we are waiting to hear from include Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, and more. But with the grid in Sainz’s home country, it is fair to turn our thoughts to an announcement from him first.
The future of F1 in Barcelona
As the grid arrives in Barcelona for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, the future of Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on the F1 grid is in severe doubt. At the start of this calendar year it was announced that the Spanish Grand Prix will move to a new street circuit in Madrid beginning in 2026, on a track that will city’s exhibition center.
The new location will extremely accessible for fans, as the new circuit will be just five minutes away from Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suarez airport, and near local Metro and train stations. According to the announcement, “ … it is estimated that 90% of fans will be able to travel to the paddock via public transport, while those staying in local accommodation will be a short walk away from the venue.”
While that might be great news for fans, it calls into question the future of an event in Barcelona.
Will Spain soon host two races, or will the new circuit in Madrid remain the sole race on Spanish soil going forward? Or perhaps Barcelona will again host F1 pre-season testing, as it did until 2023, when the site of pre-season testing was moved to Bahrain.
The next step in the never-ending development wars
We are truly in the thick of the 2024 F1 season, and when you add in the layer of a true title fight shaping up — at least when it comes to the Constructors’ Championship — every upgrade matters.
And as you might expect, teams are bringing a host of upgrades to Barcelona ahead of the upcoming tripleheader (more on that in a second).
Andrea Stella, the McLaren Team Principal, teased some upcoming upgrades for the Woking-based outfit recently. “For the coming races, we will have some upgrades, but they won’t be a single kind of big upgrade like we have seen over the last 12 months,” said Stella. “This is more some individual components where we found a little bit of performance and rather than waiting to deploy everything together once ready we take it track side.
“So I won’t say what but we will see some new stuff coming over the few coming races.”
McLaren, thanks to a P2 from Lando Norris and a P4 from Oscar Piastri last time out, actually gained three points in their chase of Red Bull at the top of the Constructors’ standings. And with Ferrari dealt a double DNF in Canada, McLaren pulled 28 points closer to the Scuderia, and they now trail Ferrari by just 40 points.
While Mercedes is a bit farther back in that fight, the Silver Arrows are coming off their best weekend of the year, with George Russell notching a podium finish in Montreal. That result comes as the team has been rolling out a series of upgrades, starting with the Miami Grand Prix. That package has included a new front wing, with Russell utilized in the Monaco Grand Prix and then Lewis Hamilton utilized in Montreal.
But the Silver Arrows are not done, as a new floor is coming for the W15.
“I think definitely, since Imola, we’ve taken the right steps and put parts on the car that are working, something that we were struggling in the past couple of years,” said Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff recently. “Now directionally we seem to be adding performance every weekend and we have new stuff coming also, new parts coming in Barcelona that should help us. So I would very much hope that we can continue this positive trajectory.”
While the new floor is a big component, and a new front wing is something certainly visible to the naked eye, Wolff outlined that Mercedes has been bringing many new components these past few weeks, some of which might not be visible to the untrained eye.
“Sometimes when you bring a highly-visible part like a bodywork or front wing, this is pretty much the talk of what has changed the performance,” added the Mercedes boss.
“But the truth is we have, over the last three races, brought so many new parts, visible and invisible for the eye, that have contributed milliseconds to more performance. I think this is where those marginal gains then have that positive effect. That was just a huge effort of the factory, so I think the wheel has started to get some real motion on it.”
As for Ferrari, the Scuderia planned on bringing their latest set of upgrades later this season, but reports out of Maranello indicate that they may push those new components out for the Spanish Grand Prix, given the disaster that was the Canadian Grand Prix for the team. According to Formu1a.uno, Ferrari was targeting Silverstone for another aggressive package, but the team may be “ … accelerating production times to introduce the most important innovations already in Barcelona.”
Will that truly be the case? We’ll know more in a few days.
Finally there is Red Bull. Will they have some upgrades of their own in Barcelona?
Team Principal Christian Horner hinted recently that they indeed might have some new components ready for Barcelona. “It’s a possible yes,” said Horner when asked if Red Bull would roll out some upgrades in Barcelona. “We’re closer to the top of the curve, so you get into a law of diminishing returns. But there will be subtle upgrades over the summer months.”
As the F1 schedule hits the summer the action on the track — and in the factories — heats up.
Round 1 of a tripleheader
When the 2024 F1 schedule was announced, many noticed that the calendar called for three different triple headers.
The first is upon us.
This weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix kicks off three straight weeks of racing. Following the Spanish Grand Prix, the grid will head to Red Bull Ring, for the Austrian Grand Prix. That weekend adds even one more layer, as the Austrian Grand Prix is one of six F1 Sprint race weekends.
Following Austria, the grid then heads to historic Silverstone, the site of the British Grand Prix.
Beyond the usual challenges an F1 week presents for teams and drivers, having three straight weeks of racing adds even more hurdles — and potential problems — for the ten teams to endure.
So buckle up friends, as a lot of F1 action is heading your way these next three weeks.
33 soon … ?
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
When the grid arrived in Barcelona a year ago, Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso were in many ways the talk of the F1 world. Aston Martin was still second in the Constructors’ Championship standings, one point ahead of third-place Mercedes. As for Alonso himself, he was in third place, 12 points behind Sergio Pérez. As you might expect from that place in the standings, the veteran driver was in fine form, having five podiums in six starts.
That beginning of the 2023 season led to talk of “33 soon?”, the rallying cry that followed Alonso’s quest for his elusive 33rd grand prix victory. With the grid arriving in Barcelona, there was hope that perhaps Alonso would earn that elusive victory in front of a home crowd.
However, if anything the results in the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix told the story of what was to come for Aston Martin down the stretch a year ago. Alonso finished down in seventh — behind teammate Lance Stroll — and he would see the podium just three more times over the rest of the year.
“I think sixth and seventh positions were the maximum for us. I thought our performance seemed better in qualifying, so I think we need to look at why and aim to bounce back for Canada,” said Alonso after the race. “We still scored some solid points and we had no risk at the end of the race. I want to thank the fans for their passion, energy and support this weekend. It was very emotional and special for me.”
Canada was one of those final three podiums for Alonso in 2023, as he finished P2 behind Max Verstappen. But that elusive 33rd victory has yet to materialize for the veteran driver.
Can he make some magic happen at home this weekend?
The world’s biggest motorsport endurance race gets underway later today, as the 2024 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans gets underway.
And one of the drivers in the field has a shot at joining one of motorsport’s most exclusive clubs.
Jenson Button, the 2009 Formula 1 Drivers’ Champion, is back in the Le Mans field this season. A year ago Button made his Le Mans debut, driving in the “Garage 56” entry with Hendrick Motorsport that finished 39th.
But this year, Button is driving for Hertz Team Jota, which qualified 17th for the race, part of the triple crown of motorsport. And if Button were able to be part of a winning team at Le Mans, he would become just the sixth F1 champion in the history of motorsport to taste victory at Le Mans.
Mike Hawthorn was the first driver to win both a F1 Drivers’ Championship and Le Mans, but he tasted victory in the endurance race first, winning the 1955 installment with Jaguar. He went on to claim an F1 title three years later, in 1958 with Ferrari.
Next up was Phil Hill, who like Hawthorn climbed to the top of the endurance mountain first. Hill, along with Olivier Gendebien, captured victory at Le Mans for Ferrari in 1958, the first of three wins at Le Mans. Then in 1961 he and Gendebien again win at Le Mans for Ferrari, but Hill also won the F1 Drivers’ Championship for Ferrari.
The next driver to win both was Jochen Rindt, although his is one of the sadder tales in motorsport. Rindt was part of a team that won Le Mans in 1965, and then during the 1970 F1 season he established a commanding lead in the Drivers’ Championship standings while participating for Lotus-Ford.
However, during practice ahead of the 1970 Italian Grand Prix Rindt’s Lotus experienced a brake shaft failure, and he crashed heavily near the Parabolica corner, and tragically passed away as a result of his injuries. Despite his tragic death with four races remaining in the season, Rindt’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship was insurmountable, and he was posthumously awarded the F1 title.
Graham Hill is the only driver to have captured each leg of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, having won the F1 Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. His first F1 Drivers’ Championship came in 1962 with BRM, but he finally captured a win at Le Mans in his tenth and final start, winning in 1972 alongside Henri Pescarolo for Matra-Simca.
Hill remains the only driver to have won each leg of the Triple Crown of Motorsport.
The fifth and final member of this club? Fernando Alonso. He won back-to-back F1 titles in 2005 and 2006, and then pulled off a similar double in Le Mans, capturing wins in both 2018 and 2019 with Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Should Button taste victory this weekend, he would become the sixth member of that club.
And it is something he is absolutely aiming for.
“There is every chance we can fight for a win at Le Mans, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it,” said Button last year. “I’m not interested in just being on the grid after the career I’ve had.”
We will see if he joins that club over the next 36 hours.
This week the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the world’s motorsport governing body, published an update to the International Sporting Code. The update to Appendix L involves international drivers’ licenses as well as Super Licenses.
And the updated regulation might just open the door to a young driver seeing the Formula 1 grid before his 18th birthday.
Ever since Lewis Hamilton announced his shocking move to Ferrari, to be executed at the end of the 2024 season, Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s name has been linked with a seat on the F1 grid, perhaps even to replace Hamilton at Mercedes. Antonelli, who is a member of the Mercedes driver program, is in his first F2 season, having skipped F3 altogether.
He is also just 17 years old.
Ahead of the Miami Grand Prix reports surfaced that a team requested a dispensation for a driver to receive a Super License — required before participating in F1 — for a driver who had not reached the age of 18. Current F1 regulations require a driver to be 18 years old to receive the requisite Super License. This was put into place after Max Verstappen made his F1 debut just days after his 17th birthday.
However, the FIA’s updated International Sporting Code now contains Article 13.1.32, which reads as follows:
“The driver must be at least 18 years old at the start of the event of his first F1 competition. At the sole discretion of the FIA, a driver judged to have recently and consistently demonstrated outstanding ability and maturity in single-seater formula car competition may be granted a Super Licence at the age of 17 years old.”
Antonelli does not turn 18 until August.
In addition, the previous Article 13.1.2 has been deleted. That Article read that “[t]he driver must be the holder of a valid driving licence when he applies for a Super Licence for the first time.”
Antonelli is Italian, and the legal age for a driving license in Italy is 18.
With this rule change, the door is open for Antonelli to receive a dispensation from the FIA and be granted a Super License before his 18th birthday in August. The only other requirement is that the young driver acquire the necessary 40 points required for a Super License.
Antonelli has already surpassed that threshold, having won the Italian F4 Championship (12 points), the ADAC Formula 4 Championship (12 points), the Formula Regional Middle East Championship (18 points), and the Formule Regional European Championship (25 points). Those 67 points clear the 40-point threshold. Supplement 1 to Appendix L outlines how points are granted for success in various competitions.
Now, just because the rule has been changed does not mean that Antonelli will see the grid this year. When the issue of a dispensation was first raised ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, along with speculation that Williams would replace Logan Sargeant with Antonelli, Team Principal James Vowles brushed those rumors aside.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25494127/2156691658.jpg "F1 Spanish Grand Prix: What comes next in the Red Bull-McLaren-Ferrari fight? f,spanish,grand,prix,what,comes,next,in,the,red,bull,mclaren,ferrari,fight,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one")