Alonso bids for home win as Mercedes bring revised car (Spanish GP preview)
5th May 2010, 8:28 by Keith Collantine 95 Comments »
Fernando Alonso last won his home race four years ago
Spanish F1 fans will have three home drivers to cheer on for the first time ever this weekend.
Fernando Alonso is out to repeat his home victory of 2006 while Jaime Alguersuari and Pedro de la Rosa will be eyeing top ten finishes.
Following a three-week break a raft of technical updates could change the running order this weekend, with Mercedes and especially Michael Schumacher pinning their hopes on a significantly revised W01.
Upgrades
Teams will bring their biggest technical updates of the year so far to Barcelona in a bid to get ahead of their rivals.
Mercedes are introducing a longer version of their W01 in an attempt to improve its weight distribution and use its tyres more effectively.
This is a significant change to the car’s layout which they must have decided upon some time ago. Will it allow Michael Schumacher to get more out of a car which has troubled him so far on his F1 comeback?
Several teams will be testing their versions of McLaren’s F-duct including Ferrari and Sauber, whose designs we’ve seen before. Ferrari will be testing driver-operated F-ducts on both their cars on Friday – but haven’t decided whether they will race them yet.
It remains to been seen whether anyone else can anyone replicate McLaren’s driver-operated device. The restrictions on making changes to the chassis may mean they have to settle for the less satisfactory solution of a wing which stalls itself above certain speeds.
This is also the first race where teams won’t be allowed to use sidepod-mounted mirrors. Red Bull, Ferrari, Williams, Sauber and HRT will all have to have theirs changed this weekend.
Don’t expect them to make a huge difference to their performance, however much some of the teams may grumble about being told to change their designs.
Force India, who have already swapped their outboard mirrors for conventional ones, will run Paul di Resta in first practice on Friday in place of Adrian Sutil.
How will the changes shake-up the running order? We’ll get an idea once the cars hit the track, but we know some teams are planning more radical overhauls than others. Lotus have a significant upgrade for their T127, but Williams are changing little on the FW32.
Others haven’t been able to make all the changes they wanted: Virgin are only bringing one updated VR-01 for Timo Glock – Lucas di Grassi has to stick with the smaller-capacity fuel tank in his car.
Read more: The pecking order as the teams ready their Barcelona performance upgrades
Qualifying
With overtaking extremely difficult at the Circuit de Catalunya, qualifying on Saturday will be a high-pressure affair.
Lewis Hamilton discovered this to his cost in Shanghai: while most drivers beat their Q2 time in Q3 as track conditions improved, he failed to do so and started sixth when third place at minimum looked to be on the cards.
The drivers have soft and hard tyres to choose from this weekend, as they did last year. It would be a surprise to see many drivers in Q3 opting for the hard tyre unless degradation on the soft tyre is very poor on high fuel loads. Even then it would be a brave decision to sacrifice grid position for strategic gain at this circuit.
Keep an eye out for drivers getting stuck in traffic in Q1 as the Circuit de Catalunya is the shortest track visited so far this year. Aside from the main straight, passing places are hard to find.
Read more: Traffic a greater challenge in next races
Rain
Amazingly, once again we find ourselves heading towards a Grand Prix weekend with the prospect of rain disrupting the event.
The chance of rain falling on race day was not that high at first, but as the weekend draws nearer forecasters are increasingly predicting wet weather on Sunday.
There is also a good chance of rain during practice on Friday, which could disrupt the work being done by teams to test their new components.
Read more: Low chance of rain in Spain
Drivers to watch
Four driver to keep an eye on this weekend. Name your top picks in the comments.
Michael Schumacher – Yes, I’ve picked him three times out of five now as a ‘driver to watch’ but with good reason. Will the updated W01 allow him to turn his disappointing comeback around?
Sebastien Buemi – His team mate has won a lot of praise while Buemi’s races have often been compromised by other people’s accidents. Will he get a trouble-free race in Barcelona?
Fernando Alonso – Won his home race in 2006 and has the car to win it again for the first time in three years. But he seems to react to the pressure at home – remember his formation lap spin two years ago, and first corner clash with Massa in 2007.
Kamui Kobayashi – He and his Sauber team badly need more finishes.
The Spanish Grand Prix on F1 Fanatic
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Are you going to the Spanish Grand Prix?
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2010 Spanish Grand Prix
- 2010 Spanish Grand Prix - the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
- Whitmarsh: Rim failure put Hamilton out
- Hamilton denies Webber a perfect result (Spanish Grand Prix facts and stats)
- Spanish Grand Prix in pictures
- Super start helps Alguersuari to points finish (Spanish Grand Prix analysis)
- Spanish Grand Prix fastest laps
- Webber dominates Spanish Grand Prix as Hamilton crashes out of second place
- Spanish Grand Prix result
- Championship points after Spain
- Rate the race - Spain
Image (C) Renault/LAT
plushpile said on 5th May 2010, 8:39
Here’s hoping it’s not another snore-fest…
Invoke said on 5th May 2010, 8:45
*prays for rain*
I really hope the Sauber & their engines can hold out for a whole race distance this weekend!
Henry said on 5th May 2010, 10:13
I am afraid to say unless it rains it almost certainly will be. It is just not a good track for exciting spectator friendly racing. Oh well…maybe it’ll go in the coming years (fingers crossed!)
TommyB said on 5th May 2010, 10:51
Schumacher to win
David A said on 5th May 2010, 17:19
Repeat of 1996 perhaps?
Patrickl said on 5th May 2010, 19:16
1996 Monaco or Brazil?
David A said on 6th May 2010, 3:42
Well, seeing how this is a “Spanish GP preview”, it’s a little bit obvious which Grand Prix I was referring to.
sato113 said on 5th May 2010, 12:27
hopefully tyre degredation will be severe enough to mess up things a bit.
SeattleChris said on 6th May 2010, 6:04
Michelin-Indianapolis style! Not gonna happen, slow tracks are just slow boring tracks. I enjoy Monaco, but if it weren’t “Monaco” I’d want that gone too.
OEL said on 5th May 2010, 8:48
I hope for a replay of the first corner from 2007! Forza Felipe!
sato113 said on 5th May 2010, 12:31
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eID4ahy80d8&feature=fvw
3:40 to 4:26
Steezy said on 5th May 2010, 13:23
Why are there so many youtube F1 highlight videos with awful eastern european techno trance crap, can’t they just leave the original sound.
F1 on youtube is extremely frustrating, if it’s not this crap, it’s just rubbish rfactor simulation videos instead. Infact in general…youtube is just going downhill.
graigchq said on 5th May 2010, 14:25
anything official F1 on youtube gets taken down pretty quickly through fear of Bernie and his vultures taking them to court. Sad i know, but the truth i’m afraid.
Patrickl said on 5th May 2010, 15:02
Just because you don’t like the music it’s crap?
At least be grateful that someone takes the time to collect all these highlights and turns it into a video.
Geez.
macahan said on 5th May 2010, 15:48
no kidding. Consider how harsh FOM is going after videos on there I’m glad for any quality videos uploaded no matter what sound there is. Better then camed TV or low res clips. The only video you can find is FOM’s own on their website only which is a shame.
Look at Nascar and Indycar for example. Indycar has their own Youtube channel, video and audio podcasts. Indycar done it on youtube since 06. There are some 500 video clips with interviews and highlights and other clips from pre, post and during race. Also fans it seems are encouraged to upload videos. But then they don’t get millions and millions for TV rights that they need to protect.
But it’s sad when broadcasters with rights can’t even post F1 race vids on their own website. For example SpeedTV does a post race analysis. The commentators are talking about the race and different highlights some of that they put into their TV show and some of that only goes on their online post race analysis. But on the online when they talk about a overtake or race incident you can see them looking at a monitor discussing and hear the sound but they are afraid to show the actual clip because that would be violation. Making the online post race mostly useless IMO.
Improve the show bah. It would be a great things if fans was allowed to share, analyze and post pictures and vids to get more people interested because they run across these videos.
DaveW said on 5th May 2010, 18:35
Yes, the SpeedTV post race analysis is useless. It’s like watching three old guys talk about the race. Wait, it is watching three old guys talk about the race. They need Keith to come in and lay out some of those animated charts and graphs and do some meaningful analysis of what happened.
dj said on 5th May 2010, 19:10
Thanks for posting the link
FelipeBabyStayCool said on 5th May 2010, 18:10
Fernando overtook Felipe fair and square on the outside and reached the corner first. Felipe pushed him (I wouldn’t say he did it on purpose, probably wasn’t able to brake on time) to the dirt outside, to the advantage of Kimi and HAM. Felipe was very lucky that his left wing was undamaged, which would have ruined his race. Also it could have resulted in a major melee, with Kimi and everybody else crashing into them. It turned out perfect for Felipe and I’m happy that he won, but it really wasn’t a good move.
Tango said on 5th May 2010, 9:05
I would look for Lewis: can he finally qualify correctly and win a race this year?
J said on 6th May 2010, 11:07
I hope there’s no rain and Lewis wins from pole. Now that would be total bliss for me
Red Andy said on 5th May 2010, 9:15
Though a dry race might be a bit dull, it will at least give us a good idea of what the pecking order is. At the moment I think Red Bull are ahead, with Ferrari not too far behind. McLaren aren’t so handy in the dry as in the wet, I think, and Mercedes are a little behind the top three.
We will also get to see how far Renault are off the leading four teams, as well as how the midfield is shaping up.
rampante said on 5th May 2010, 9:41
Got to agree on that. I’ve said before I want a boring dry race to see where all the teams really are and the difference all the upgrades will have made.
steph said on 5th May 2010, 9:53
Agree completely with the both of you. This may be a good track to get some idea too as the teams know it inside out. I never thoguht I would hope it wouldn’t rain…
macahan said on 5th May 2010, 15:55
hate to say it but I agree here to. But would prefer it to be on a different track but that would mean we wouldn’t know for sure for another couple of races because Monaco is next and well it’s not really a track to show this. One good thing about Barca is that the drives and teams knows the track so well that most of them will get the absolute most out of the car here that is possible which will give a very good picture of pecking order.
Plus dry means no more luck of the draw in quali and race. Last 3 races been entertaining for sure but very chaotic and order been shaken up so much. I really would like to see a dry race that really show the strength of the car and driver not just who is lucky by getting a good start or put on the right tires at the right time or just getting lucky not being in the crash or not get punted of the track because someone elses error.
sato113 said on 5th May 2010, 12:33
no because we can see the pecking order in a dry quali. then the race can be wet as you like!
Patrickl said on 5th May 2010, 15:05
Before China, Red Bull seemed to have a distinct advantage in qualifying. It looks like McLaren and Mercedes have suddenly closed a big part of that gap. But still, we haven’t really seen if the Red Bull cars can keep up the pace throughout a whole race.
Andrew White said on 5th May 2010, 19:09
I agree with you Sato. People hoping for a dry race will be regretting it a couple of laps in when they know the pecking order, as that’s the order it will stay in for the rest of the race…
matt88 said on 5th May 2010, 9:17
i hope for a quiet race without rain, maybe this way Ferrari could have some chances of victory.:D
David B said on 5th May 2010, 9:22
I fear rain is the only chance for a not processional race. Unfortunately. Sad but true.
OEL said on 5th May 2010, 9:26
But if your favourite driver wins, it doesn’t really matter, does it (not that I know who your favourite driver is)?
David B said on 5th May 2010, 11:32
It’s Schumi…:-D
Bullfrog said on 5th May 2010, 9:50
The Upgrade Grand Prix adds a bit of interest. Hopefully the F-duct cars, with their higher speeds and lower turbulence, will create some overtaking. I probably said that about KERS last year, though.
I’ll be keeping an eye on Renault and Lotus, two teams that seem to know exactly where they’re going with their upgrades, right from the pre-season tests. It would be fitting if Lotus have been adding lightness to their cars…
2 Minutes To Midnight said on 5th May 2010, 10:01
My Top 5 Predictions:
1.Alonso
2.Schumacher
3.Button/Hamilton
4.Rosberg
5.Hamilton/Button
Red Bull DNF or out of the top 5
2 Minutes To Midnight said on 5th May 2010, 10:04
If it’s raining heavily Schumacher, Rosberg, or the other Mclaren drivers will win the race.
Todfod said on 5th May 2010, 17:24
Schumacher will not win the race no matter what the weather conditions are … i’d put my money on the HRTs over Schumi
David A said on 5th May 2010, 19:13
He hasn’t performed well so far, but cannot be written off to that extent.
Prisoner Monkeys said on 5th May 2010, 10:03
I’m not expecting Alonso to do much. And I kind of like it that way, sticking it to the Spanish fans.
sato113 said on 5th May 2010, 12:35
ha they don’t take losing very well! (sorry any spanish fans here!) Massa ftw! but VET will probably.
macahan said on 5th May 2010, 16:04
Alguersari for the win. Alonso crashing out Hamilton (or other way around) in first corner. Button blows a tire and DNF’s. Massa blows a engine valve. Schum takes out Rosberg while being lapped. Vettel scores 2nd and Webber is victim of Alonso Hamilton clash.
)
Virgin runs out of fuel on one car and the other car is taken out by a HRT. Sauber loses another win and takes out FI, one Lotus car plows into the rear end of the stalled Rubens on the starting grid in his Williams. Petrov finds himself in the tire wall for no apparent reason. Kubica takes 3rd, followed by Hulkenberg, Buemi, Lotus and HRT. First point score for 2 new team. WTG!!!
(Did I miss anyone in my prediction?
Remember you read it here first.. LOL
Adrian said on 5th May 2010, 10:19
Lewis Hamilton will be my driver to watch. I think he’ll be desperate to get a win on his score card this season now that Button has 2…
sumedh said on 5th May 2010, 10:25
I hope for no rain. 3 out of 4 wet races is a bit too much.
In drivers to watch I would rather consider the 2 Red Bull and 2 Mclaren drivers.
Since, in a dry rae I expect the strongest 2 teams to dominate (Red Bull and Mclaren of course), a question of seeing who is the quickest among the 2 now.
SciF1Droid said on 5th May 2010, 10:31
I’m hoping this is the race and the car that will turn around Schumachers fortunes, not because I support him, but I just don’t want to see him end his career like this.
Otherwise I expect fireworks again from Alonso (home race) and Hamilton (desperate for a win), but this time for the win, with Alonso edging it. Button in third, and the Red Bulls in the gravel somewhere
wasiF1 said on 5th May 2010, 17:15
I don’t think that Schumi’s career will end that soon. He is struggling but I think he needs some time to put his things together.
One thing we all forget is that so far he didn’t put a wheel wrong, I hope thatby the end of the year the story will be different.
F1silverarrows said on 5th May 2010, 10:32
Alonso will win the spanish grand prix if they can match Red Bulls 0.3 second a lap speed increase. Red bull are confident saying that even Mercedes couldn’t make a second improvement of their car.
Jay Menon said on 5th May 2010, 10:42
Just like Jorge Lorenzo at Jerez last week, its gonna be a home win for Fernando!!
I dont if its either Alonso or Vettel on the top step of the podium.
Todfod said on 5th May 2010, 17:26
agree.. this is going to either fernando or sebastian.. and maybe lewis on the third step of the podium
sam said on 5th May 2010, 10:44
i’m gonna say Rosberg is the guy to watch; if the Merc really does get a good performance boost, we could see his first win