German Car Zone

Barcelona: Technical view

The Grand Prix circuit near Barcelona is one that every F1 team knows well from the thousands of kilometres of testing carried out there over the winter.

Few venues offer such a variety of medium and high-speed corners and it is widely acknowledged as the definitive aero circuit that provides a stern test of a Formula 1 car. With few big braking zones and so many high-speed corners, overtaking remains extremely difficult and a good qualifying performance and sensible strategy are paramount for a successful weekend.
Aerodynamics
Aerodynamic efficiency is always a key factor at Barcelona, although the introduction of the new chicane last year has replaced on of the most critical high-speed parts of the lap and means the track is not as demanding as it once was. Even so, the circuit remains the ultimate test of a car's aero package and teams will run with high downforce levels to ensure competitiveness over the whole lap.
Suspension
With the suspension we have to find the best compromise to give the drivers a well balanced and responsive car. This means we will use relatively stiff settings at the front of the car to get a good change of direction, while the rear will be slightly softer in order to get the best possible traction out of the slower corners. This will be especially important this year with the removal of traction control. Ride height is also an important parameter to consider as generally we can run the car quite low in order to gain maximum aerodynamic performance.
Engine Performance
Barcelona is not generally thought of as an engine circuit' as the engine is not under particular stress as any point and only 62% of the lap is spent on full throttle. There are relatively few hard acceleration zones from low revs as the engine spends most of the lap accelerating from the middle of the rev range. As such, the priority is for the power delivery to be progressive and driveable in order to maintain the best handling balance, and limit tyre wear.
Tyres
Barcelona is well known for being a demanding on tyre wear because it includes so many long, high-speed corners and has a fairly abrasive track surface. The tyres are therefore under high loadings, particularly the front left which has to work hard in the quick right-hand corners such as Turns 3 and 9. As a result Bridgestone will supply hard and medium compound tyres for the weekend, and the team will need to pay close attention to the wear and degradation during free practice to determine which compound to run the majority of the race with.
Renault F1 / Eurosport

IMO, they wasted their time with the last corner of the track. or is it the penultimate corner...

The spanish GP is usually a bore. It will be even more so this year without the TC and EBS.

Apparently the other spanish GP's future is uncertain.

The citizens of Valencia are in for a very noisy weekend in August: pre-race events, free practice x 3, qualification and the race itself. Will the circuit host GP2 as well?

Let's just hope that the noise level won't make the Spanish motorsport association in pressuring FIA to changing the regulation by limiting the rev level, for the sake of keeping Valencia GP on the calendar. On the other hand I don't think that Bernie cares too much for Valencia GP since he has a handful of homies in the middle east ready to host a GP in the near future.

Just look at these "tents" set up in Barcelona. No wonder F1 is an expensive sport.

Waouw, Villaj is damn serious, this thing is about as big as the McLaren Technology center.



Edit: We could have the first wet race of the season this week end.

Yeah Force India's complex is pretty astounding considering how small the team is, the complex even has a 360 degree balcony at the top. Yupp, I've read about the rain as well, combine that with the fact that Barcelona is a very demanding track, we might end up with a very adventurous race.

Kovalainen was quoted on Friday saying that they had to do a gearbox change so I believe that means he'll get a five place grid penalty.

FP 1
P. Driver Team Time
1. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari1:20.649
2. Felipe Massa Ferrari 0:00.050
3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 0:00.543
4. Robert Kubica BMW 0:00.919
5. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren 0:01.109
6. Fernando Alonso Renault 0:01.284
7. Nelsinho Piquet Jr Renault 0:01.287
8. David Coulthard Red Bull 0:01.469
9. Nick Heidfeld BMW 0:01.629
10. Jenson Button Honda 0:01.983
11. Timo Glock Toyota 0:02.353
12. Nico Rosberg Williams 0:02.354
13. Mark Webber Red Bull 0:02.366
14. Jarno Trulli Toyota 0:02.492
15. Kazuki Nakajima Williams 0:02.504
16. Adrian Sutil Force India 0:02.507
17. Giancarlo Fisichella Force India 0:02.547
18. Rubens Barrichello Honda 0:02.704
19. Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso 0:03.303
20. Sebastien Vettel Toro Rosso 0:03.433
21. Takuma Sato Super Aguri 0:03.629
22. Anthony Davidson Super Aguri 0:04.419