The Spanish Grand Prix may be the home race for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, but it’s familiar territory for much of the grid as the teams often spend winter testing (and in some cases filming days) here at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Not that those filming days create too big an advantage. “There’s only a [set] amount of laps you can reach, and I think you get one or two push laps and that’s it,” Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu said in 2023. “I’m sure everyone knows the track and it’s more about the details and how much confidence you feel on the high-speed tracks.”
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Changes were made ahead of the 2023 grand prix. One of the biggest was axing a chicane that was introduced in 2007, partly to slow down the racing for safety reasons. The track has returned (mostly) to its previous layout, with a pair of high-speed right-handers to lead the drivers back to the start/finish straight.
But even with overtaking improving in 2023, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya’s days look numbered. As things stand, Barcelona is at risk of dropping off the Formula One calendar in 2026 when the Spanish Grand Prix will move to Madrid.
As F1 prepares for a grueling run of five races in six weeks, here’s what you need to know about a circuit that’s known for eating up tires.
Key specs
Mixing high- and low-speed
The Summer Olympic Games headed to Barcelona in 1992, and as part of the development program, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was built.
The first cars to hit the track in 1991 were racing in the Spanish Touring Car Championship, and two weeks later, Formula One took it for a spin. Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna ended up in a drag race of sorts, going wheel-to-wheel down the straight.
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya features a mix of low- and high-speed corners, such as the final sequence and Turn 3 (which is a known place where teams can get a better understanding of the car’s balance). It’s a familiar track for the grid as drivers have competed, tested and done filming days in Spain, but ahead of the 2023 race, only two drivers had experience with the pair of high-speed final corners: Alonso (in a F1 race) and Lewis Hamilton (in testing).
“I do remember testing here in 2006, my first test here in a McLaren, and that was I think two or three or four days of the high speed last corners. I remember I couldn’t hold my head up,” Hamilton said in 2023. “The team asked me, I think Gary Paffett was one of the test drivers, they were like, ‘Gary uses the pad, do you want the pad?’ I was like ‘No no no, my neck’s strong!’
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“I remember getting to Turn 1 and just straight away not being able to hold my head up. I’d come back in and say, ‘No, no, my neck is good,’ but I was in so much pain, struggling to sleep at night.”
The chicane initially was a safety change, but today’s cars should be able to handle the faster turns, according to McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.
“At the time, I think Formula One cars, they were like go karts with a lot of power, a little bit of aerodynamic forces and very, very light cars,” Stella said when discussing the cars of 20 years ago compared to 2023. “They were 200 kilograms (441 pounds) lighter than these cars. This generation of Formula One cars nowadays, the second to last corner is easy flat in all conditions.
“At the time, it was a challenging corner, but they are much quicker, even if they are 200 kilograms heavier, because of an enormous amount of downforce, much bigger tires and much more grip as well, and still quite powerful engines.”
One other turn to keep an eye on is Turn 9, Campsa. It’s a speedy righthander to head onto the back straight, making it a trickier corner. Back during the 2008 grand prix, Heikki Kovalainen flew straight into the barriers.
The game of overtaking
Compared to the recent run of Monaco and Montreal, the paddock is headed back to a more conventional circuit. “It’s a proper race track, and this is where a Formula One car comes alive,” Verstappen said last year.
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is known for high tire degradation given its high-speed nature and abrasive track surface. Even with the layout adjustments, it’s safe to expect tire wear to remain an issue, especially on the left side. But that degradation issue opens the door to differing strategies, pace differences among the cars and potential overtake opportunities.
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Traditionally, the Spanish Grand Prix is a two-pit stop race, but it could shift to a three-stop plan depending on tire degradation. The race is being held a few weeks later than 2023, which means the temperatures could be hotter and affect tire management.
Heading into last year’s race, some believed the removal of the slow-speed could facilitate better racing. Williams’ Alex Albon pointed out how the cars stayed close through turns 10 and 12 in 2022 because of the racing lines, but when they hit the stretch from Turns 13-15, they fell into a single file line. He felt the change could help with overtaking. Hamilton said, “I hope that we’re able to follow, with the cars we have, a bit better through the last two corners than we have (through) the little Mickey Mouse chicane.”
Overtaking did improve last year, but is it enough to shake the criticism of it being a more processional race? Pirelli noted how qualifying is fairly important at this track in its preview: “In no fewer than 24 races here, the pole sitter has gone on to be first past the chequered flag and adding to the importance of this statistic is that on four other occasions the driver who was quickest in qualifying retired from the race.”
(Track video courtesy of EA Sports F1 — learn more about “F1 24″ here.)
(Lead image: Dan Istitene – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images, David Ramos/Getty Imgaes; Design: Drew Jordan/The Athletic)