Spanish GP – Preview
The first European GP has always been very interesting, because all teams bring to the race many technical upgrades. The Barcelona GP will be raced after a three-week-break, during which teams had time to analyze all data gained from the first four GP.
Pirelli will make the Spanish weekend even more interesting by bringing to track a new kind of hard compound, which will be so similar to the one used in the final part of the past racing season. Since it’s a brand new compound, teams didn’t have the chance to test it during winter testing, so suspense will increase. As an exception, teams will also have an extra super hard tyres set at their disposal during free practices, so they can run more laps and test new upgrades.
I’m expecting to see Red Bull-Ferrari and Lotus fighting for the win. If Alonso hadn’t had a drawback in the last race, he could have fought for the first or second position. Lotus has been handling Pirelli tyres in a very good way, the car is so competitive and the Finnish driver is very good at managing it. Much attention should be also focused on McLaren and Mercedes. The Walking- based team handled good races on hard tyres, especially Button. They are this start of season’s little disappointment and I think they worked hard over the last few weeks to try to sort out problems.
Force India, which is ahead of McLaren in the overall standing, shouldn’t be underrated, along with Toro Rosso. They’re surpassing Williams which is in trouble at the moment. Even the Faenza-based Team will bring several upgrades to the race.
Spanish GP Schedule
Friday May 10th
10:00 – 11:30 Free Practices 1; live on Sky Sport F1 and Rai Sport 1
14:00 – 15:30 Free Practices 2; live on Sky Sport F1 and Rai Sport 1
Saturday May 11th
11:00 – 12:00 Free Practices; live on Sky Sport F1 and Rai Sport 1
14:00 Qualifying; live on Sky Sport F1 (13:00) and Rai 2 (13:45)
Sunday May 2nd
14:00 – Spanish GP: live on Sky Sport F1 (12:30) and Rai 1 (13:10)
