Tag: Spanish GP

Leclerc to start Spanish Grand Prix from pit lane

Charles Leclerc will start the Spanish Grand Prix from the pit lane as Ferrari will make changes to his car following his issues in qualifying. Leclerc was eliminated in Q1 after telling the team it felt like something was wrong with the rear of his …

Charles Leclerc will start the Spanish Grand Prix from the pit lane as Ferrari will make changes to his car following his issues in qualifying.

Leclerc was eliminated in Q1 after telling the team it felt like something was wrong with the rear of his car, admitting he wasn’t surprised at the lack of performance on Saturday. Ferrari was unable to investigate if there was any root cause thoroughly prior to the race so performance engineer Jock Clear says the gearbox and other components on the rear end will be changed to give Leclerc a better chance of recovering through the field in Barcelona.

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“Obviously qualifying on the back row has given us the unfortunate opportunity to look at a lot of things and consider he was really uncomfortable with the car straightaway in qualifying, and had no confidence in the car,” Clear said. “So we’ve taken the opportunity to change the gearbox. That’s effectively all the backend, really to make sure that there’s nothing on there that is untoward.

“We’ve not had an opportunity to look at it yet, because time doesn’t allow you to do that with parc ferme as it is. In fact we haven’t even changed the gearbox yet, we’re in the process. But that will go back to the factory and we’ll check it.

“The thing for him this afternoon is he’ll have a new back end on the car, so that should give him confidence again that whatever might have been in there that wasn’t quite sorted is now sorted, completely new backend, and as such, he will have to start from the pit lane. But he can do that with some confidence, and we can hopefully get him back in the points.”

Clear also says power unit components could be changed ahead of the race, but that other parts that will be of different specification or set-up are the reason for the pit lane start rather than 19th on the grid.

“We’ve taken the opportunity to make some changes. Once we’re at the back, we might as well do everything we can do to minimize the cost of qualifying badly, and take any advantages we can from yesterday’s upset, really. So we’re taking the choice to go from the pit lane.”

Leclerc technically doesn’t lose a position as Logan Sargeant – who qualified 20th – also starts form the pit lane after making similar suspension set-up changes as well as to the Williams brake cooling.

Norris shocked by top three, Verstappen less so

Lando Norris admitted he was shocked to be in the top three in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, after only being edged out for a spot alongside Max Verstappen on the front row by Carlos Sainz. Verstappen dominated qualifying and was …

Lando Norris admitted he was shocked to be in the top three in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, after only being edged out for a spot alongside Max Verstappen on the front row by Carlos Sainz.

Verstappen dominated qualifying and was comfortably quickest after the first run of Q3, but it was Norris who was second at that stage after an impressive lap. With a number of drivers improving on their second attempt, Norris found more time but lost out to Sainz by 0.058s, yet was still unsure why the McLaren was so quick.

“I have no idea — I am surprised to be here!” Norris said. “Amazing job, P3. I lost P2, but it’s a home race for Carlos so I thought I would give him a couple of tenths, you know? Very happy. P3, it’s nice. The whole of qualifying we were quite quick, so all good.

“I think after FP1, we said it was probably one of our worst FP1s of the season, in terms of pace. So to be sat here today, I think it’s quite a big surprise for all of us. I think (with) the cooler conditions, things just started to come our way a little bit. It just feels a bit odd. I definitely wasn’t thinking at all to be in the top three today. But I’m very happy to be here. So, good day.”

With teammate Oscar Piastri also reaching Q3, the McLaren is competitive in Barcelona but Norris does not expect to be able to try and hold onto a top-three position in the race.

“You never know, the pace could be mega and I could catch Max and overtake him. Hopefully he doesn’t hold me up like in Monaco — but we’ll see. It’s a new day, like we didn’t expect to be as good today as we were and we’re on the clean side of the grid. I let (Sainz) have this one because I want to make it out of the track alive tonight. So we’ll do our best for tomorrow but the aim is just to get some good points for both myself and for Oscar.”

If Norris was surprised, polesitter Verstappen was merely satisfied to have matched his expectations.

“I mean, I am where I expected to be, going into this weekend,” Verstappen said. “And, to be honest, I also expected Carlos to be there. I just didn’t expect Lando to be there, but that’s a good surprise. Well, no, sorry — I didn’t expect McLaren to be there! I always expect Lando to be high up. The Alpine looks good but they have been lately improving quite a bit. So, for me, there are no real big shocks, I would say.”

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Still, Verstappen’s own performance was one he was proud of, having been set to extend his half-second advantage before aborting his final run.

“The whole weekend it has been really enjoyable to drive the car, it was really hooked up. Of course you always try to find little improvements on the car but, yeah, it’s been really good. Qualifying started off a little bit tricky –you needed to be on the track at the right time, not making mistakes, but we did that.

“Going into Q3 I knew there was quite a bit of potential left in the car, so I could finally push it to the limit in that first run and the car was really quick. Then, of course, we went out again for the second run and that would have been even better. But, yeah, I think GP (Lambiese, race engineer) got a bit excited! He told me to abort.”

Gasly hit with two grid penalties for impeding in Spanish GP qualifying

Pierre Gasly has lost fourth place on the grid for the Spanish Grand Prix after receiving two three-place penalties for impeding Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen in separate incidents. Both Ferrari drivers were approaching Gasly on a timed lap in the …

Pierre Gasly has lost fourth place on the grid for the Spanish Grand Prix after receiving two three-place penalties for impeding Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen in separate incidents.

Both Ferrari drivers were approaching Gasly on a timed lap in the final sector in Q1, with the Frenchman moving over for Charles Leclerc before Turn 13 but then accelerating through the penultimate corner in front of Sainz. Although Gasly then moved out of the way again, it came after Sainz had lifted mid-corner and the stewards handed out a three-place grid penalty.

“The driver of Car 10 stated he was aware that the second Ferrari (Car 55) was behind but felt he could do nothing to avoid impeding because of the high-speed delta and closeness of Car 55 to Car 16,” the decision read. “However, it is the view of the stewards that he could have moved further to the right at the exit of Turn 13.”

Later in the same session, Gasly was caught in the way of Verstappen — this time at Turn 4 — when he didn’t move off the racing line having not been told that the Red Bull was on a timed lap.

“The team failed to give appropriate warning to the driver of Car 10, of the approach of Car 1, having told him that cars behind were on a slow lap,” the stewards noted.

The two penalties demote Gasly from fourth to 10th on the grid and promote Lewis Hamilton, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri in turn. There are no penalty points associated with the punishment, with Gasly still holding eight on his license for the 12-month period, with the limit of 12 automatically triggering a one-race ban.

‘Definitely something strange’ with car in Leclerc’s P19 qualifying effort

Charles Leclerc is confident Ferrari will find a problem with his car after dropping out in the first part of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. On a damp but largely dry track, Leclerc was struggling throughout Q1 and was unable to progress …

Charles Leclerc is confident Ferrari will find a problem with his car after dropping out in the first part of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

On a damp but largely dry track, Leclerc was struggling throughout Q1 and was unable to progress despite using two new sets of soft tires to try and get out of trouble. After his first run, the Ferrari driver had told the team there was something wrong with the rear of his car, and although nothing was identified on the data at the time, Leclerc is still sure a source to his woes will be found before he lines up on the back row on Sunday.

“I don’t have the answer right now. We will have to check the data and most of all check the car because there was definitely something strange,” Leclerc said. “I nearly lost it during the red flag and I was at 70 km/h and there was just no warning.

“The left-hand corners were really, really bad with the rear right and I first thought it was the tires, so we went with a new set of tires and on the new set of tires it was the same feeling – right-hand corners really good, left-hand corners completely off. We will have to check, but I would be very surprised if we don’t find something on the car.”

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Leclerc says there were some changes made after FP3 but doesn’t believe they had an impact, nor does he blame being called to the weighbridge late in Q1 as contributing to his early exit.

“A tiny bit (was changed before qualifying), but as you always do. This is not the reason. It was not a setup thing. The setup was just a slight change and this was way too much of a difference from the left-hand corners to the right-hand.

“To be honest I don’t think (the weighbridge) would have made it any better. We were just completely slow and I was not even that surprised when they told me I was out of Q1.”

Starting 19th, the Monegasque is also unsure how much progress he’ll be able to make in the race, despite his teammate Carlos Sainz securing a spot on the front row.

“It’s going to be an uphill weekend, to be honest. On the other hand, it’s a track where we will see quite a few stops — degradation is going to be a big thing tomorrow — so if we do a good job on that we are going to improve our chances.

“For tire deg yesterday our race pace looked a little bit better than normal, apart from Red Bull which is in a league of their own. But let’s wait and see for tomorrow, because yesterday we didn’t know the fuel level of everybody, so it is very difficult to compare.”

Alonso hopeful for Spanish GP success despite qualifying mistake

A rare qualifying error from Fernando Alonso leaves the Aston Martin driver starting from ninth on the grid at the Spanish Grand Prix after damaging his car. Running wide out of the final corner in Q1 and bouncing through the gravel, Alonso …

A rare qualifying error from Fernando Alonso leaves the Aston Martin driver starting from ninth on the grid at the Spanish Grand Prix after damaging his car.

Running wide out of the final corner in Q1 and bouncing through the gravel, Alonso suffering damage to the floor that he had to carry for the rest of the session. The Spaniard said it was a frustrating error as he wasn’t even on a flying lap at the time — having just changed a setting on the steering wheel — and took full responsibility.

“Yeah, Q1 probably did compromise everything today,” Alonso said. “I did a mistake — I went on the damp part of the circuit, I guess, in the last corner as I lost the car and it was very costly as that gravel completely destroyed the floor.

“It hurts even more because it was the out lap — I was not even pushing…so (disappointed) with my performance today, so hopefully I can do a better Sunday.”

Alonso says he could feel the loss of downforce for the rest of the session but is still confident he can move forward from ninth place in the race.

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“The car was moving…but you never know if it’s just the wind or track conditions. It was a strange qualifying to see (Charles) Leclerc out of Q1 and (Sergio) Perez, (George) Russell out of Q2. We were struggling as well; it was tricky for everyone. But in my case it was just my mistake in the out lap of Q1, so that compromises everything.

“But the race is tomorrow. We are competitive even with some damage on the floor, so if you put everything together for tomorrow, still optimistic we can score many points.”

With Carlos Sainz second and Lando Norris third on the grid behind Max Verstappen, Alonso believes he could have secured a spot on the front row even with the damage he had sustained.

“P2. Probably even with the floor as it was, because on the Q3 lap I was coming for a (1m)12.7s to Turn 10, but again I ran wide into the damp part in Turn 10 on the outside, so when I saw now that 12.7s is P2 and P3 I was surprised. But that’s why I’m optimistic for tomorrow, as the car seems to have a lot of pace.”

Hamilton collision ‘a massive miscommunication’ – Russell

George Russell says a “massive miscommunication” was to blame for his collision with Lewis Hamilton on the pit straight during qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix. Hamilton was on the racing line starting a timed lap when Russell pulled to the …

George Russell says a “massive miscommunication” was to blame for his collision with Lewis Hamilton on the pit straight during qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton was on the racing line starting a timed lap when Russell pulled to the right to pick up the slipstream from Carlos Sainz on the run to Turn 1, but Russell then moved back across to the racing line to pass the Ferrari. With Hamilton already alongside, the pair touched and Hamilton lost part of his front wing. Russell says he was unaware his teammate had approached so quickly.

“Just a massive miscommunication,” Russell said. “I was looking ahead trying to get the slipstream from Carlos, and next thing Lewis was there. So, we need to talk internally how that happened because two teammates, that should never happen. It wasn’t either one’s fault; Lewis probably just didn’t know I was starting a lap too.”

Russell had needed to back off and start a lap again at that point and ended up dropping out of qualifying in 12th place, saying he was really struggling to get the Mercedes working on a low temperature and greasy track surface.

“Well, the car wasn’t feeling OK every single lap of the session — we made some small changes from FP3 to qualifying; the car was bouncing a lot in the high-speed corners. The corners that were easy flat during practice, I couldn’t take flat, couldn’t get the tires working.

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“It kind of all went wrong — from the first lap in Q1 I knew we weren’t going to be having a good day. It was strange, we should be capitalizing from conditions like that, and we usually do, as a team we’re usually good when it’s challenging, but today, on my side, it wasn’t there.

“I think it was pretty telling the first lap in Q1, (Nico) Hulkenberg P1, 1.5s quicker than what we could achieve. I was trying all sorts with the out-lap, all sorts with pressures, probably just got ourselves a bit lost and confused.

“The second change we made into quali definitely was directionally wrong for those cold, damp, greasy conditions. Which is a shame, especially as I think we have a fast race car. In FP2 we probably had the second-quickest car after Max (Verstappen) ahead of the Ferraris.”

Despite the frustrating day, Russell believes he can make progress in the race as the Mercedes showed encouraging race pace on Friday.

“Not all is lost, just need to be patient tomorrow and try and come back through,” he mused. “Yeah, definitely more hopeful, unless we have any incidents we should move forwards; but as I said, just a bit disappointed we are where we are.”

Verstappen comfortably on pole in Spain as rivals falter

Max Verstappen dominated the fight for pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix after Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and George Russell all failed to make it through to Q3. Verstappen has been peerless all weekend at a circuit that has accentuated his …

Max Verstappen dominated the fight for pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix after Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and George Russell all failed to make it through to Q3.

Verstappen has been peerless all weekend at a circuit that has accentuated his Red Bull Racing car’s strongest qualities. The Dutchman was so good in qualifying that he didn’t bother to complete his final flying lap despite setting a purple middle sector. He still ended the day with a half-second advantage. After the first runs he had been 0.924s ahead of the pack.

“The car was really good,” he said after clocking 1m 12.272s for pole. “The car was on rails and was really enjoyable to drive today.

“I love coming to Barcelona in general. I love the track … I have a lot of great memories here, and hopefully tomorrow we can add another one.”

Sainz emerged as the next-best driver, albeit he was still 0.462s off pole. The Ferrari driver said he’d done his maximum to beat his upper-midfield rivals, with the top eight behind Verstappen split by just 0.495s.

“Today I felt like I was driving very well,” he said. “It’s always one tenth here, one tenth there, but I was pushing everything.

“I didn’t leave anything on the table today. I was pushing flat out.”

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Lando Norris was a shock third for McLaren, the Briton just 0.058s slower than Sainz ahead of him.

“I’m surprised to be here,” he said. “Amazing job. P3, almost P2. It was nice. The whole qualifying we were quick.”

Pierre Gasly was fourth for Alpine, pipping Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton by just 0.002s.

Lance Stroll was sixth, beating Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso in qualifying for the first time this season after the Spaniard made a mistake at Turn 10 on his way to ninth on the grid.

Between them slotted Esteban Ocon and an excellent Nico Hulkenberg in seventh and eighth, while Oscar Piastri completed the top 10 after finding only 0.1s with his final lap.

Q1 and Q2 were full of surprises, with a slippery track from afternoon showers making conditions tricky for drivers.

Leclerc, the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix polesitter, became the circuit’s first of three major scalps when he was eliminated in 19th after suffering problems with his rear axle. The Monegasque complained that “something is wrong with my rears” after his first flying lap, and his final attempt was delayed by a call to the weighbridge.

He was able to get back out for a last-gasp lap, but there wasn’t time to diagnose the problem, Leclerc’s final lap lacked 0.205s to Q2, and he dropped to 19th at the end of the segment.

Perez had come perilously close to being knocked out in the same session when he scraped through to Q2 in 15th, but he would go no further after a scruffy second segment. He wasn’t fast enough with his first run and ran wide and through the gravel at Turn 5 with his second flying lap, and his final attempt wasn’t fast enough to make the top 10. He qualified 11th, missing out on a Q3 berth by 0.051s.

Russell was then eliminated in 12th in bizarre fashion after crashing with teammate Hamilton. Both cars met partway down the front straight on fast laps when the younger Briton appeared to push his older compatriot towards the left-hand barrier in a clumsy attempt to avoid Carlos Sainz travelling slowly on his right-hand side.

Hamilton lost a front-wing endplate but already had a time good enough for Q3, but Russell couldn’t string together a fast enough lap after the contact to make it through, leaving him 12th.

Zhou Guanyu was an impressive 13th ahead of AlphaTauri teammates Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda.

Valtteri Bottas will start 16th ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon.

The dejected Leclerc will line up 19th ahead of only American rookie Logan Sargeant, who was more than 0.6s off the back of the pack in his Williams.

Verstappen sweeps practice after quiet FP3

Max Verstappen completed a clean sweep of Spanish grand prix practice after a rain-affected final practice session in Barcelona. Dark clouds rolled over the circuit and lightning was striking in the distance as FP3 went green, and drivers were …

Max Verstappen completed a clean sweep of Spanish grand prix practice after a rain-affected final practice session in Barcelona.

Dark clouds rolled over the circuit and lightning was striking in the distance as FP3 went green, and drivers were queued at the end of the pit lane on slick tires in a bid to validate overnight set-up changes before the forecast rain arrived.

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Verstappen quickly rocketed to the top of the time sheet with a lap of 1m 13.664, and teammate Sergio Perez followed 0.25s further back, but the session was halted after just eight minutes when Logan Sargeant crashed his Williams at the final corner.

The American rookie tried to carry too much speed into the turn when the rear of his car snapped from under him, sending him sliding across the gravel and sideways into the barrier.

The crash caused a 10-minute red flag to collect the car, during which time heavy drops of rain began to pelt the track. It wasn’t enough to soak the circuit, but it put it awkwardly between slick and intermediate tires, which deterred drivers from rejoining the session.

Lando Norris was the only driver in the 15 minutes after the session resumed to sample conditions on intermediates, but he returned to pit lane at the end of the lap.

It wasn’t until Ferrari teammates Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc followed a few minutes later that the rest of the field was coaxed out of their garages for the final 15 minutes, and in the last five minutes most drivers switched back to slicks.

Some were reluctant, however. Verstappen radioed that he didn’t “really feel comfortable pushing in these conditions”, describing it as “a waste” given the conditions. He set only one token lap on softs to ensure he could execute a practice start on the grid at the end of the session.

The Dutchman had a point, with no driver able to improve their times on the slippery track. It meant the order was from the start of the session when the checkered flag flew.

Lewis Hamilton was third quickest behind the Red Bull drivers and 0.408s slower than the session-topping Verstappen, with Carlos Sainz next just over half a second adrift.

Fernando Alonso finished fifth ahead of George Russell and Charles Leclerc to complete the frontrunning pack.

Valtteri Bottas beat Yuki Tsunoda to eighth, while Norris finished 10th.

Zhou Guanyu was 11th – he ended the hour frustrated to be blocked by a Haas car in the final minute – ahead of Nyck de Vries.

Lance Stroll was the only driver other than Sargeant to run off track, understeering into the stones at Turn 5, after which he was recalled to his garage to check for damage to the floor.

Nico Hulkenberg was 14th ahead of Piastri and Esteban Ocon, who was one of only two drivers not to have a chance to set their fastest time on softs, the other being Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly down in 18th.

Kevin Magnussen was between them in 17th, while Williams teammates Alex Albon and Sargeant finished at the back of the pack in 19th and 20th.

Hamilton fears he’s facing Q2 exit if Mercedes can’t find speed

Lewis Hamilton believes he will need to find a step forward with his Mercedes overnight or he could struggle to reach Q3 in qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix. Mercedes was able to gather data relating to its upgraded car during Friday’s two …

Lewis Hamilton believes he will need to find a step forward with his Mercedes overnight or he could struggle to reach Q3 in qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Mercedes was able to gather data relating to its upgraded car during Friday’s two practice sessions but Hamilton ended up 11th overall, over 0.6s off the pace of Max Verstappen and behind the likes of Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas. With teammate George Russell only around 0.15s quicker in eighth, Hamilton believes it’ll be tough for both drivers to reach Q3 if Mercedes doesn’t make improvements.

“I think from the pace that I had today it’s a struggle for me currently to get into the top 10, but hopefully we’ll do some changes overnight,” Hamilton said. “I think it’s very, very close between us and that middle bit, after P5 back to kind of P10. It’s really close between us all.

“It’s impressive to see the improvements that everyone seems to have made all around us. You look at (Esteban) Ocon — the Alpines are doing great, you saw the Aston Martin was second just right behind the Red Bull which is really, really impressive. So it’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure.”

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Although a number of changes were made to the Mercedes in Monaco, Hamilton hints there are still familiar characteristics relating to the car’s limitations.

“Yeah, it’s OK. I mean, we’re fighting as hard as we can. I would say it was a difficult FP1 and FP2, just getting on top of the tires and the deg. The car feels like the car.

“It’s so different from last week, of course. I think the long-run pace didn’t look terrible, and we’ve just got to work on trying to figure out how we can extract more over a single lap.”

Hamilton was a fan of of the new track layout, however, with the chicane in the final sector removed.

“Ah, it’s awesome! It’s very fast. I definitely prefer it to the small chicane that we had in the past. It’s much more fun. I’ve not followed anyone through there so I don’t know how that’s going to be in the race, but definitely going to make it tough on deg.”

For Russell, the underwhelming start to the weekend is no cause for concern given what he believes is a Mercedes’ tendency to become more competitive as a weekend progresses.

“I think firstly it was fun to drive around this new version of the Barcelona circuit,” Russell. “It’s gone from one of the worst corners in Formula 1 to one of the best corners in Formula 1. So that’s really enjoyable.

“It’s only Friday so we’ve not learned a huge amount, but we will dig into the data tonight. We know that we are not Friday specialists and we often take a step forward on Saturday and Sunday, which is the right way round for it to be. But we are where we are. A lot of people are bringing updates to their cars and we weren’t expecting to be setting the world on fire. We just need to learn what we can from the info we have and try to move forward tomorrow.”

F1 technical updates: 2023 Spanish Grand Prix

Ferrari and Aston Martin have brought the most significant updates ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix. Delaying the introduction of certain parts from the the cancelled race in Imola, Ferrari has brought a new floor and sidepod solution that work …

Ferrari and Aston Martin have brought the most significant updates ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Delaying the introduction of certain parts from the the cancelled race in Imola, Ferrari has brought a new floor and sidepod solution that work together with the aim of improving efficiency and overall load. There’s also an updated rear wing design that is circuit-specific.

Aston Martin has the largest list of upgrades to test on Friday, with a new front wing — including endplate changes — and associated nose tweaks, as well as an updated rear wing endplate and beam wing.

New floor edge for the Red Bull RB19 in Barcelona. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Rear of the new floor edge for the Red Bull RB19 in Barcelona. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images 

Red Bull brings a new floor edge and diffuser to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, while Mercedes has removed a mirror vane on its sidepod inlet as well as a diffuser update.

McLaren has a minor change to its front brake ducts, while AlphaTauri has a new rear wing and rear wing endplate design, and Williams has circuit-specific changes to its front wing and engine cover cooling layout.

Alpine, Alfa Romeo and Haas have not submitted any new parts to the FIA to run this weekend in Spain, but all teams will have two sets of Pirelli’s new slick tire compound — set to be introduced at Silverstone — to test on Friday.