formula-one

Spanish Grand Prix: Frustration at Ferrari? spanish,grand,prix,frustration,at,ferrari,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 24, 2024 By: admin

Frustration seemed the theme of the moment following the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix.

Lando Norris was certainly among those drivers feeling some frustration. Despite his second-place finish, Norris was left to wonder what might have been after a slow start opened the door for Max Verstappen to capture yet another Grand Prix win. Speaking immediately after the race Norris told David Coulthard trackside that he “should have” won, and that frustration followed the McLaren driver to the FIA Press Conference, where he outlined how he had “the quickest car,” but did not do a “good enough” job in the race.

Norris was not the only driver frustrated.

Over at Ferrari, the frustration was evident in the words of both drivers. While the Scuderia bounced back with a double-points finish after coming away empty-handed in Montreal, scoring a P5 for Charles Leclerc and a P6 for Carlos Sainz Jr., they lacked the pace to challenge further up the field. Add to that an early-race incident between the teammates, and you have frustration, despite the double-points result.

The incident in question came on the fourth lap, and you can review it for yourself here:

Sainz, with DRS enabled, gets a good run on Leclerc down the long straight and into Turn 1 and then pulls out of the slipstream to the outside. Leclerc goes a bit wide to get defensive, but Sainz maintains his position on the outside racing line. That’s when the two SF-24s come together, with Leclerc making contact with the right rear of Sainz’s car.

In the moment Leclerc told his team that Sainz “closed on me,” while Sainz told his team that Leclerc “forced me off,” and that Leclerc’s contact with Sainz’s right rear tire was evidence that he was “clearly ahead.”

Following the race, both drivers addressed the incident in question.

“Too many times after the race he [Leclerc] complains about something. Honestly, at this point of the season, I was on the attack,” said Sainz to Sky Sports F1. “We were on a used soft [tire]. I passed Charles… I don’t know if he made a mistake or was just managing a bit too much. I think I was trying to do what was required as a driver. He elected to manage more.”

On the other side of the garage Leclerc initially downplayed the incident but then elaborated on why Sainz might have been pushing hard at that point of the race.

“It’s okay. We will have a discussion, obviously. I’m sure everything will be fine,” began Leclerc. “We discussed beforehand that it was the part of the race where we had to manage the [tires] as much as possible.”

The Monegasque driver then continued his assessment.

“Carlos took that opportunity to overtake, which is a shame as that put us on the back foot and damaged my front wing. It was a small damage but everything makes a difference. When you see how close we were at the end it’s a shame,” added Leclerc. “I understand it’s his home race and a very important moment of his career and he wanted to do something spectacular but I was probably not the right person to do that with.”

Leclerc then turned his frustration to the SF-24.

“We tried everything,” continued Leclerc. “I don’t think we maximised our race as a team. We are missing pace but it is the way it is. We weren’t fast enough.”

In the team’s post-race report both drivers, as well as Team Principal Frederic Vasseur, did their best to downplay the incident and turn their attention to the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix, which gets underway in less than a week.

“It was tight today and we were just a lap short of fighting for P4, but our competitors were still ahead in terms of pace. Regarding our strategy, I think we did well to offset ourselves from the cars around us,” said Sainz. “We maybe lost some time between our two cars at the beginning of the race, but going forward we will focus on our race pace extracting the maximum from our package at the next race.”

“It was a difficult race but we gave it our best. Stopping early and finishing the race on the Hard [tire] didn’t turn out to be the optimal strategy today, but we only know this with hindsight after the chequered flag,” reported Sainz. “In any case, we were lacking a bit of pace this weekend in general and we need to work to improve for next weekend in Austria.”

According to Vasseur, the problems began on Saturday, and the team needs to do a better job in qualifying going forward.

“We started five and six and ended five and six and the conclusion I draw from this is that we must do a better job in qualifying. We need to make a small step forward so that we don’t start behind, as this pushes you into taking risks with the strategy,” described Vasseur. “Yesterday the gap to those in front was about two-tenths, today it was similar and if you look at it over the race distance then that was still the same gap.

“As for the contact between our drivers, it was very light and I don’t think it cost us anything. What cost us more is that after our stops, we came out behind some cars, it was very tight and we lost two or three seconds. With Carlos we wanted to cover Russell, which is why we had to go Medium-Hard as we pitted earlier,” continued Vasseur. “With Charles the plan was to extend the stint to go a bit longer which is why we were able to try the Softs.”

The Ferrari boss is not prone to panicking and believes that Red Bull Ring will provide fertile ground for points next weekend.

“With such small gaps between the teams, everything can change: there are four teams in two to two and a half tenths so from track to track the pecking order can change,” concluded Vasseur. “Next week we race in Austria where we will have another Sprint and I expect the track layout there will suit us better.”

F1 Spanish Grand Prix: Lando Norris lamenting what could have been f,spanish,grand,prix,lando,norris,lamenting,what,could,have,been,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 24, 2024 By: admin

You could feel the pain and disappointment with every answer, every gesture, and every word.

Lando Norris believes his second Formula 1 victory was there for the taking Sunday in Barcelona, but he let it slip through his grasp.

Norris began Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix in P1, thanks to a masterful final lap during Saturday’s qualifying session that was just fast enough to snatch pole position from his friend and rival Max Verstappen. It was a lap that Norris himself described as both “perfect,” and “balls out.”

But in a flash Sunday, that slim lead over Verstappen evaporated. The Red Bull driver got off to a quicker start off the line and Norris was shuffled back to P2 almost immediately. He lost another spot soon thereafter, as George Russell pulled off a masterful double overtake to pass both Norris and Verstappen, sliding Norris back to third.

The McLaren driver was forced into comeback mode and nearly pulled it off, closing an eight-second gap to Verstappen in P1 down to just under two seconds as the checkered flag flew. But as he told the story Sunday afternoon in Barcelona, it was a tale of a driver who believes he let his team down.

“The race, not good enough, simply because we should have won today,” began Norris in the post-race FIA Press Conference.

“I think we had the quickest car. But I just lost it at the start, you know, and then I couldn’t get past George for the first stint. I think we were quite easily best car out there today,” continued Norris. “I just didn’t do a good enough job off the line. And then that one thing cost me everything. So from Turn 2 onwards, 10 out of 10, I don’t think I could have done much more. And I think as a team, we did the perfect strategy. And I was very happy with what we did. But yeah, the one part at the start, the 1% elsewhere wasn’t good enough.”

Norris faced one of the toughest challenges the F1 calendar offers, as the run from the start/finish line to Turn 1 in Barcelona is the longest the drivers face all year. That meant Verstappen was positioned to get a big run off the line into Turn 1, and Norris was tasked with fending the champion off.

As Norris described the start, his initial launch was good, but the “second phase” of the race was where it went wrong.

“No, I mean, my initial launch, I think, was better than Max. The second phase, the drive out, was not as good. I don’t know. I don’t know anything more than that, apart from Max got alongside me,” described Norris. “And let’s say, if George wasn’t there, I think I still could have kept on to first around Turn 1.

“But George had a run on both of us, so even if my start was one or two [meters] better, which I think was all I probably could have done, just the long run down to Turn 1, the slipstream from the Mercedes, on both Max and myself, was more than anything that I could have done. I almost think George would have led no matter what, even if my start was two [meters] better.

“In some ways, that’s what happens in Barcelona. George got a good start and I couldn’t do anything about that. I settled in. I had to take third in Turn 2 because if I break two metres later, I think I would have taken everyone out with me. I made the correct decision of backing out and letting George have it. I don’t know. I need to sit down with my engineers and talk.”

Norris’ anguish mirrored comments he made in Montreal when he also finished second behind Verstappen. Only this time, according to the driver, he truly had the fastest car.

But not the corresponding win to show for it.

“We were definitely not the quickest car in Montreal. Mercedes was easily the quickest car. But today, we were the quickest. We had the best car. I had the best car out there,” said Norris. “And I didn’t [maximize] it. The start’s down to me. doing what I get told and executing that. And without that, or with a good start, we easily should have won.”

Despite Norris’ anguish at the result and his self-perceived failure at winning Sunday, he began to look ahead to Austria, a track that has been good to him in the past.

“I mean, I’m confident. every weekend we go into now, the car’s performing extremely well. We’re always there or thereabouts within a couple of tenths of pole, and that’s all we can ask for,” concluded Norris. “I think we need to bring something a little bit more just to make our life a bit easier. It’s close, and now we have, what, four teams who I think can easily fight for pole positions and fight for wins, potentially. So it’s a very different layout again. High speed, I think we have a bit to work on, comparing to Red Bull. Red Bull seem definitely a bit higher, better in high speed corners than we are. Potentially we’re lacking a touch in that area but the rest of it is strong.

“It’s been one of my best tracks in terms of my own competitiveness and my most successful tracks so excited to see all the papaya and the grandstands and have a good weekend.”

Norris may be feeling despair at the moment, lamenting a win that got away from him. But his second-place finish saw him move to second in the Drivers’ Championship, passing Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc in the standings.

It might not be enough to ease the pain he felt Sunday, but it is certainly another step forward for Norris.

And the driver’s anguish perhaps illustrates the bigger story of the 2024 Formula 1 season. A year ago finishing within two seconds of Verstappen was cause for celebration. Consider some of what Norris said following the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix when he finished second to Verstappen, almost 20 seconds off the Red Bull driver’s pace.

“No, I was I was expecting him to probably lap us two or three times! And he didn’t, so… I mean, I was expecting probably a bigger gap. I think we all were, as a team. And I think it would have been a lot closer, I lost eight or 10 seconds behind Pérez under the [Virtual Safety Car],” said Norris at the FIA Press Conference in Suzuka a season ago.

“I don’t know how hard Max was really pushing. I’m sure he could have gone a bit quicker if he wanted to,” added Norris last year in Japan. “But to be only 19 seconds behind, he didn’t get a free pit-stop, which was lovely. And, yeah, I think it’s just signs of our progress.”

That big gap from a year ago is now down to seconds. Instead of wanting another car to challenge Verstappen, as Will Buxton eloquently stated a few weeks ago, now drivers just want another lap or two. The field has tightened behind Verstappen.

And Norris, his personal anguish aside, is now at the front of that chasing pack.

Spanish Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton applauds ‘great weekend’ for Mercedes spanish,grand,prix,lewis,hamilton,applauds,great,weekend,for,mercedes,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 24, 2024 By: admin

Here is a fun trivia question for you.

Over the past two Formula 1 race weekends, what team has secured the most points?

If you guessed Mercedes then congratulations, you have been paying attention.

The Silver Arrows enjoyed a bit of a breakthrough in Montreal, as George Russell’s third-place finish marked the first podium in a Grand Prix for Mercedes this season. They followed that result with arguably an even better one this past weekend in Barcelona, as Lewis Hamilton qualified third for the Spanish Grand Prix and followed that with his first Grand Prix podium of the year, a third-place finish on Sunday. With Russell finishing just behind him in fourth, Mercedes banked 27 points in Barcelona, a week after notching 28 points in Montreal.

Are the Silver Arrows back?

Maybe not yet, but they are certainly closing the gap to the teams at the front of the grid.

“It’s been a really great weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the podium so I’m very happy! We’re not quite there yet but we’ve taken a huge step in recent races,” hailed Hamilton in the team’s post-race report. “We didn’t quite have the pace to fight with the two guys ahead of us but, if we can deliver more consistently like this, then we will be in a strong position. We are on our way to catching those guys and that is fantastic.”

Russell may have pulled off the move of the race with this stunning double overtake of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen heading into the first turn of the Grand Prix:

He reflected on that move after the race, with a bit of a history lesson.

I was dreaming of making a move like I did into turn one last night,” described Russell. “I didn’t think it would quite come to fruition in the way that it did! I remember Fernando [Alonso] making a similar start in 2013. We had a headwind so I knew I could brake quite late. It was a very satisfying move and felt good to lead a race again. Unfortunately, Max (Verstappen) was too fast for us today, as was Lando. But two podiums in two races is very encouraging as we head to Austria.”

Russell’s overtake might have been the move of the race, but Hamilton’s battle — and pass — of Carlos Sainz Jr. is also worth highlighting:

Like Russell, Hamilton took a moment to recall that battle and overtake.

“I was pleased with my move on Sainz too. I gave him enough room and we both made it through the corner,” recalled Hamilton. “It was an important move for my race, so I was glad to get it done. It’s now on to Austria and we’re looking forward to it.”

Their boss also took a moment to praise those moves, as well as the progress the team has made these past few weeks.

“We can take a lot of positives away from today. We have taken several steps forward in the previous few races and it is good to see these confirmed here in Spain,” began Toto Wolff. “We are not quite there yet, and we have to more to do to catch those ahead. Nevertheless, we are on a positive development trajectory, and it feels good to be back in the game.

“It was also fantastic to pull off two of the best overtakes I’ve seen in a long time. George made a mega start and braked late to take the lead. Lewis’s overtake on Sainz meanwhile was great racing and an important moment for his race,” continued the Silver Arrows boss. “It’s been a while since we’ve been able to enjoy a Grand Prix podium with Lewis, so it was fantastic to see him up there. We’re now looking forward to the next two races in the triple-header and building on the momentum we are establishing.”

Mercedes will now try and continue that momentum on short order, as the grid heads to Red Bull Ring for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix. It will get started quickly, as this is one of the F1 Sprint Race weekends on the calendar.

Spanish Grand Prix: Pierre Gasly, Alpine F1 hail team’s ‘best race of the season’ spanish,grand,prix,pierre,gasly,alpine,f,hail,team,s,best,race,of,the,season,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 23, 2024 By: admin

McLaren delivered a stunning turnaround throughout the 2023 Formula 1 season. A slow start saw the Woking-based operation limp out of the starting gate, and when the grid left the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix they were mired in sixth place with just 17 points on the season, 23 points behind fifth-place Alpine. But a series of upgrades to the MCL60 saw McLaren storm up the table passing several teams along the way, including Alpine.

Is the French team putting together a shocking turnaround of their own?

Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished inside the points for the second straight race, with Gasly scoring a P9 finish and Ocon adding a P10, as the team added three more points to their account with a double-points result at Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. After beginning the season with five straight races without a point, Alpine has now scored in four out of the last five race weekends to climb out of the F1 cellar, and into seventh place in the 2024 F1 Constructors’ Championship.

Gasly hailed the week as the team’s “best race of the season,” following the race.

“That was our best race of the season so far as a team, so on that front, I am very happy with today,” declared Gasly in the team’s post-race report. “We had a strong Qualifying on Saturday, which set us up for a good result in ninth place today. We executed the race well with the two-stop strategy and managed each stint well.”

The driver highlighted just how close he was to their best single result of the year, as he finished just seconds behind eighth-place finisher Sergio Pérez.

“We almost had eighth place and only missed out on the last lap but I gave it my all. Even so, I’m happy with such a strong race where we battled two fast cars – the McLaren early on and then the Red Bull at the end – so that’s positive for us,” continued Gasly. “We must understand why the package was strong here and take these learnings going forward. We are progressing in a good direction, that’s three points scoring finishes in a row, and we have to keep that going!”

On the other side of the garage, Ocon outlined that it was a “challenging” race, but one that saw a “satisifying” conclusion for the team.

“It was good to get both cars in the points for a second consecutive Grand Prix. It was a challenging race for us with car balance and some tricky stints but nevertheless we managed to bring the car home inside the top ten again and that’s satisfying,” described Ocon.

“It was close with Nico [Hülkenberg] at the end but we were able to maintain pace and grab the final point on merit on track. We have things to analyse such as why the car felt harder to drive in race conditions as I was sliding quite a lot,” continued the Alpine driver. “Even so, we were much more competitive this weekend and we’ve come out of it with a good reward. We will aim to continue our points run in Austria next weekend where we have two opportunities to score points with the Sprint.”

Team Principal Bruno Famin — who faced some questions earlier in the week with the news that Alpine was bringing Flavio Briatore aboard in an executive role — hailed the “positive trend” from the team in recent weeks.

“It’s pleasing to have again both cars in the points here in Spain and to score at the last three Grands Prix as a team. It’s a positive trend, which we must keep continuing. We were better at this track and we must analyse the reasons why in order to keep improving our overall package. The race was a tough two-stop for both cars,” described Famin. “The two drivers did a good job, especially in [tire], energy, and fuel management. Next up is the Sprint weekend in Austria where we aim to continue our positive run inside the points.”

Last year at the Red Bull Ring Alpine banked three points, with Ocon securing a pair of points with a P7 in the F1 Sprint, and Gasly adding one more with a tenth-place finish in the Grand Prix. A similar result next weekend would see Alpine creep into double digits on the season, and a few more points closer to sixth-place VCARB.

Perhaps not enough to truly mirror last year’s McLaren rise, but certainly an improvement given where they started the year.

F1 Spanish Grand Prix: Daniel Ricciardo and VCARB licking their wounds after ‘poor weekend’ f,spanish,grand,prix,daniel,ricciardo,and,vcarb,licking,their,wounds,after,poor,weekend,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 23, 2024 By: admin

As far as weekends go, this was one to forget for Daniel Ricciardo and the entire Visa Cash App RB F1 Team.

While VCARB arrived at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hopeful that a series of upgrades to the RB01 would unlock additional performance, from the opening laps of FP1 it was clear that they would be on the back foot. That continued into qualifying — which saw Ricciardo and teammate Yuki Tsunoda eliminated in Q1 — and extended into the race itself. Both Ricciardo and Tsunoda finished outside the points, leaving VCARB to lick their wounds after their first points-less weekend since the Chinese Grand Prix back in April.

Team Principal Laurent Mekies was blunt in his assessment.

“We came here with high hopes for the upgrades that everyone back in the factory has worked so hard to design and produce as part of our aggressive development strategy, began Mekies in the team’s post-race report. “Unfortunately, right from the start of Free Practice we were lacking pace in every session.

“There is no point denying this was a poor weekend for us and although the gaps were very small, we’re not going to make excuses for the fact we just weren’t competitive,” continued the VCARB boss. “Given our starting positions, it would have required some unusual circumstances – rain, a safety car – but the race was pretty linear and while both drivers did their best, we leave Spain with nothing to show for our efforts.”

Tsunoda kept his assessment short and to the point.

“It was a tough race, in which I struggled. The handling of the car was definitely not easy, and I did not feel as comfortable as I normally do,” described Tsunoda. “Something wasn’t quite right, and we’ll analyse everything that happened to understand what did not work well and come back stronger in Austria.”

Ricciardo, often the optimistic one in the team’s garage, did his best to put a positive spin on things. The Australian driver managed to highlight some bright spots on a dismal day in Barcelona.

“It’s obviously disappointing finishing in P15, but I’m happy with my race and how we managed it as a team with the two stops. I think yesterday I just missed a touch in qualifying, but honestly, today I feel like I [maximized] it with a good race,” described Ricciardo. “We managed the [tires] and pushed when we needed to, so unfortunately, I think we just didn’t have more to show this weekend. There’s certainly lots to learn from weekends like this.

“We take a few little positives and a few more things to work on because we seem to be missing something with the new package. It’s a quick turnaround, so we’ll work on it tonight, trying to understand more in preparation for Austria next week.”

The VCARB boss concluded with a bit of a challenge to the team.

“Now, our whole group faces a stern test to try and make some progress in the very few days available until we are back on track at the Red Bull Ring,” said Mekies. “It’s a very long season, so there are bound to be some tough weekends. We just have to put this one behind us, we must not get downhearted but instead, look ahead and focus on fighting back immediately in a few days’ time in Austria.”

Thankfully for the team, they will not have too much time to lick those wounds, as Red Bull Ring awaits.

Lando Norris’ anguish tells the story of both the F1 Spanish Grand Prix and the season lando,norris,anguish,tells,the,story,of,both,the,f,spanish,grand,prix,and,the,season,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 23, 2024 By: admin

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya contains the longest run from the start-finish line to the first turn on the entire Formula 1 schedule. Measuring in at 579 meters from the pole position grid box to Turn 1, that is a lot of ground to cover at the start of a Grand Prix.

Saturday night those 579 meters must have been on Lando Norris’ mind.

Starting in P1, Norris knew he had to close the door on Max Verstappen at the start of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. To beat Verstappen you need to be perfect, you need to be “balls out” as Norris rather eloquently described on Saturday after snaring pole position from his rival. That meant slamming the door on Verstappen — one of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen — over those first 579 meters and holding on from there.

Try as he might after the lights went out, Norris could not fend him off. Verstappen was able to get by his friend and rival shortly after the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix began after a hard bit of racing between the two.

Their initial fight opened the door for George Russell, albeit for just a moment. Russell was able to overtake both drivers with a stunning double overtake at the start to take an early lead in the race.

But Verstappen was not behind the Mercedes for long. Prodded on by race engineer Gianpiero “GP” Lambiase, Verstappen stuck his own overtake of Russell on Lap 3 to get into the lead.

Where he would finish, capturing his seventh Grand Prix victory of the season.

Again, however, he needed to push. In the closing stages of the race, Norris was again trying to close the gap, extracting every last bit of rubber out of his tires, much as he did at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix a few weeks ago. At Imola, Norris just needed one more lap and he might have caught his friend, ultimately losing by less than a second. In Barcelona, Norris could only close the gap to around two seconds, and at the end of the race when informed by his team he had indeed finished second, the McLaren driver was distraught.

“Should have won,” started Norris. “I ******* up the start.”

But that anguish from Norris perhaps tells the bigger story of this Formula 1 season. A year ago a P2 finish, two seconds behind Verstappen, would have been considered a massive win for any team. At this track a year ago Verstappen won by over 24 seconds.

That gap is down to just two seconds this year.

Verstappen may go on to secure his fourth-straight Drivers’ Championship. He may carry Red Bull to their third-straight Constructors’ title.

But this year, he and Red Bull are going to have to work for it.

Here are the full results from the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix, as well as some more winners and losers.

Winners: McLaren

“Not could, should have.”

That is how Lando Norris described his effort at the Spanish Grand Prix to David Coulthard trackside after the race. Norris was emphatic that not only could he have won this race, but that he should have.

Again, that anguish highlights just how much the game has changed this F1 season.

Norris may rue the start to the Spanish Grand Prix, where as outlined above he faced one of the biggest challenges on the calendar, which is holding the lead over the long run into Turn 1 at Barcelona. Norris gave it everything he had, even forcing Verstappen hard to the inside in an incident that race officials investigated, but took no further action on as it was an opening-lap racing incident. But in the end, Verstappen was just too much.

On this day. Upcoming races, however, may be different.

“Austria and Silverstone are two of my favorite tracks,” added Norris to Coulthard. “I need to just tidy up a few little bits and I’ll be on top.”

Still, this was another strong day for McLaren. Norris kept his streak alive of being the only driver this season to secure points in every Grand Prix, and his 18 points — along with the bonus point for the fastest lap of the race — along with the six points from Oscar Piastri’s P7 saw McLaren bank 25 points on the day. That is seven more points than that 18 Ferrari took home thanks to a P5 from Charles Leclerc and a P6 from Carlos Sainz Jr.

Inching McLaren a few points closer to the Scuderia in their fight for second in the Constructors’ Championship.

Loser: C1 hard compound

In the game of F1 tire strategy, there was a clear loser this Sunday: The C1 compound, designated by Pirelli as the “hard” compound for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

A two-stop strategy was highlighted throughout the buildup to the Spanish Grand Prix as the ideal path for teams, but those potential strategies often utilized some variation of soft and medium tires. As illustrated by the brilliant Ruth Buscombe on F1TV — whose move from Head of Race Strategy at Sauber to an analyst on F1TV has been a massive addition to the coverage — given the surface in Barcelona drivers want to be on as soft a compound as possible at the end of the race, otherwise the grip is just not there.

But two teams in contention rolled the dice on those C1 tires: Mercedes with George Russell and Ferrari with Carlos Sainz Jr.

Both drivers eventually saw their teammates overtake them on softer tires, with Charles Leclerc getting by Sainz for P5 and Lewis Hamilton overtaking Russell on a set of softs for the final podium position.

And further back in the field some teams that tried to extend longer runs on the hards in hopes of something breaking their way, only saw those tires fade down the stretch of those runs.

For those wondering, the C1 hard compound will not come into play at next weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, as Pirelli has already identified the three compounds for that race weekend. The C3, which was the softest compound in Barcelona, will be the hard compound at Red Bull Ring, with the C4 serving as the medium and the C5 as the soft.

Silverstone, however, will see the C1, the C2, and the C3 back in service.

That gives the C1 two weeks to think about what it’s done …

Winners: Mercedes

“It’s been a good day,” described Lewis Hamilton after the race to David Coulthard.

Sunday was indeed a good day for Mercedes. The Spanish Grand Prix began with the Silver Arrows having the second row all to themselves, with Lewis Hamilton in P3 and George Russell in P4.

And that is how they ended, bringing home 27 points on the weekend, another solid haul for the team.

Dating back to the Miami Grand Prix when Mercedes started rolling out a series of upgrades to their 2024 challenger, the W15, the talk from the team has been that of “progress.” But over the past two race weekends, that progress has been fully realized. Russell notched the team’s first Grand Prix podium of the season with his third-place finish in the Canadian Grand Prix, and Hamilton made it two in a row for the Brackley-based team with his first Grand Prix podium of the season in Barcelona. (Hamilton finished second in the F1 Sprint Race at the Chinese Grand Prix back in April).

Speaking with Coulthard the seven-time Drivers’ Champion hailed the effort from the team. “I have to say a big thank you to the team because they just, they’ve been training so hard,” described Hamilton. “The strategy and the pit stops were really on point.”

Sunday’s result pulled Mercedes two points closer to McLaren, and also nine points closer to Ferrari, in the Constructors’ Championship standings. With a long way to go in this season, there is reason to believe that Mercedes can truly turn this progress into performance and eventually, positions in the standings.

Losers: Aston Martin

Aston Martin has been downplaying expectations all week. Following Saturday’s qualifying session that saw both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll end their days in Q2, Team Principal Mike Krack outlined how that was “ … the best we had in the car today.” That meant a podium finish was likely out of the cards, and points were their only achievable goal.

A goal that they could not accomplish on Sunday.

By the time the checkered flag flew both drivers were on the outside of the points looking in, with Stroll in 14th and hometown hero Alonso a few spots ahead, in P12.

Aston Martin is slowly finding themselves where Alpine was a season ago. Just quick enough that the teams at the back end of the midfield cannot pose a true threat, but stuck too far outside range of the teams ahead of them. As the field heads to Red Bull Ring Aston Martin find themselves now 93 points behind fourth-place Mercedes, and with the recent run of form from the Silver Arrows, that gap will likely only grow over the next two races.

Thankfully for Aston Martin their closest pursuers, VCARB, had some struggles of their own and could not chip away at the 30 points that separate those two teams.

Still, after a stunning start to the 2023 season that had Aston Martin the talk of the paddock, things have certainly changed for them this season.

Winners: Alpine

Speaking of Alpine …

The French team began the year with six straight races without a single point to show for their hard work.

But after breaking through with their first point of the year, a tenth-place finish from Esteban Ocon at the Miami Grand Prix the driver described as a sign they were “ … headed in the right direction,” the team has now scored in four of the last five race weekends. Not only did Alpine add to their tally again this weekend, but with both Ocon and Pierre Gasly finishing in the points (Ocon in tenth, Gasly in ninth) it marks the second-straight double-points finish for the team.

They still have a long way to go to catch VCARB ahead of them in the standings, as they trail Red Bull’s sister team by 20 points as the grid leaves Barcelona, but this graph from Formula1Points illustrates the upward trajectory we have seen from Alpine in recent weeks:

Can they keep that momentum into Austria, and throughout the rest of the season?

It would make for quite the comeback story.

Abbi Pulling dominates first F1 Academy race at the Spanish Grand Prix abbi,pulling,dominates,first,f,academy,race,at,the,spanish,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 23, 2024 By: admin

Abbi Pulling swept the weekend the last time the F1 Academy was in action, capturing both races at the Miami Grand Prix.

And the Alpine driver is picking up right where she left off.

Pulling is well on her way to another sweep after capturing the first of two races for F1 Academy at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. Pulling began the race in pole position, and fended off a tremendous start from Nerea Martí to secure the lead over the first lap. Martí took advantage of a stall off the line from Doriane Pin and jumped to the inside, getting a slipstream from Pulling into Turn 1.

Martí then jumped to the outside and looked to have the edge on Pulling around the outer racing line, but the Alpine driver soon slammed the door shut, leading the opening lap.

However, the safety car came out at the end of the first lap due to an incident involving Maya Weug, Amna Al Qubaisi, and Lola Lovinfosse. Weug and Al Qubaisi ended up in the gravel following contact between the three cars.

That meant Pulling needed to survive a restart but the British driver built a lead over Marti of nearly a second off the rolling restart, and began to pull away from the field. By the time the checkered flag flew, the Alpine driver was nearly five seconds clear of Martí, who held on for P2.

Haas driver Chloe Chambers, who secured the first-ever podium finish for the team with a P3 in the first race in Miami, notched her second podium with another P3. McLaren’s Bianca Bustamante came across the line fourth, and Hamda Al Qubaisi finished in fifth.

Pin managed to recover from her slow start which shuffled her back in the field, salvaging a seventh-place finish.

But Pulling was the story, as she now has four-straight victories and remains atop the F1 Academy Drivers’ Championship standings. Pulling even captured the fastest lap over the session, picking up a bonus point for her incredible effort. She will look for another weekend sweep tomorrow, when she starts up front for F1 Academy’s second race at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Lando Norris needed ‘balls out’ final lap to beat Max Verstappen lando,norris,needed,balls,out,final,lap,to,beat,max,verstappen,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 22, 2024 By: admin

Immediately after qualifying on Saturday at the Spanish Grand Prix Lando Norris stated that it took a “perfect lap” to beat Max Verstappen. Norris pipped the Red Bull driver by two-hundredths of a second to capture the second pole position of his career, putting him in position to score his second victory of the season.

Moments later at the FIA Press Conference, the McLaren driver went even further, outlining how his final lap needed to be “balls out” to beat Verstappen.

“I mean, we’re always close. I don’t think any practice was split by more than a tenth between the top five,” described Norris. “So I was expecting the same as that, and I think it was. Probably Max was always two and a half tenths ahead of everyone, both Q1 and Q2 in the runs we did. And we did three laps, you know, we did three runs, four runs in the end altogether. So you do four laps throughout the whole of qualifying. But every time was like missing a little bit to Max and a lot of it was high speed.

“So I knew for the final lap, I’ve got to go balls out and do it, you know. And I managed to get that little bit, like that, you know, 200ths, 300ths, 400ths that I was needing to get out of Max I managed to get. So I’m happy the risks paid off and for all of it to come together when I needed it most was great.”

Norris elaborated on how good it felt to put together that kind of lap, in that moment and on that stage.

“I mean, I’m probably going to get back and Jarv [Andrew Jarvis], my engineer, is going to tell me that I’ve messed something up, but I think it’s so tricky nowadays, with the car and the [tires], and we’re pushing so much, just to put everything together,” outlined Norris. “You might be able to do half of it once and half of it another or mix it up, but to kind of put all of it right at that limit is very tricky and I’m sure every driver would say the same. So very rewarding when you do and when you do it and end up on pole because of it, it’s even sweeter.”

“It feels great, yeah. I mean, poles always feel good, and it’s the second one in my career. I mean, I’ve had two Sprint race poles, but I don’t regard that at all as a pole position. So, yeah, this is the second one of my career. It’s been a while since Sochi, all the way back then, so… Yeah, it feels great,” continued Norris. “I mean, it was an amazing lap.

“Honestly, it was my best lap by a long way. I pretty much put the whole lap together, so I got a nice slipstream. I think probably my best corner around the lap, every single part of it put together. Max was a bit ahead in Q1, Q2. I knew I had to kind of do something perfect in Q3 to do it. And that’s exactly what I did. So I’m pretty happy that I managed to pull off probably my best lap that I’ve done probably ever.”

As we outlined earlier today after diving into the data, Norris secured pole position with a strong performance in Sector 1 and into Sector 2. While Verstappen was stronger on the straights, particularly the long straight coming out of Turn 14 and back to the start/finish line, Norris built a lead during that earlier portion of the track, and Verstappen could not make up the difference.

Capturing pole position is one thing, but can Norris win on Sunday?

The McLaren driver certainly believes he can.

“I don’t have any concerns,” added Norris. “I mean I’m excited. It’s a long run down to Turn 1. It’s probably one of the places you don’t want to start on pole, but it’s an opportunity for us to go out and try and win a race you know.

“We’ve not done loads of long running. We’ve done a bit and I think we were close, as it always has been. I think tomorrow is not like this car is way quicker. I think between Mercedes, ourselves, Red Bull, Ferrari, there’s eight cars that could have probably been on pole today and that have a chance of probably winning the race tomorrow,” continued Norris. “So it’s about making the least mistakes, similar to today, and just trying to execute another good race that we normally do.”

He might need to go “balls out” yet again to pull off a win on Sunday.

Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo remaining ‘positive’ despite hard Saturday at Spanish GP yuki,tsunoda,and,daniel,ricciardo,remaining,positive,despite,hard,saturday,at,spanish,gp,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 22, 2024 By: admin

Visa Cash App RB F1 Team has come away with points in four straight races, dating back to the Miami Grand Prix. That weekend saw both Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda finish in the points in the F1 Sprint Race — a result Ricciardo enjoyed deep into the afternoon in Miami, even after his struggles in qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix — and kicked off a string of good results for the team, including Ricciardo’s P8 in the Canadian Grand Prix.

That streak appears headed for an end at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Like many teams, VCARB brought a series of upgrades to Barcelona, but those upgrades have yet to materialize into results on the track. After a Friday that saw both drivers at the back of the field, the team hoped the data would uncover some answers for improved lap times on Saturday.

No such luck. Both Ricciardo and Tsunoda were eliminated in Q1, and they will start alongside each other in the ninth row on Sunday, with Tsunoda in P17 and Ricciardo in P18.

Despite that result, both drivers remained positive in their post-qualifying comments.

“We’ve been struggling with pace this weekend and tried multiple things to try and improve, and in the end, I felt better in qualifying than in Free Practice. At least I’m happy with my lap and feel like I was able to maximise the current package,” said Tsunoda. “The last races have been going well and even if it’s a shame, I think it’s important that we’re facing this more difficult moment together as a team. It’s a good opportunity to learn from our struggles and grow as a team. The most important thing is to remain positive, and we certainly will.”

While the lap times were not there for Ricciardo, he still believes that the team made progress overnight with the setup.

“It’s a tricky weekend. We have a lot of new parts on the car, and we still need to understand the best way to make them work,” began Ricciardo. “After yesterday, when we were still finding a bit of balance, we made pretty big changes overnight and today in qualifying the car felt much more together.

“We made progress in terms of feeling and balance, but unfortunately, we’re still in a tough spot in terms of the stopwatch. Being out of Q1 with both cars, especially using three sets of soft each, shows that at the moment, we don’t have the pace,” continued the VCARB driver. “There’s still more to find and we’ll keep chipping away. Tomorrow is going to come around quick, but we have a few races ahead of us with similar track characteristics, so we obviously need to figure out together the things we’re missing.”

Jody Egginton, the team’s Technical Director, praised both drivers for their feedback to the team. While VCARB may not be happy with the results at the moment, Egginton sounded hopeful that this weekend has laid the groundwork for further progress over the rest of the year.

“In terms of car balance, there has been some improvement,” began Egginton. “This alone has not been enough, so clearly, we have a lot of homework to do tonight, but also ahead of Austria, to extract more from the car and a large part of this work will be [analyzing] in detail the aero data we have gathered here in Barcelona.

“On the flip side, both drivers have done a good job of supporting the engineering team with feedback on the numerous test items we have evaluated here and also extracting the maximum from the cars we have been able to provide them with, so we have plenty of data to work with to make the necessary steps forward.”

Spanish Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton ‘focused’ on fighting for victory spanish,grand,prix,lewis,hamilton,focused,on,fighting,for,victory,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 22, 2024 By: admin

The last time Lewis Hamilton reached the top step of a Formula 1 podium, Max Verstappen had yet to win a Drivers’ Championship.

Could that change tomorrow?

Hamilton’s last victory came at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the penultimate race of that campaign. As readers likely know Verstappen went on to claim the win — and the 2021 Drivers’ Championship — in the following race, the still-debated 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Since then Hamilton and Mercedes have struggled to return to form, but recent upgrades by the team to their 2024 challenger, the W15, have improved performance on the track. Now Mercedes is coming off their best weekend of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix. Saturday in Barcelona Hamilton delivered his best qualifying performance of the year, finishing third behind Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

Following the session, Hamilton made it clear: He is “focused” on fighting for a win.

“I am going into tomorrow focused on trying to fight for the win. We are in a good starting spot with that long run down to turn one,” said Hamilton in the team’s post-qualifying report. “Degradation will also play a key role tomorrow and I think our long runs in practice looked strong in that respect. I hope that translates into Sunday and we can have a good afternoon.”

Hamilton will not be the only Mercedes on the second row Sunday, as teammate George Russell qualified right behind Hamilton in fourth. On the other side of the garage, Russell also believes the team can fight at the front.

“On a circuit like this, the ultimate race pace of a car will always win out. I think our race pace looked good throughout the weekend so far and I hope we can fight for the podium and potentially victory,” said Russell. “The recent steps we’ve taken with the car are clearly helping and we’re looking forward to building on that momentum.”

It will be interesting to see how Mercedes handles the strategy options on Sunday. While both Norris and Verstappen are starting in front of the Silver Arrows pair, having both Russell and Hamilton in the second row gives Mercedes some options. Do they go with a split-tire strategy, or will we see both Hamilton and Russell on the same compound to begin the Spanish Grand Prix?

Hamilton hinted at some strategy options available to the team in Saturday’s FIA Press Conference.

“I think these two [Norris and Verstappen] will be very quick, but position is everything … You know, also there’s two of us, so hopefully we can apply pressure as a team to both of the cars ahead in order to maybe play out something in strategy and slowly climb up,” said Hamilton. “I think it’s all about degradation tomorrow and how you look after the [tires], so we won’t know until we get into that first run.”

Mercedes enters Sunday’s race in the strongest starting position of the season. Can they turn that into their best day of the F1 campaign?

We will know soon enough.