This weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix will present teams an opportunity to see how much progress they’ve made with this season’s car, as the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was also the host of February’s official shakedown test.
Pirelli will also get a chance to see how much progress they’ve made with the new tyres, as the Spanish venue has plenty of previous running on the new larger tyres.
The tyre manufacturer have brought the hardest range to the this weekend’s Grand Prix, consisting of the C1, C2 and C3 compounds. This decision was made with the circuit being known for putting incredible demand on the tyres, especially at Turns Three and Nine.
Track evolution won’t be an issue this weekend as the circuit is regularly used, perhaps even one of the most used in the world. The temperature though will most likely play a factor as the conditions will be considerably hotter than they were during the test in Winter.
Lewis Hamilton won last year’s race on a two-stop strategy, something which Pirelli’s Motorsport Director, Mario Isola is expecting to see again this weekend.
“It’s hard to say much about Barcelona that hasn’t been said already, as it’s possibly the best-known circuit on the calendar for the drivers, with its wide-ranging layout making it a perfect testing venue. It has a bit of everything, with the very technical final sector being particularly important when it comes to looking after the tyres.
“As a result, the teams will have a good opportunity to assess the progress they have made with their cars since the start of the season, although the weather conditions will be much warmer and there will probably be a lot more running on the hard tyre than there was in testing, which will perhaps be the key to the race. In the past, Barcelona has traditionally been a two-stopper, so it will be interesting to see if the new generation of tyres this year leads anyone to target a one-stopper.”