Hot Topic
Max Verstappen’s victory in Canada last week underlined the confidence Max has in himself, the car and team to deliver even when they have a weekend of extremely challenging conditions and close competition. There was nothing easy about that win.
On a difficult weekend for team mate Checo Perez, Max still delivered the victory for Red Bull and it’s hard not to predict another success for him in Barcelona on Sunday. He has won here for the last two years and we should remember that this is also where he took his first ever Formula 1 win back in 2016, becoming the youngest winner in F1 history.
Both Max and Checo have been at Red Bull Racing’s factory in the UK since Canada. Checo says he has had the reset since Montreal and I think it’s never been more important for him to recover from recent disappointments to give the team as strong a performance as possible. The danger for Red Bull remains the consistency and strength of the driver line-ups at Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes. Th World Champions need both cars running at the front.
In Canada Ferrari managed to have a very disappointing weekend and team boss Frederic Vasseur is hoping that Montreal will be the low-point of their season. After his brilliant success in Monaco Charles Leclerc wants another win and you can expect Carlos Sainz Jr to perform strongly in his final home race as a Ferrari driver. He qualified 2nd last year.
McLaren has been on-form with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, Mercedes have made some good performance improvements which enabled George Russell to claim pole position in Canada, while Lewis Hamilton is a 6-times Spanish Grand Prix winner.
The competition is so strong that Red Bull do not need to be relying only on Max to deliver the win, otherwise they run the risk of one of their rivals being able to run more optimised 2-car race strategies to challenge for the win.
Take Note
Barcelona is a circuit with which the teams and drivers are very familiar thanks to the extensive testing which has taken place there over the years and also its use for junior formula racing.
Personally I love the circuit, it’s got a nice mix of corners, changes of direction, heavy braking and overtaking opportunities. I won there three times between 1998 and 2000 so it brought me a lot of good memories. I also had one bad moment as my car suffered a mechanical failure while I was leading on the final lap of the 2001, but that experience has not changed my opinion of the circuit.
The decision to take away the final chicane last year was a good one, returning Turn 14 to the right hander leading on pit straight. If you are challenging the car in front and can get a good run through T13 and T14 it offers such a perfect opportunity to overtake. Hopefully we will see plenty of that on Sunday!
Mika’s Tip
Carlos Sainz has already won a race this season and, at a time when he has not yet finalised his race seat for 2025, I think he will be one to watch this weekend. The local fans will give Carlos and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso a huge amount of the support as usual, but while the Aston Martin is an unlikely podium finisher, Carlos will really want to make his mark in the Ferrari. The easy prediction is a win for Max, but Carlos could produce a surprise on home ground.
