[Race] Preview-Spanish GP

[ottostreet]

External link to the article

After a peaceful three weeks since the Bahrain GP, it's time to get set for the first of seven European rounds. This weekend, Formula One returns to Catalunya for the Spanish Grand Prix.


Last year's race must seem like a very distant memory for the Williams squad. With ten laps to go of the 2012 Spanish GP, Maldonado was leading the faster Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, a man hunting for a victory in front of his home crowd. No-one would have predicted, let alone believed, that the fast but erratic Venezuelan would withstand the pressure like only the very best can, and claim Williams first victory since 2004.

Maldonado's victory was important for 2012, not just continuing the trend of somewhat random winners that defined the start of the season, not just the return of Williams to the winners circle, and not just announcing the arrival of Pastor to the big leagues. No, the big story is that, in hindsight, Maldonado's masterful absorption of Alonso's relentless attack is what prevented Fernando from becoming the 2012 World Champion. Naturally, media focus is always on results at year end, when the margins are tight, and the pressure ramped up, but early season results can make or break a championship, despite it not being obvious on the day.

So far this season, we have seen Ferrari miss out on valuable points in two of the four races, with silly decisions, and the slight sloppiness of a team that can't quite hook a proper challenge together. Alonso is driving well, as is Massa, but there is a disjointedness to their results that is blurring the ability to figure out where Ferrari are in the pecking order. The pace is there, but Fernando must be dismayed to see silly mistakes like a dodgy DRS, and the dodgier decision to allow him to use it again straight away, when it would have made far more sense to use it again as a test on an inlap. As McLaren can attest to, having the fastest car is useless if operational errors and unreliability are allowed to permeate through the team.

Assuming these are ironed out for Barcelona this weekend, Alonso looks like he could be the man to beat. The Spaniard drove exceptionally well in Sakhir, only finishing 37 seconds behind Vettel, despite his issues and an extra stop. Vettel's pace looked ominous, with Sebastian seemingly controlling the gap to Raikkonen behind. His masterful handling of the opening laps in Bahrain showed that the reigning champion can handle Alonso in a straight fight, and assuming the Red Bulls do not suffer the same wing issues they suffered last year, it's hard to look past an Alonso vs. Vettel titanic scrap. Maldonado may have to make do with getting into the top ten, at best, this year.

Lotus are a little difficult to comprehend at this stage of the season. Effortless pace at round one, followed by mediocre to good at the rest, Lotus appear to be focussed solely on longevity and consistency. Raikkonen has become 2013's answer to Sergio Perez, doggedly determined to get through a race with one less pitstop than everyone else. While this has worked reasonably well so far, raw pace needs to be added to the Lotus repertoire if they want to challenge for the victory in Barcelona. Last year saw the team keep Kimi on the softer tyres for too long during the race, and when switched to the harder tyre, Kimi was brilliantly fast towards the end of last year's race. Qualifying must be markedly better than it was in Bahrain, or the Finn will be doomed to finish just outside the grasp of the championship, yet again.

The downturn of Mercedes season looks like it has already begun, with neither car challenging remotely for the podium in Bahrain. They had a bit of a nightmare race in Spain last year, with Rosberg finishing almost a lap down, and Michael Schumacher crashing spectacularly into Senna at turn one. Attempting to predict what Mercedes will do this weekend is virtually impossible, but Lewis Hamilton will feel anything will be an improvement on last years race, where he was made start from last after he ran out of fuel in Q3. He may enjoy the freedom of Mercedes, but McLaren gave him a winning car, something which it doesn't look like Merc are capable of right now.

The stories continue to circulate of the bad blood that now exists between the Red Bull team-mates, which has yet to manifest itself on track. Vettel and Webber were classes apart in Bahrain, but Webber is usually much closer to Sebastian during the European rounds, if not faster at the likes of Monaco and Silverstone. Can Mark set about taking Vettel down a peg or two, or will Sebastian crush Mark completely beneath his ruthless boot heels? The same questions can be asked of McLaren, now that Perez and Button have decided to stop being a tag team of mediocrity. Perez was quick to refute the suggestion that he had apologised to Jenson, which suggests he doesn't really care about being Jenson's 'mate'. The ferocious battle between the two was the highlight of Bahrain, and hopefully Spain will see some more hard racing, if only we can see Whitmarsh grimacing on the pitwall.