Amidst the new technical directive, heating championship battles we are in for an eventful weekend in last race of this European triple header at Barcelona. Lando Norris will want his regained form to continue here but the front wing takedown might ruffle things up. When asked, the drivers all dismissed the possibility of this takedown making a huge dent in their teams’ performances. How much of that is true remains to be seen. Experts predict a loss of a tenth over a lap can be expected. It does seem much but can make a difference with the qualifying already so close.

Red Bull and Ferrari are the two teams which are supposedly going to be benefited with this. However, the Mclaren’s real strength is not the flexi wings, their race pace advantage majorly comes from their tire temp management. Whatever is that keeping their brake ducts so cool, helps them go long in stints with relatively low tire deg. Till it is found out they are going to be ahead of the pack.

The Track

One of the oldest circuits on the calendar, it used to be the preferred pre-season testing ground for F1. As a result, drivers are well versed with this track. You get a mix of high and medium speed corners that are demanding on the body. Particularly the long turns like turn 3 take the most out of the driver and the car. The front left tire struggles the most due to the majority of right hand turns.

There is a long run of over half a kilometre to turn 1, the track is wide giving the cars ample room but they quickly bottle up into the turn 1 trying to get the optimum line and setting up for the second and third turns.

We have two DRS zones, one on the main straight which is where most of the overtakes happen. Second zone is on the straight between turns 9-10. There are not many places to overtake, but we still get plenty of overtakes here every year.

Tyre wear, owing to the high temps and the abrasive tarmac is one of the highest. Pirelli like every year will bring their hardest compounds (C1, C2, C3) for the weekend even then the race will be a two stopper.

The weather will be dry and sunny, with track temperatures getting as hot as 50 degrees Celsius.

Team Upgrades

Almost all teams have brought changes to the front wing mostly to comply for the new directive. Eyes will be on Mercedes and Sauber as they have brought some important performance upgrades. Sauber would be looking to get out from the bottom of the table, with this package. That may be a bit difficult as Alpine has brought their own floor upgrades but the drivers, especially Colapinto would need to step up for it to make a difference.

Interestingly Mclaren have declared no upgrades. They already tested their new front wing last week, but they didn’t mention it even then as it has no aero changes.

What to watch out for?

Since 2016, only Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have managed to win here but they are not in the best phases of their racing careers right now. Mclaren intends to end this streak but might be hampered with takedown. Ham and Ver have had their moments this season, they have demonstrated that given a good car they can rise to their dominant ways. If their team manage to put their car in a good window, we can expect the streak to go on.

Which is possible considering how this circuit has high-med speed corners and no heavy curbs which unsettle the RB21. However, all the speculation might go down the drain if RBR are not able to keep the tire deg in check, then it would be one of those races where Max would pe luck to be in top 5. Ferrari on the other hand has shown that it can manage its tires pretty well even if not as good as Mcl.

It would also be interesting to see how Mercedes comes back up after a weekend where nothing seemed to go right for them. Racing Bulls had upped their performance in Monaco and they might lead the midfield as Williams have hinted that this is going to be their worst weekend. Alonso will be looking to finally end his pointless streak and no better place to do it than his home circuit and also the circuit where he last had a win (2013).

Teams are also ordered to test a new heavier skid block for the practice sessions. If all goes well it might be used for some select races for the rest of the year.