F1. Spain 2023 review

Driver of the day

Dewi – Let’s get the boring answer out of the way, because in truth there is only one correct answer here – Max Verstappen, no question. But if we just pretend he wasn’t 20 seconds up the road… I’d go with Zhou. I think he got extremely lucky with the Tsunoda penalty, but overall I feel it was the Chinese driver’s best outing yet in Formula 1. He came into the weekend saying he loves fast flowing tracks, and he backed it up. I fancy his chances at another best result in Austria.

Chelsea – George Russell. It was refreshing to see a strong performance from the Silver Arrows, and Russell climbing from a starting position of 12th to finish on the podium was solid work indeed. Is this an anomaly due to the favourable chilly climes of Spain, or a sign of changing tides for Mercedes? I vote the latter, but I’m a notorious optimist.

Aiden – Once Max Verstappen emerged from the first chicane in front, it was, barring reliability or a complete strategic meltdown, obvious who was going to win; but that’s not his fault. He led every lap, took the fastest lap, looked to have more performance up his sleeve in need and is now, with the help of an amazing car, looking in the best form of his career. He is making it look easy, and it really isn’t – just see the fluctuations of team-mate Sergio Perez on the other side of the Red Bull garage. An honourable mention for Zhou Guanyu who battled hard all day; he made up three places by turn three on the first lap, had an entertaining battle with Nico Hulkenberg and finished tenth (later promoted to ninth). There has been to and fro between him and Alfa Romeo teammate Valtteri Bottas all season which has been great to see.

Gavin – Even though he kept exceeding track limits, Max Verstappen did not put a foot wrong all weekend long. He started the race on a different tyre strategy to all the top runners and kept building on his lead, so much so that he could pit under no pressure to keep his place at the front of the pack, all the while setting the fastest lap just to really rub it in. I keep saying it, we are witnessing mastery, think Michael Shumacher at Ferrari, and not so long ago Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. If he stays in the sport with a competitive car he can achieve anything he sets his sights on.

Moment of the weekend

Dewi – When Verstappen asked his engineer what the fastest lap was, and was told to not worry about it because it was set by his teammate on the first lap of fresh soft tyres, and when Perez had DRS – aka you won’t be able to top it, so don’t bother trying. Verstappen was also facing a time penalty if he crossed the white track limits line again (not that it would have mattered) but he proceeded to ignore the team, and launch into a flawless lap that was three tenths quicker than Perez. The gap between Max and the field is frightening.

Chelsea – That glancing touch between Norris and Hamilton on the first lap effectively undid Norris’ stellar work in qualifying. Norris was forced to pit for a new front wing and quickly dropped out of points contention after starting on the second row. Nobody expected the McLaren to end up on the podium, but it would have been nice to see Norris scrapping about for a bit longer.

Aiden – This Lando Norris fan would love to say it was when the Englishman qualified third, but unfortunately the front-wing damage he suffered on the first lap, after making contact with Lewis Hamilton, was the start of an afternoon to forget. The collision forced him to pit, and his race was ruined before he began. I don’t believe he would have finished on the podium, but if Norris had avoided that contact, then I think we would have seen an entertaining afternoon between him and other drivers battling for points, but it wasn’t to be.

Gavin – With no rain (no George Russell, sweat does not count) or safety cars there was little excitement in the race. For me the moment that could have changed the whole weekend was George and Lewis Hamilton coming together near the end of Q2. George was at fault, the engineers should have told him Lewis was coming up behind him, and Lewis was not holding back over the radio. That they both ended on the podium twenty-four hours later shows you how fine these margins are.

Hot take of the weekend

Dewi – Mercedes are back. You could argue the characteristics of one track isn’t much to go off, but Barcelona is a pretty solid barometer for the majority of tracks for the remainder of the season. I’m picking Mercedes to be well and truly in the mix for P2 in the constructor’s championship, likely favourites, and are looking increasingly likely to pick up a win this season. Statistics alone should see Max have one “off” weekend, and Mercedes look like the best to pounce.

Chelsea – I love Yuki Tsunoda. He’s a little firecracker, and like firecrackers he shows flashes of brilliance, looks amazing, but occasionally ends up in places he shouldn’t. This week he made a series of impressive overtakes to end up in the points, only to be penalised for forcing Zhou Guanyu off track and being relegated to 12th. He’s one of my favourite drivers to keep an eye on in the midfield because he’s always up to something.

Aiden – Is it time to impose points deductions rather than other penalties, for certain things that happen in F1? Charles Leclerc was due to start 19th on the grid, but after deciding to fit a new gearbox and other new parts, he then started from the pitlane – hardly a massive disadvantage compared to where he was going to be. Even his performance engineer Jock Clear said “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 straight away in qualifying and had no confidence in the car. So we’ve taken the opportunity to change the gearbox.” Maybe taking away some drivers/constructors points would take away the ability to play the hand you’re dealt that little bit better? Or maybe no-one really cares enough…

Gavin – Mercedes had a massive turnaround with both drivers on the podium despite not actually having a great weekend – they had their struggles like everyone except Max. Mercedes are good at Barcelona though, as evidenced last year when they thought their porpoising troubles were behind them and then two weeks later in Canada they had regressed. Did I mention Canada is the next race?

Cold take of the weekend

Dewi – This is probably a second hot take to be honest, but Charles Leclerc needs to ditch Ferrari. Reports have come out that the Scudderia tried, came close to, but ultimately failed in their attempts to poach Christian Horner and Adrian Newey from Red Bull. Leclerc’s frustration with the pitwall is now becoming a regular occurrence, and a clean break could be what he needs to really get his career to progress. Obvious question, where does he go? Considering he’s contracted until the end of 2024, let’s look at 2025 options – there could be a top race seat going at Red Bull (Perez, unlikely) and Mercedes (Russell has just extended, but Hamilton’s seat could be up for debate depending how long he extends for). The absolute spanner in the works, Alfa Romeo (Sauber)  will eventually become an Audi outfit by 2025, with a lot of money available to make a big splash. If this season continues as it’s going, and next year isn’t any better, rolling the dice might be a very attractive option for the Monegasque…

Chelsea – Look, I’m old, but I’m just about done with hearing the teams describe races and performances as ‘mega’. Christian, you are a 49-year-old man who rears chickens in Oxfordshire. Nobody’s going to hate you for leaning into it.

Aiden – Is interest in F1 currently bulletproof? The sport has ridden such a wave over recent years, with Drive to Survive at the forefront – we all know Max Verstappen and Red Bull are going to win their championships this year (it’s just a case of when) yet despite that dominance, the buzz around F1 seems undeterred. When does the scale tip; would it be another year of their dominance, or does the new breed of fan not care enough to make it a factor? Only time will tell, but no-one seems too worried – yet.

Gavin – All the teams seemed to have suffered with one, or two cars being out of sorts either in qualifying, or the race, or both. Ferrari, McLaren, Aston Martin. Could it have been the weather with colder conditions working against the tyres and therefore the performance – though this does not explain how Max can be so dominant whereas Sergio is so out of sorts. Both Aston Martins, relative to recent performance, had a weekend to forget when there was so much hype about Alonso, it being Spain and all.

Discussion point : Car Upgrades

Upgrading the car during the season is part of the F1 process. What have we seen, or not seen?

Dewi – It’s a tough one to gauge specifically how the individual upgrades have gone so far, because some were impacted by the cancellation of the Imola GP and so got an unrepresentative outing at Monaco, but if we broadly look at the development race and the forwards steps taken by teams, the main conclusions are unsurprising – Mercedes and Red Bull are leading the charge. The frustrating thing for Mercedes (and neutral) fans, is all the wasted development time devoted to the initial car concept which has now been ditched entirely. Imagine where they’d be if they’d had another year and a half working on the right concept! Despite having more wind tunnel time at their disposal (by finishing farther down the standings in 2022) I think we’re seeing the difference in engineering capability at Aston Martin compared to Red Bull and Mercedes. Ferrari? I don’t even want to go there…

Aiden – After the cancellation of Imola and the limited nature of the Monaco track, it was a good opportunity to see how the car upgrades are taking shape. The Mercedes sidepod upgrade started well with a double podium (oh, to have their time again and go down a different design route) although Ferrari’s similar upgrade didn’t have the same impact. Interestingly, Ferrari acknowledge Barcelona as possibly their worst circuit, so perhaps they weren’t expecting as much as the rest of us. Maybe the biggest concern is for Aston Martin. With Hamilton and Russell in sync, they not only need Alonso to keep getting those podium places, but Stroll to be more consistent. Will their upgrades allow that or will a fight for second in the constructors championship turn into a fight for third with Mercedes securing the runner up spot with relative ease?

Gavin – This year most teams were targeting Imola for their upgrades, unfortunately the weather had other plans and the race had to be cancelled. Next up was Monaco where the teams would not be able to assess any upgrades due to the nature of the track, so Barcelona it is then. This is a track that is used for testing so the drivers and teams know what they are going to get and therefore the perfect track for an upgrade assessment.

• Red Bull don’t need upgrades though Perez might disagree. Does anyone even know if they even bothered changing anything?
• Mercedes introduced their upgrades to change their whole car design philosophy and reaped the rewards, albeit with the caveat of it being a track Mercedes traditionally do well at. Canada will be telling.
• Aston Martin arrived with a new front wing, only for Alonso to ruin his qualifying by making an uncharacteristic mistake and ruining his floor. They say it was a one off bad weekend and are going to “crush” the opposition in Canada and I am sure we will see an improvement in the home country of the Stroll family.
• Ferrari upgrades did not work, though they are never as competitive in Barcelona as other tracks. A third of the way through the season and it looks like they will be writing the year off and aiming to do better next year. Sainz had a steady race but did not have the pace to compete with Mercedes or Red Bull. Leclerc had a weekend to forget, even with fresh tyres he could hardly even muster a fight with the cars around him at the back of the grid.
• McLaren looked to be having a good weekend when Lando Norris qualified third, but come the opening lap and an incident with Lewis and suddenly the McLaren was at the back of the pack again and the opportunities were gone.
• Alfa Romeo had a mixed weekend, the car is average but with Valteri Bottas out in Q1 and Zhou Guanyu starting thirteenth it was looking like another average weekend. Zhou ended ninth having had, in his words, one of his best F1 drives, so something is suddenly working on that car.