Spanish Grand Prix: Track and Statistics

The first Spanish round of Formula 1 in 1951 was hosted by the six-kilometre Pedralbes urban 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 mistake and Fangio won the race along with the title. Three years later, Pedralbes hosted the national podium again, but an accident at Le Mans’55 led to a review of safety requirements and the track was banned from the championship.

In 1966, the Catalans restored the old city ring of Montjuic, opposite the Jarama circuit, 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 run again in Montjuic Park, only five of the fourteen riders reached the finish and Jackie Stewart won.

For years, the tracks alternated and in 1975 a scandal arose: on Friday the drivers refused to go to the circuit in Montjuic Park because of non-compliance with guardrails. For the same reason, qualifying on Saturday was shortened and the race was abandoned on the 30th lap of the planned 75, following the accident of Rolf Stommelen and the death of four people. Racers then only got half the required points and Formula 1 left Montjuic forever.

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

The Catalans did not give up: a piece of land was bought to the north of the city and on February 24, 1989 they laid the first stone in 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, which was won by former Formula 1 driver Luis Perez-Sala, and on September 29, Formula 1 returned to Catalonia after a 16-year break .teams to get a comfortable (and relatively warm in winter) test location in the center of Europe.

Follow features

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

The slow third sector is especially important, where you can gain a lot of time. Most slow corners in Barcelona are on the left, most fast corners on the right. The left and right sides of the car can be adjusted slightly differently, this feature of the track leads to the fact that the tires on the left wear out faster, and on the right suffer from insufficient heating.

When the race takes place on a dry track, almost nothing depends on the skill of the rider. Even debutants know this track very well from races and tests in the youth series, but finding the optimal settings for a variety of corners, quick changes of direction and a long straight – and it is very difficult to do a clean lap in the qualifying – the track is demanding for the car, and the more efficient it is then the more downforce it produces, the better the result.

Another problem arises during the race: it is difficult to overtake in Barcelona. In an attempt to fix it in 2021, the owners of the autodrome slightly changed the configuration, returning the tenth turn to its historic shape, but this had almost no effect on the number of overtaking – the corner just became faster and required less intensive brakes .

This year the configuration was changed again – it was decided to abandon the chicane added in 2007 in the last corner. In order to safely pass the last sector without a chicane, it was necessary to strengthen the protection systems at Turns 13 and 16.

When setting up the cars, the teams will once again rely on qualifying – the starting position in Barcelona is very important, in the last 20 years on the Spanish circuit a racer who did not start from pole won only five times.

Weekend schedule

You can follow the progress of all Formula 1 sessions on our live streaming page.

Tire sets given to teams for the weekend

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

One set of the softest tires must be kept for the qualifying final – then those who drove in the final must return this set to Pirelli.

One set of Medium and Hard tires must be retained for the race – unless declared wet, riders must use at least one of these sets.

Mario Isol: “It is difficult to say something about Barcelona that has not been said before, because this circuit is probably better studied by riders than any other circuit.

The versatility of the configuration makes it the perfect place to test, as it has everything, including a very technical final section where it’s important to get the tires working properly without overloading them.”

Performance of active riders in Spain

Fernando Alonso: “I have been performing here for many years, I know the circuit and the place well. In Barcelona you immediately see how fast your car is compared to the rest.

It’s not easy to overtake on this track, it’s important to do well in qualifying, otherwise it’s hard to get points if there’s no safety car in the race and nothing unusual happens.

I like to come back to Spain whenever possible, the fans here are passionate and friendly. I have my own museum and circuit in Asturias, where I was born, I try to visit them when I am in the country.