[Official] Spanish Grand Prix 2016: Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[Born Racer]

The Spanish Grand Prix heralds the arrival in Formula 1's homeland of Europe. Despite the proliferation of many new tracks in recent years from around the globe, the continent is still vitally important to the sport, as the teams are based there and so are a vast amount of the fans. Moreover, with updates starting to be introduced on the cars, there is also the sense that after the initial flyaways, the teams are now going to have a true sense of where they're at. And in a series now with highly limited testing, arriving at an aero-critical track like the Circuit de Barcelona is the acid test.

It is a track that the teams know inside out, as it is where the bulk of the testing is done (8 days so far this year). For this reason, it tends to produce Noah's Ark grids – with the teams lining their cars up two by two on the grid because the team can easier extract the maximum out of both cars than at some circuits. Since 1991, the Spanish Grand Prix has been held at this circuit, which is outside the Catalunyan city. Although Formula 1 didn't get a foothold in the general public's imagination for a long time, the success of Fernando Alonso changed that and now you can expect to see packed grandstands.

Even before Alonso competed, Grand Prix racing had a long history in Spain. The first such race took place in 1913, although it was run to touring car rules rather than the typical Grand Prix ones, on a road circuit in Guadarrama, near Madrid. Motor racing had taken place prior to that, though, with the Catalan cup being held in 1908 and 1909 in Sitges, near Barcelona. A 2-kilometre steeply-banked oval was later built in Sitges and the 1923 Spanish Grand Prix was held there. I have walked around this oval and it is a sight to behold and extremely difficult to climb up the banking, such is its gradient. When you see the logos in the pit garages, you can detect the ghosts of the motorsport of old.

Financial difficulties at Sitges meant that the race moved to Lasarte, creating the San Sebastián Grand Prix in 1926. The event was constantly dogged by troubles though, with the Wall Street Crash, political and financial problems and finally the Civil Wall bringing racing to an end there after the 1935 event.

In 1951, a year after the creation of the Formula 1 World Championship, the Grand Prix returned in the form of a street track in Pedralbes, situated in the Les Corts district of Barcelona, which Juan Manuel Fangio won in an Alfa Romeo. The only other event there was in 1954, before the Grand Prix returned to the world championship in 1968 in Jarama, north of Madrid, since which point the Grand Prix has been a mainstay of the calendar (apart from 1982 to 1985 when there was no Spanish race).

From 1968 to 1975, the Spanish Grand Prix would alternate between Jarama and beautiful Montjuïc, a street circuit in Barcelona. They were two highly contrasting circuits, Jarama tight and twisting and Montjuïc fast and open. It was a pity to see the back of Montjuïc, but it was understandable after the appalling events of 1975, during which Rolf Stommelen crashed his Hill when his rear wing broke and went into barriers which had possibly not been bolted together properly. The drivers had protested before the race about the lack of properly fixed barriers and had threatened to boycott the race; Emerson Fittipaldi did so, retiring after one lap. This was also the race to see the only woman thus far get into the points-paying positions, with Lella Lombardi getting half a point for sixth after only half points were awarded for the stopped race.

The next year in Jarama, James Hunt took victory, before he was disqualified due to a car which was 1.8 inches too wide. After McLaren appealed, he was given back his nine points. It was the first of two disqualifications from the race win for Hunt, although the eventual championship winner wasn't to get his British Grand Prix victory ack.

In 1980 the battle between FISA, the then-governing body and FOCA (the Formula 1 Constructors Association) reached a head when FISA President Jean-Marie Balestre announced the Spanish Grand Prix would not count towards the world championship. Only the FOCA teams turned up.

After an absence of four years, the Spanish Grand Prix moved to the sherry-producing town of Jerez in AndalucÃ*a in 1986. Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell were involved in a tight battle at the end of the race, in which the Brazilian emerged ahead at the finish by just 0.014 seconds in his Lotus. In 1990, Martin Donnelly was involved in a horrific accident in practice which tore his Lotus apart.

This was the last Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, although it did go on to host the European Grand Prix in 1994 and 1997. The latter event only happened after Estoril ran into financial difficulties and Jerez replaced it on the calendar. It had the honour of being the setting for the final race and championship decider. Qualifying saw Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen all set 1:21.072. They lined up 1st, 2nd and 3rd, as that was the order in which they set their times. Mika Hakkinen took his first win in F1 after David Coulthard let him by and Jacques Villeneuve sealed his only world championship, in only his second year, after the infamous crash with Michael Schumacher during which commentator Martin Brundle said “No, that didn't work, Michael – you hit the wrong part of him, my friend”.

Williams dominated the early years at the Circuit de Catalunya, although in 1994, it was Michael Schumacher in his Benneton who impressed after finishing second despite being stuck in fifth gear for a significant proportion of the race.

The circuit itself does not usually produce the most exciting overtaking battles of the seasons, due to its heavily aero-dependent layout. It has a decent enough flow, though and it is therefore a pity that the mightily quick final corner, slightly reminiscent of Monza's Parabolica has been removed and turned into a slow corner that follows a chicane.

Despite this, the Circuit de Catalunya has seen some surprises. In 2001, race leader Mika Hakkinen ground to a halt on the last lap. In 2012, Pastor Maldonado shocked everyone by holding it together, making no mistakes and winning the race for Williams, the team's last win to date.

From 2008 to 2012, the fantastic city that is my home, Valencia, hosted the European Grand Prix. The track did not produce interesting races, though, and it was held around a rather uninspiring layout which used the redeveloped marina area and purpose-built track. Like Sitges, the purpose-built track is now abandoned apart from the parts by the marina and near the beach, which form access roads in the area and despite it being just a few years since the last race was run, it is strange to see the scruffy, derelict vestiges of a part of Formula 1 history.

To look to 2016, though, Nico Rosberg is coming off the back of a great run of form, but Hamilton's bad luck means we still haven't seen him really challenged by Lewis yet. Despite the World Champion's misfortunes, Rosberg is arguably in the form of his life, so it would be excellent to see a meteoric battle between the two of them to see who would prevail. Nico has now won the last seven races in his Mercedes, including the first four of this season.

One of the biggest points of interest this weekend will be the arrival of Max Verstappen at Red Bull and Daniil Kvyat's return to Toro Rosso. The Russian was replaced at the Red Bull team by the 18 year-old prodigy, as the company sought to secure Verstappen's services for the future. As is typical when a young and inexperienced driver gets a significant seat, there are many doubters who wonder if it is all too soon, so many people will be determined to get some answers to that question in the Spanish Grand Prix. This is only the first race in the “big team”, but observers will be watching eagle-eyed to see if he can make an impact on Formula 1 yet again. He has an interesting yardstick in Daniel Ricciardo, a fine driver who consistently beat four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel in his own debut season with the team. Meanwhile, Daniil Kvyat is reunited with his old Formula BMW team-mate Carlos Sainz, a man who for all his promise, Max Verstappen has not totally run away from. Both partnerships will be fascinating to watch, particularly the dynamic between the two very different characters of Verstappen and Ricciardo.

Turning to the track and the ever-critical factor of tyres, the Circuit de Catalunya is quite tough on them, with the hard compound making its 2016 season debut. Nevertheless, the teams have opted for just one or two sets of hard over the course of the weekend.

Eighteen out of the twenty-five races here have been won from pole and twenty-three of the twenty-five from the front row. Grid position is therefore important, but at least there is a long run down to Turn 1, the longest of any season, at 726.279 metres from the start-finish line.

Whilst it may not generally make for the best races, a lot of the Barcelona lap is spent in a varied range of corners and going up and down the changing topography. Hitting around 330kph in qualifying at the end of the start-finish straight, the first corner is a right-hander which quickly leads into the brief left-hand Turn 2, before immediately going into Turn 3 while going up a slight gradient and then down again. The apex of this long corner is quite early and drivers tend to hug it for a while before letting the car drift quickly to the left of the track as it flattens out and they are now ready for the right-hander of Turn 4.

Again, the apex is reasonably early but the corner continues for a while and heads downhill. After the left-hander of Turn 5, a short straight I with a left-hand kink s followed by a left whose exit already puts you in the apex for Turn 7. Turn 8 is just a slight right bend, but Turn 9 is exciting, Drivers can point it into the right-hander with very little braking.

After a short straight with DRS activation, they go into quite a slow left-hander, followed by another quicker left-hander. This is followed immediately by the long Turn 12. Drivers can go into this right-hander which starts to go uphill and let it drift out just a little to keep the speed before getting it in tight again. As they go downhill, the next right-hander can have a lot of speed carried into it, then they need to get over to the right to get a wide line into the chicane at turns 14 and 15. Turn 16 is the right-hander that leads onto the start-finish straight and is, of course, not as quick or exciting as it was. The final chicane breaks the rhythm of the circuit, although at least to its credit, you could say that it provides a different challenge from the rest of the circuit as the drivers attack the kerbs, a little like the Bus Stop at Spa.

To join in our predictions contest on Ten-Tenths, go here: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=147041

Our Fantasy F1 contest is here: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146625

Constructors’ championship standings: http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-...standings.html

Drivers’ championship standings: http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-...standings.html

Spanish Grand Prix tyre selections: https://www.formula1.com/content/fom...for-spain.html

Circuit length: 4.655
Number of laps: 66
Race distance: 307.144km
First World Championship Grand Prix: 1951
First World Championship Grand Prix at this circuit: 1991

Dry weather tyre compounds: Hard, Medium and Soft
DRS Detection Zone 1: Between Turns 8 and 9
DRS Activation Zone 1: On straight between Turns 9 and 10
DRS Detection Zone 2: Shortly after Turn 15
DRS Activation Zone 2: On start-finish straight
Speed trap: Near end of start-finish straight
Lap Record: 1:21.670– Kimi Raikkonen– Ferrari (2008)