Spanish Grand Prix: Track and Statistics

The first Spanish race of Formula 1 in 1951 was hosted by the six kilometer long Pedralbes city circuit. In the season finale, Juan Manuel Fangio in Alfa Romeo and Alberto Ascari in Ferrari battled for the title, but the Scuderia made a tire error and Fangio won the race along with the title. Three years later, Pedralbes once again hosted the national stage, but an accident at Le Mans’55 led to a review of safety requirements and the track was excluded from the championship.

In 1966, the Catalans restored the old city ring road of Montjuic, opposite the circuit of Jarama, which is not far from Madrid. In 1968 the race was held in Jarama, it was won by Graham Hill, and a year later the stage was again run in Montjuic Park, only five of the fourteen riders made it to the finish line and Jackie Stewart won.

For years the tracks changed and in 1975 a scandal arose: on Friday, the pilots refused to go to the track in Montjuic Park due to non-compliance with safety barriers. For the same reason, qualifying was shortened on Saturday and the race was halted on the 30th lap of the scheduled 75, after the accident of Rolf Stommelen and the death of four people. Racers then got only half of the required points and Formula 1 left Montjuic forever.

In October 1986, the Parliament of Catalonia ensured the return of Formula 1 to its country and created a council for the construction of the circuit. True, representatives of the south of the country for some time crossed the road to Barcelona – the national Grand Prix was played on the new circuit in the city of Jerez de la Frontera from 1986 to 1990.

The Catalans did not hesitate: a piece of land was acquired north of the city and on February 24, 1989, they laid the first stone for the foundation of the Circuit de Catalunya. The sponsors are the Royal Automobile Club, the Government of Catalonia and the Municipality of Montmelo.

Five days after the official opening ceremony, on September 10, 1991, the first touring car race was held here, won by former Formula 1 driver Luis Pérez-Sala, and on September 29, Formula 1 returned to Catalonia after a 16-year-old teams to get a comfortable (and relatively warm in winter) test location in the center of Europe.

Track features

The Spanish circuit is considered a reference for evaluating the efficiency of cars – it places high demands on aerodynamics and includes different types of corners, from slow, where mechanical grip is important, to fast corners. If a car is fast in Barcelona, ​​it is usually competitive on most other tracks as well.

Especially the slow third sector is important, where you can regain a lot of time. Most of the slow corners in Barcelona are on the left, most of the fast corners are on the right. The left and right sides of the car can be adjusted slightly differently, this characteristic of the track causes the tires on the left to wear faster and on the right to suffer from insufficient heating.

If the race is on a dry track, then almost nothing depends on the rider’s skill. Even novices know this track very well from youth series races and tests, but finding the optimal settings for a variety of turns, quick changes of direction and a long straight – and it’s very difficult to get a clean lap in the qualifying – the track is demanding on the car, and the more efficient it is, the more downforce it delivers, the better the result.

In the race another problem arises: it is difficult to overtake in Barcelona. In an effort to fix it in 2021, the owners of the autodrome slightly changed the configuration, returning the tenth corner to its historic form, but this had almost no effect on the number of overtakings – the corner just got faster and faster. requires less intensive braking.

When drafting the cars, the teams will again rely on qualifying – starting position in Barcelona is very important, in the last 20 years on the Spanish circuit, a driver who did not start from pole has only won four times.

Weekend schedule

You can follow the progress of all Formula 1 sessions on our live streaming page. We have written instructions for watching live video broadcasts.

Tire sets given to teams for the weekend

For the second time in the season (after Bahrain), Pirelli will bring the toughest compounds to the podium – C1, C2 and C3 marked as Hard, Medium and Soft.

A set of the softest tires must be kept for the qualifying final – after that those who raced in the final must return this set to Pirelli.

One set of medium and hard tires must be kept for the race – unless declared wet, riders must use at least one of these sets.

Performance of active riders in Spain

Daniel Riccardo: “The track in Barcelona is one of the best on the calendar, there is a little bit of everything. Turns 1, 2 and 3 flow seamlessly into each other and the last sector is very technical. The end of the lap is quite slow – this is where the tires start to lose efficiency, so it is sometimes difficult to finish the lap cleanly.