F1 set for dry and warm weekend in Barcelona

2011 Spanish Grand Prix

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Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, Barcelona, 2011

F1’s last visit to the Circuit de Catalunya for testing in March was hit by heavy rain.

But the weather for this weekend’s race should be very different, with three days of warm, dry conditions forecast.

The temperature will remain around 25C on all three days. Blustery conditions on Friday and Saturday will give way to a lighter southern wind on race day.

The rainfall radar shows the nearest showers in the last 24 hours have been well south of Montmelo and nowhere close to reaching the area.

There hasn’t been a wet race at the Circuit de Catalunya for 15 years, when Michael Schumacher won in dreadful conditions for Ferrari.

F1 Fanatic Live will have updated weather information during all of this weekend’s track activity.

Circuit de Catalunya location

The Circuit de Catalunya is in Montmelo, just outside Barcelona in the north-east of Spain:

2011 Spanish Grand Prix

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    Image © Mercedes

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    17 comments on “F1 set for dry and warm weekend in Barcelona”

    1. The rain in Spain falls mainly on test days

        1. Maybe they should hold the Spanish GP in February and move the winter test to May. That might spice things up a bit.

    2. I’ve never seen a wet Spanish GP

      1. 1996

    3. Awesome. Hopefully we’ll see a full on approach in qualifying to assess everyone’s raw pace, although I’ve got a feeling the tyre conservation strategies in Q3 are here to stay.

      1. It’s a relative thing: by now, most teams will continue to only do one attempt. And I don’t think they will save tyres within their one attempt, they still will drive their car on the limit, to try to move up the grid. There’s even less room for error, both from the driver and the team, who need to make sure the driver doesn’t get into traffic.

        So it will remain exciting, except maybe for the guys who got into Q3 more or less by accident, they just need to do one full – uncompetitive – lap, because they will start 10th anyway.

    4. HounslowBusGarage
      19th May 2011, 13:08

      I’m glad it’s going to be dry as we will be able to asess if the DRG can actually make a difference to what has become one of the least exciting GPs in the world.
      If it does turn out to be an exciting race, there will be a massive sigh of relief from Yas Marina and probably Singapore, too.

      1. HounslowBusGarage
        19th May 2011, 13:56

        DRG? I meant DRS. Doh!

        1. The DRG is the Drag Reduction Gimmick.

          1. Zing!

          2. Ha! very good

    5. Maybe the high temperature is why most of the races are like watching paint dry.

      I really dont see other than a good test venue because of aero, why it remains as a race circuit on the calendar.

      Thank goodness for Pirelli this year. I believe thats the number 1 reason for the good racing this year.

      1. Maybe the high temperature is why most of the races are like watching paint dry.

        I meant of course the races at this circuit.

    6. The weather sounds like it’s going to be beautiful. If these upgrades from Ferrari and Lotus are to be believed then we should see a bit of a change across the field!

      1. I agree, to me I see this as a benchmark weekend, this shows us where all the teams are going forwards.

        1. Yep. It’s not a particularly exciting track but the teams know it like the back of their hand so it should be fairly representative…if it stays dry.

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