Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle reviews the Spanish GP weekend as Max Verstappen dominated to extend his championship lead to 53 points, but Mercedes showed signs of life as the upgraded W14 impressed at the Circuit de Catalunya
Tuesday 6 June 2023 18:44, UK
Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle delivers his expert verdict on the Spanish GP weekend as the updated Circuit de Catalunya delivered more brilliance from Max Verstappen and the possible start of a Mercedes resurgence...
Congratulations to Red Bull and Max Verstappen on yet another dominant weekend. Notwithstanding potentially falling the wrong side of a safety car, red flag, rain, or reliability issues, it was pretty clear who was going to win once the RB19 emerged from the first chicane in the lead and intact. He would be on pole position, lead every lap, and take the fastest lap for the third time in his career, while claiming his 40th victory overall.
Luckily, the racing behind him was quite interesting, and there was plenty of it given that for the second time this season, but only the fourth time in history (Miami 2023, France and Austria 2019) there were no yellow or red flags, no safety cars, and no retirements. The teams are really on top of reliability now, more so than at any time in F1 history, despite the cars being fiendishly complicated - and too big and heavy.
And that's with parc ferme and team curfew conditions, where the cars are not available to be worked on, and no warm-up session on race day. Quite why our much simpler cars were so poorly unreliable back in the day I don't know. It must be relentless materials and manufacturing tolerance development, an army of people babysitting them, and copious amounts of data and analysis. Getting our glorious old analogue cars to the end of the Grand Prix was quite a challenge and reliability usually shaped the result of races, and even championships.
The circuit changes in Barcelona really worked a treat for energising the track and race for the latest F1 cars. As Ant Davidson said in a Sky Sports F1 feature we did, unlike some other circuits, the cars have grown into this revisited layout.
Three slow corners, including one of the most frustrating chicanes in motor sport, were returned to two very high-speed zones. It was slowed down back in 2007 in the name of greater safety and better overtaking. You could still have a very sizeable shunt today but the overtaking down into turn one, albeit with the DRS rear wing open, provided significantly better entertainment. It looked to me that we can nip a good few metres out of the pit-straight DRS activation point to tighten that up further.
I always get more excited about an event when drivers are fizzing and positive about the track or surroundings, it's contagious.
This circuit almost always delivers a two-by-two grid in team order, with those who have high and consistent aerodynamic downforce and efficiency towards the front.
Apart from Red Bull, the rest of the pack is pretty close, such that if - say - a Haas, Alpha Tauri, Alfa Romeo, or Williams driver is having a strong day, and perhaps a driver in one of the grandee teams is underperforming, then we'll have some qualifying shocks.
And that's exactly what happened on the grid for Sunday's race with Sergio Perez in 11th, Russell in 12th and Charles Leclerc a shocking 19th, before overnight work left him starting from the pit lane.
The cool qualifying conditions on a still-drying track mixed it up further and teams like McLaren really hit a sweet spot for surface temperatures and making their car sing in the long, fast corners. Sadly, 66 racing laps of that place leave nowhere to hide in the end.
It was clear from lights out that Verstappen would cruise off into the distance, that Mercedes had a strong race car, and that Aston Martin and Ferrari were struggling. Those high-speed circuit changes ensured that we would have more pit stops than in recent years too.
It was also clear that Sergio Perez was making reasonable but unspectacular progress through the pack in his Red Bull, and that Leclerc was labouring further back despite a whole new back end on his car. Perez would climb to 4th, Leclerc wouldn't make the points in 11th place.
Leclerc is having a nightmare season despite his prodigious speed, it's just been incidents, unreliability, and grid penalties all the way so far.
George Russell had a lot of adventures too over the weekend, including significant high-speed contact in qualifying with his team-mate Lewis Hamilton after a misunderstanding, a trip through the gravel going to the grid, and running wide in the first corner of the race but being exonerated for gaining places by using the escape road. It was a very good start which gained most of those places.
Russell drove a fine race to take the final step on the podium. Hamilton, who is driving with an especially feisty and happy demeanour lately, was a further eight seconds up the road for a solid second place and double Mercedes podium.
Before we get too excited, they were 24 and 32 seconds, respectively, behind a cruising Verstappen but at least it's some hope that the Mercedes sidepod upgrade did some good, although we can't say that about Ferrari's similar upgrade yet.
Furthermore, after a tremendous start to the season Aston Martin need their imminent update to work too, as they fall behind Mercedes in the Constructors' championship.
The massive Spanish crowd, who had to endure poor traffic management outside the circuit, needed to be content with Carlos Sainz's Ferrari in fifth place, 45 seconds behind the winner, and Fernando Alonso in seventh, behind his Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll. I did enjoy Fernando waving to the crowd while power sliding his car around on the final tour.
Alpine appear to be the next best team after Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Aston Martin, with their drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly both in the points again.
Zhou Guanyu helped himself to a well-earned couple of points for Alfa Romeo after some feisty race action with Yuki Tsunoda, who was penalised in wheel-to-wheel action, a little harshly I thought.
Lando Norris's jubilant P3 in qualifying turned to misery in turn two of the race when he clipped Hamilton's rear wheel and broke his front wing. The fact he set a lap time in the closing stages only bettered by the Red Bulls and Hamilton at least showed some potential pace, but he ended up a lap down in 17th place. Ouch.
The only thing to challenge the Red Bull out front was some white paint. Verstappen managed to breach track limits three times and received a warning flag whilst apparently just minding his own business. That being the business of running away with this championship yet again.
Next up Montreal, an old school track which can throw up plenty of challenges.
MB
