[Scarlet_Rider]

Round 8 of the 2023 F1 calendar is on the home soil of Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz. Wishing both of them all the best to finish on the podium!



Good news is that the track layout has been reverted back to the previous one by removing the final chicane!





2023 Layout



No lap record due to the revised layout.



Times (IST)









Details of the track from Formula1.com

When was the track built?
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was built as part of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics development programme. The foundation stone was laid in 1989, while the first car race was a round of the 1991 Spanish Touring Car Championship.

When was its first Grand Prix?
Two weeks after the touring cars raced at Barcelona, it was Formula 1’s turn. The track enjoyed a sensational debut, with Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna’s famous eyeball-to-eyeball drag race down the straight, before Mansell took the lead and drove on to victory.

What’s the circuit like?
The drivers love the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which is just as well, as they have traditionally spent huge amounts of time pounding around it during winter testing. The track is a good mix of high- and low-speed corners, with the challenging Turn 3 right-hander a great chance to evaluate the balance of the car your team’s designers have given you to fight with for the season.

Why go?
You don’t need us to tell you that Barcelona is one of the world’s great cities, even if we just sort of did. Food, culture, beaches - it’s all there, making a Spanish Grand Prix holiday a properly attractive proposition.

Where is the best place to watch?
You’ve got plenty of choice, with almost the whole track overlooked by grandstands or general admission areas. On the outside of Turn 1, Grandstand A will let you see the best overtaking spot on the track, while the general admission area around Turn 3 will provide the awe-inspiring sight of Formula 1 cars being pushed to the limit of their downforce capabilities.

Sources:
https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2...n/Circuit.html
https://f1tv.formula1.com/
https://www.fia.com/news/f1-2023-spa...d-prix-preview
https://live.planetf1.com/f1-gp-tracks/barcelona

[FuelInjector]

Am glad that the final chicane has been removed. We already saw the effect of that on many where they took on too much of the kerb in the final turn bottoming out. Plus one gets DRS in that zone exmeplifying the risk taking ability for overtakes in the straigth that follows.

[Scarlet_Rider]

Starting grid for today's race. Max on top as usual.

Interesting mix with both McLarens in the top 10 along with a Haas. Alonso 9th with Perez, Russell and Leclerc in the 2nd half of the grid should make things a little interesting.





Source:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results....ualifying.html

[corvus corax]

Heart broken for Yuki. Russel running through the outside and gaining 5 places is ok but Ghou running out of road and taking the escape route wokes the stewards up.

Lost a little bit of respect today for Alonso with all his chamchagiri towards the Stroll boy. It is indeed strange coming from a person like Alonso even though its the boss's son in the other car.

[supermax]

Originally Posted by corvus corax

Heart broken for Yuki. Russel running through the outside and gaining 5 places is ok but Ghou running out of road and taking the escape route wokes the stewards up.

Lost a little bit of respect today for Alonso with all his chamchagiri towards the Stroll boy. It is indeed strange coming from a person like Alonso even though its the boss's son in the other car.

Echo your feelings about Yuki. I felt that he could have easily caught Zhou if only he'd been a bit more patient, instead of trying to go for it like it was the last corner of the last lap. He doesn't lack the pace, but still needs a bit of maturing. Kind of sad that Franz Tost is out at the end of this season; he's been quite the father figure to the hot-headed Yuki.

Regarding the chamchagiri, that too is maturity. He's at the tail end of his career, and he'd like to not only get as many points as he can, but also go out on good terms, not something he has managed with most of his teams. Grabbing those extra points from Lance was to Alonso like stealing candies from a baby, not something he'd have been proud of. Had Sainz been much closer ahead of Lance, and he'd had fresher tires, I think Alonso would have made the pass, again, after explaining to the team that he has a chance to get even more points for the team ahead. For the most part, Lance and Alonso won't be in the fight against each other, simply because of the skill differential. If Alonso finds himself behind Stroll due to his own mistake, like in the qualifying yesterday, he earns goodwill by not pushing the boss's son too hard, when nothing else is within reach, so that's pretty nice I think!

[TheWanderer]

Overall, one of the better races in the season with good number of overtakes and some unpredictability in the middle. It was not yet another race with a boring one stop strategy, but, different teams tried different tyre options. Except Max, every one had some or the other worries (The only worry for Max was whether his lead at the end of the race will reduce from ~25 seconds to ~20 seconds or not )!

Originally Posted by corvus corax

Lost a little bit of respect today for Alonso with all his chamchagiri towards the Stroll boy.

One can never predict what is happening behind closed doors . I feel it is not just chamchagiri, but may also have some reasoning.
- How much ever he tries, I think that he knows he is not going to end up at 1st/2nd in the championship points (Anything below that may not be that attractive for him after all these years!). So, giving up 2 points in one race is not going to make a big difference in the overall scheme of things at the end of the season.
- Secondly, I think in this stint, he is really enjoying doing something new: leading a team in all senses - with technical contribution, hunting for maximum points for the team, helping the other driver maximize points, creating a positive environment and gaining respect of every member in the team etc. (there were rumours of him trying to control a lot of things in Mclarern and Alpine, but, things did not go his way in those teams. So, he would have learnt what works and what does not!). He may be feeling that a happy team can deliver him a better car (and possibly a better contract renewal too)!

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by corvus corax

Lost a little bit of respect today for Alonso with all his chamchagiri towards the Stroll boy. It is indeed strange coming from a person like Alonso even though its the boss's son in the other car.

I have a contrarian view, it’s not buttering the boss at all. He’s (Alonso) clearly the team leader, so it’s intelligence and maturity on his part to finish off a bad weekend with both the cars in the points.

This is the first time that Stroll was in front of Alonso, surely he (Stroll) would want to finish ahead and not be overtaken on the last lap. Imagine Alonso trying to overtake him and Stroll takes one or both of them out of the race. Wouldn’t that be egg on their faces and for the team? Taking such a risk of losing such valuable points for just one place (6/7) is not justifiable at the fag end.

Cheers

[TROOPER]

Originally Posted by corvus corax

Lost a little bit of respect today for Alonso with all his chamchagiri towards the Stroll boy. It is indeed strange coming from a person like Alonso even though its the boss's son in the other car.

Adding on to what others said, let's not forget he wants contract extensions. And even Aston would be taking a bet on him each year as he ages. They can't afford to end up with a declining Alonso with a real fast car say in 2025 or 2026. Especially when the other driver is Stroll . So a little buttering does no harm.

As far as the season goes, gonna be a long boring one as far as P1 is concerned. P2 onward is where the fight lies, that too if Perez is having a bad day.

[libranof1987]

A very mundane race for Verstappen, a very routine heartbreak of a race for Leclerc, and a good fight from Perez. As boring as a race can ever be.

Originally Posted by corvus corax

Lost a little bit of respect today for Alonso with all his chamchagiri towards the Stroll boy. It is indeed strange coming from a person like Alonso even though its the boss's son in the other car.

Oh-come-on.

Look at Alonso's finishes thus far in 2023; and Stroll's. Alonso has had five podium finishes this season, and this was the only race he finished behind Stroll.

Also, this isn't the first instance of Alonso being generous; remember when Alonso passed on a brake balance suggestion to Stroll.

This was the closing stage of the race, very early into the season; why would Alonso risk a 6-7 finish for both cars.

[TheDarkKnight]

Originally Posted by corvus corax

Heart broken for Yuki. Russel running through the outside and gaining 5 places is ok but Ghou running out of road and taking the escape route wokes the stewards up.

There was no reason for the 5 sec penalty for Yuki and should’ve been a racing incident like we’ve seen in the past.

As for Russell’s start, he did not actually gain 5 positions going through the escape route but only gained over Piastri. Here’s a video explaining the 5 positions gained and I don’t think there’s anything he did wrong.

http://youtu.be/4rVb1qXYlF4

[chandrda]

I was hoping to see where the Mercedes update have landed them in the pecking order. I was a bit disappointed with both Leclerc and Perez not pushing Hamilton and Russel a bit more.

P1 is done and dusted, I am more interested on who will be P2. So if Leclerc and Hamilton have competitive cars, then it will be Interesting to see if Perez can beat off Hamilton/Leclerc.

Regards

[Joeboy]

Even if Max does not take part in a few races in future, still he is going to win this year's championship which is boring from spectator point of view. Going forward the cameras should only focus from P2 position drivers in the race when Max is leading as that is where the interest is going to be instead of watching Max winning by a large gap each race.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Oh-come-on.

...

This was the closing stage of the race, very early into the season; why would Alonso risk a 6-7 finish for both cars.

Why?

1. Because he had fresher tires, a much faster pace, the easy availability of DRS benefit (he was always in the 1s - 2s range till the end) and a track that allowed easy overtaking at several points with limited risk.
2. Because this was his home / base country race and the crowd would have loved another overtake by him.
3. Because this is a F1 race where every point, every position counts (Hamilton is just ~10 points behind him on the overall YTD points).
4. And because he's Alonso; he's known to not show mercy to any of his team mates since the beginning of his career. Google Hamilton - Alonso rivalries (or for that matter replace Hamilton by any of his team mates) to get context.


My understanding is Stroll has relatively done quite badly this year so far and the comparison (=Alonso) clearly rules out the car or team being the problem. Lance Stroll's contract expiry is unknown (source). If he continues like this all year, it will be a tough argument to keep him on the roster for 2024 and onwards, given the number of drivers who will be looking at Aston Martin's performance this year. Anyone can connect the dots to see this isn't normal racing in F1 and easily come up with plausible reasons for the action of Alonso.