Spanish F1 GP Review

Welcome to the Spanish Grand Prix; home race for both Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz. 

Starting the race off with a fairly new, and ever so exciting sight to see, pole position from Mclaren’s Lando Norris. Working to cover off second place Max Verstappen proved futile as the scramble allowed Mercedes’ George Russell to sweep around the outside of turn 1. Red Bull would go on to tentatively secure first place via Max Verstappen on lap 3.

The 2024 Spanish Grand Prix was a race full of tyre management and pit-stop strategies. As always under these circumstances, some teams or drivers attempt to be daring; here specifically Mclaren played an interesting take on initially refusing to cover off George Russell during the first round of pit stops. This was in an attempt to chase after Verstappen, and subsequently the lead. This attempt did not work, and Norris ended up pitting behind Russell, which would lead to a thrilling back and forth of position change on lap 35 that would see Norris secure second place from Mercedes.

Ferrari was Ferrari today. Disagreements on implementation of strategy saw adversity between the two drivers, Charles Leclerc, and Carlos Sainz (as a reminder, Sainz is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season.) A tap and squeeze early on saw the pairing bicker at each other over team radio. A mediocre, but stable race after the disaster that was the Canadian Grand Prix drops Leclerc from second in the Drivers Championship, to third. Sainz holds fourth. Norris is now 2 points clear of Leclerc.

While talking about mediocre, Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez and his drive today cannot go unstated. After a poor qualification in what has been accepted as the best car on track, and a grid drop, Pérez finished eighth. While this is more than double his average over the last two races, (Monaco: DNF / Canada: DNF) one could expect more from the man who just secured his seat for the next two seasons with the current reigning constructor. Perez has just over half Verstappen’s points at 111, leaving him fifth in the driver’s championship.

Alpine had another okay day on track this season, managing to keep both drivers in the points and not DNF’d. This result brings them to seventh in the constructors, ahead of Haas.

Haas, Williams, Kick Sauber, VCARB, and Aston Martin all had relatively clean, unremarkable races. Although both Haas drivers did receive 5 second time penalties, they played fairly unsubstantial parts to the race.

Following rumours going into the Spanish Grand Prix that Williams driver Logan Sargeant would be cut from the team and replaced following the race, a clean result may net him a few more races yet.