The Spanish Grand Prix was one of the most anticipated stages of this start of the world championship. For many years, Barcelona has been known as an open-air wind tunnel thanks to its layout, but also as a track that provides some more indications on the values on the field.
Undoubtedly, over the years the design of the track, as well as the calendar, have undergone changes which have changed some balances, but the tenth round of this world championship has nevertheless given some important answers on the values on the field, both at the level of the car and team.
When the gaps begin to narrow with positions being played out on the edge of a hundredth, as in this phase of the championship, two elements above all emerge: the driver and the team. Barcelona demonstrated this in the best way, with a challenge that continued until the final rounds, while also showcasing what is realistically the best combination that F1 can offer at the moment, namely the one formed by Max Verstappen and the Red Bull. On the one hand, a driver on whom the team can rely, on the other, a team that the driver can trust, blindly.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, second Lando Norris, McLaren, third Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Formula 1 is a team sport, first of all, and with such small gaps, the qualities of the collective emerge. Both the Dutchman and Lando Norris rightly pointed out that a large part of the race was played at the start, with that exchange of positions which totally changed the scenarios on the table. In itself, the first phase of the Briton’s start, i.e. that of releasing the clutch, was good, but it is in the following moments, those of the transition between first and second, where Verstappen was able to make the difference, with less slipping and better momentum.
Even more decisive, however, was the moment of overtaking George Russell, who had taken the lead at the start by taking advantage of the double slipstream of his two rivals. While the three-time world champion managed to resolve the practice quickly, thus being able to impose his pace and gain those useful seconds to build a safety margin, on the other hand Norris remained stuck in third place for a good part of the first stint , at least until the pit stop of the Briton from Mercedes.
From the start of the third lap to the end of the fifteenth, Verstappen managed to put around 5 and a half seconds between himself and the McLaren, which then progressively decreased by almost a second at the time of the stop scheduled by Red Bull, despite the same team of Milton Keynes had told the pilot to start pushing. Potentially, at this point there were two scenarios on the table: stop or extend, each with their own pros and cons.
Red Bull read the situation perfectly and, as soon as they realized they didn’t have the pace to resist a potential Norris comeback, they opted for the most obvious, but also most effective, decision, which was to immediately recall Verstappen. In reality, on paper the Woking strategists could have anticipated and done something similar: undoubtedly Lando would have ended up behind Russell again, but he would still have finished ahead of Hamilton and Sainz, the most critical aspect.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
McLaren, on the other hand, was enticed by Norris’ excellent times in clean air, preferring to stay on the track and extend the first stint with the new soft tire. A partly understandable choice, the one that many strategists would make, but in scenarios like these a central issue always arises: how much to concede to rivals and how much to extend to create offsets. A delicate, thorny topic, especially due to the consequences.
The Briton was the penultimate to make his first pit stop, followed on the following lap by Charles Leclerc, with a strategy which, basically, presents the same critical issues for the Ferrari driver too. In those six extra laps covered on the new soft compared to Verstappen, Norris’ gap increased from just under five seconds to almost sixteen seconds, with the aggravating circumstance that the Woking team driver then had to extricate himself from traffic.
Of course, the 7/8 laps less rubber compared to the Sainz/Hamilton/Russell trio also helped to find the overtaking quite quickly, but to find themselves in that window in which they could have stopped at the first stop, i.e. between the two Mercedes , the Englishman took nine laps. This gave Verstappen plenty of time to manage the lead while also allowing himself the chance to lose several seconds. In essence, part of the gain obtained by Norris by extending the first stint was then lost in the fact that he still had to move up the rankings. In fact, the overtaking on Russell came with around 30 laps to go, but at that point the gap to the leader was still more than nine seconds, not exactly an easy mountain to climb.
Precisely that margin was Red Bull’s fundamental tool in playing the cards that then allowed it to win the Grand Prix. Once in free air, Norris began to lower his times by around 7/8 tenths, demonstrating that there was very important untapped potential. Once again, Red Bull read the situation very well, starting to improve its times in turn, but without too much of a sudden break, so as to be able to lengthen the stint and mount the soft for the finale. It was in fact clear from the start that the choice of the Milton Keynes team would be to fit the softer compound for the final, given that it had chosen to exploit the set of softs used at the start of the race, keeping the new set for the stint conclusive.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
This allowed Norris to take advantage of those six extra laps of tire life to get closer, but only managed to halve the gap, effectively the same disadvantage recorded when Verstappen stopped for his first stop. It is also in these details that we notice the reactivity and excellent reading of Red Bull, which found the ideal moment of the pit stop with two effects: on the one hand it did not return too early, which would have compromised the final stint, on the Once again it put Max in a position to find himself with a safety margin when returning to the track.
If in the first part of the race Norris had created a tire delta of six laps, for the last stint the offset was halved, because McLaren called its driver back to the pits only three laps after the Dutchman. A gap that was certainly useful on a track like that of Barcelona, which is very aggressive on the tyres, but which certainly would not have upset the race, opening up the fight more to the qualities of the respective cars in terms of pure pace and tire management.
Basically, the Woking team followed the tactic that it considered most useful and effective, also taking into account its track position, but in the comparison with Red Bull it was never able to obtain a real advantage, opting for a middle ground that did not played a key role on a strategic level. Of course, the tactical opportunities were limited, but potentially McLaren could have played the race differently, given that in terms of pace he seemed to have something more available. Added to this were two not exactly exceptional pit stops, where other crucial tenths were lost.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro
Looking at the data from the last stint, in fact, we can see that even when Verstappen was told to push hard, given that Norris wasn’t doing any particular management, the three-time world champion’s times actually dropped , but the MCL38 still proved to be much more effective with just three laps of offset, recovering six seconds in less than twenty passes.
On Sunday in Spain, the value of the car was felt, as the times demonstrate, with a McLaren proving to probably have something more than Red Bull. However, in a race like this, there were two elements that made an even more important difference: team and driver and, on this, the Milton Keynes team demonstrated that overall it was still one step ahead of its rivals, with excellent management of impeccable track. In the last 4 Grands Prix there have been three triumphs resulting precisely from this strength and this skill in exploiting the mistakes of the opponents. To beat Red Bull you don’t need (just) the car.
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