Official 2023 Spanish Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

[Piginapoke]

We’re back in Spain, a place the teams know really well and no better place for Mercedes and Ferrari to see if their upgrades work on a proper circuit. The final chicane has been removed for this year, so the final sector will be easier on tyres than before.

The track should play to Red Bull’s strengths, so no reason to expect anything other than another dominant performance. Will be interesting to see whether McLaren or Alpine has the edge here.

Here’s to a great race.

Date(s): Friday 2 June to Sunday 4 June 2023.

UK Broadcast Timings (and track time)

All sessions are live on Sky F1. Qualifying and the race are shown as highlights on Channel 4.





2022 Race Highlights:

https://youtu.be/2HczJcxEmQQ

Live timing for all sessions available here:

https://www.formula1.com/en/f1-live.html

Lap times, PU component use, technical reports and Stewards' decisions for the weekend will appear here:

https://www.fia.com/documents/championships/fia-fo...

Weather forecast: (currently sunny)

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/forecast/sp3e...

Tyre options:

Pirelli is bringing its hard compounds, so C1, C2 and C3



2022 Race Result:



Drivers’ Championship:



Constructors’ Championship:

Edited by Piginapoke on Wednesday 31st May 11:49

[SmoothCriminal]

Wonder if Max will lap the whole field.

[Jasandjules]

We will see if those Merc "upgrades" are improvements.

[suffolk009]

How long until teams have copied the underneath of the Red Bulls - so prominently displayed last weekend?

[Still Mulling]

Thanks PiaP!

Red Bull dominance. Would like to see Merc dial in to the new design and step forward. Alonso third.

[PhilAsia]

Thanks PiaP!

Definite snooze fest here. Wafty win for Max...

[Sandpit Steve]

First proper test of the huge Mercedes upgrades, first seen last weekend at the most unsuitable of circuits for evaluation.

Hopefully they’ll be at least up with Alonso, if not yet challenging the RBs.

Can Ferrari manage to have at least one clean weekend, with drivers and team not making schoolboy errors when the pressure is on?

[BrettMRC]

I can't see anything other than a Redbull 1-2, the DRS advantage will be huge here again.

I think the Merc will be quite quick and able to challenge for best of the rest - but still 0.5s off the lead pace.

[Mach]

Thanks PiaP, really appreciate your time spent kicking off these threads

Whilst I don't post much on the threads I always enjoy the "banter"

No great hopes for the race unfortunately, really hoping Mercedes have made a huge step forward but suspect it will just be another false dawn and I'll be switching off the minute the chequered flag drops again to avoid listening to Horner telling Max he's just driven the greatest race in history...

Edited by Mach on Wednesday 31st May 09:59

[TheDeuce]

Sandpit Steve said:

First proper test of the huge Mercedes upgrades, first seen last weekend at the most unsuitable of circuits for evaluation.

Hopefully they’ll be at least up with Alonso, if not yet challenging the RBs.

Can Ferrari manage to have at least one clean weekend, with drivers and team not making schoolboy errors when the pressure is on?

I optimistically hope and expect the Merc drivers will pass Alonso on points by the end of the season.

No way are they catching RBR...

Ferrari are just useless and as the pressure mounts and they start saying things like "we have to stop making mistakes", you just know that more mistakes will be made.

[Aids0G]

Thanks PiaP for setting up the thread, really useful info and 90% of the chat is great! Thanks again,

Red Bull 1 - 2 I think, but it could be much closer for P3!

Hoping Lance turns up this weekend he needs a decent performance!

[mk1coopers]

Thanks for the thread PiaP, as others have said, the first meaningful run for the Merc upgrades, hopefully it is positive, even though this years WDC and WCC trophy's are realistically out of reach of anyone else, (unless there are further cost cap issues that reflect badly), it would be good to have the RB's pushed for the rest of the year.

[Pflanzgarten]

For all the cries of boring Monaco last week when was the last interesting race at Barcelona?

Only one I can remember was Mercedes’ strategy masterclass against red bull and max (2021?).

Can’t see the chicane changes making much difference.

[axel1990chp]

Ill be watching the Sunday evening highlights on YouTube again, a historical snooze fest of a race in a disproportionate season.

I hope to see Fred on #1 at home, I suspect this will only be possible with a MV DNF, so that's my prediction.

Kudos to everyone sticking with the show, hope the live race turns out well for you all!

[thegreenhell]

Pflanzgarten said:

For all the cries of boring Monaco last week when was the last interesting race at Barcelona?

Only one I can remember was Mercedes’ strategy masterclass against red bull and max (2021?).

Can’t see the chicane changes making much difference.

The last interesting one was also the last win for Williams, when they set fire to the car and garage afterwards to hide any evidence...

[Sycamore]

axel1990chp said:

Ill be watching the Sunday evening highlights on YouTube again, a historical snooze fest of a race in a disproportionate season.

I hope to see Fred on #1 at home, I suspect this will only be possible with a MV DNF, so that's my prediction.

Kudos to everyone sticking with the show, hope the live race turns out well for you all!

With Alonso scoring most of Astons points, the most useful thing that Stroll could probably do for the team is to smash into Max and give Alonso the win

[SturdyHSV]

Sycamore said:

With Alonso scoring most of Astons points, the most useful thing that Stroll could probably do for the team is to smash into Max and give Alonso the win

His best bet (only hope?) of getting close enough would be to jump the start, but even then, would he have enough time after joining the back of the grid to make it up to Max before the lights went out?

Joking of course, Stroll isn't a bad driver, but he has definitely had a poor run of form it seems, his points tally vs Alonso is pretty damning.

[mk1coopers]

Sycamore said:

With Alonso scoring most of Astons points, the most useful thing that Stroll could probably do for the team is to smash into Max and give Alonso the win

Waits for this to happen and the conspiracy theories to start

[LG9k]

SturdyHSV said:

His best bet (only hope?) of getting close enough would be to jump the start, but even then, would he have enough time after joining the back of the grid to make it up to Max before the lights went out?

Joking of course, Stroll isn't a bad driver, but he has definitely had a poor run of form it seems, his points tally vs Alonso is pretty damning.

He just needs to wait until Verstappen laps him.

[InformationSuperHighway]

It comes to something in the season when I'm looking forward more to quali than to the race itself.