After a rather lengthy break, we once again find ourselves preparing for another round of the 2015 Formula One World Championship. The Spanish Grand Prix will be the fifth round of the championship and will be held at the Circuit de Catalunya. Handling is important in this race and teams will need to use a setup with a high amount of downforce to provide the ideal amount of grip and cornering ability. It’s not the fastest of tracks: with only about 50% of the lap being driven with full throttle. The first half of the circuit is where we can expect to see most of the overtaking, whereas the final half is the technical section. The weather has been sunny all weekend, with temperatures lower than what we felt in Bahrain. That is expected to remain the same when it is time for the start of the race and no rain is forecast.
The major talking point this weekend has been the new McLaren-Honda livery. Not only that, but the fact that the McLaren team seem to be getting more on the pace, as they had predicted earlier in the season. Of course, this being Fernando Alonso’s home Grand Prix, he will have a lot of support from the fans and will be hoping for the best result. Spain also has two new national drivers to support: Carlos Sainz, Jr. and Roberto Merhi.
In terms of performance, everything has been relatively the same for the rest of the field. Mercedes has dominated all of the sessions, but Ferrari appears to be right in the mix. Ferrari found themselves setting lap times that were rather close to the pace of Mercedes. A Vettel victory isn’t out of the cards for this weekend.
Ferrari has done an impressive job in catching up with the Mercedes cars, but they are still playing catch up. Both of the Mercedes cars should lock out the top steps of the podium, as long as both cars are able to get to the finish. It is a bit different to see Nico Rosberg on the podium, but he doesn’t seem to have the ability to outperform has teammate, Lewis Hamilton, when it comes to side-by-side racing. Hamilton should have the victory all wrapped up early on in the race and Rosberg should be good for the second place finish.
Since Ferrari is so close to Mercedes, they will provide the Silver Arrows with some competition, but they probably won’t be good enough to take the victory. Sebastian Vettel should get the bottom step of the podium and his teammate, Kimi Räikkönen, should finish right behind him. Despite having the third fastest time in the first two qualifying sessions, he dropped to seventh in the third qualifying session, even though he had set times that were nearly identical to the first two qualifying sessions. Räikkönen’s performance has been overshadowed by the performance of his new teammate, mainly because of the similarities between Vettel and Michael Schumacher. Räikkönen is a solid driver and should be able to recover from a slightly disappointing grid position.
Usually, this would be the paragraph of my predictions that would describe reasons why I think Valtteri Bottas will finish in fifth position. It may seem add, see as he is fourth on the grid, but I don’t think that he will be in the top five in Spain. Instead, I’d put my money on Max Verstappen. Verstappen will be starting from sixth on the grid, putting him alongside his teammate, Carlos Sainz, Jr. This gives Verstappen the inside line around the first corner and that should mean an easy route past Sainz on the opening lap. Verstappen is a great driver and I just have a feeling that we will see him in the top five, as long as the car survives the race.
Best of luck to all of the drivers. It is great to finally have Formula One back in action, after a seemingly endless break. Very excited to see all of the new updates that the teams have made during that period.
