Welcome to the Spanish Grand Prix – 2024
Sainz says it’s decision time for his F1 future
Carlos Sainz says it is “time to make a decision” about his future – but admits he has not yet decided who he wants to drive for. It’s almost six months since he lost his seat to Lewis Hamilton, with him said to have offers from Williams and Sauber, who will be under the full control of Audi ahead of a rebrand in 2026.
While Sainz said he had no news to share on the eve of his home Spanish GP, he admitted that the time had come for him to imminently decide on who he was going to sign for. In the press conference ahead of his home race, the Spaniard said, “The latest is a decision will be taken very soon.”
Adding, “I don’t want to wait any longer. It’s getting to a point where it’s taking space out of my head for quite a few weeks and months now. It’s time to make a decision and the decision will be taken soon. Hopefully, soon we will have things to talk about.”
Despite him being highly rated Sainz’s options have appeared to boiled down to a choice between Williams and Sauber each has big hopes of making major progress up the field in future seasons.
Asked if he knew in his own mind here where he wanted to drive, Sainz replied: “No. I’m still not sure one way or another. It’s still something I am discussing with my team and brainstorming. I need a couple of days back at home.”
Sainz is key in the driver market as it will dictate where other drivers go in 2025 as eight other drivers have not confirmed they will be on the grid next year. Williams has emerged as a serious option for the Spaniard and James Vowles made a public appeal for Sainz at the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this month.
Mercedes not expecting to be at the front
Mercedes say going into this weekend not expecting to be “right at the front,” says technical director James Allison. In Montreal, the team had their best race of the season with third and fourth a fortnight ago.
The significant upturn in performance enabled Mercedes to break into the trio of Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren, who before Canada had been exclusively competing for victories. Mercedes’ progress has come after several upgrades to the W15, and while more are set to arrive in Barcelona, Allison believes the track and conditions won’t quite be as suited to the car.
In the team’s preview, Allison said, “The changes we have made are making this car a better car. And that will be true at every circuit we go to. The characteristics of Montreal make it look a little quicker than we have a natural right to command at the coming races.”
“In Barcelona, I think it more likely that we will be competitive, but not right at the front. Because the next tracks are a little bit of a sterner test of a car. Hot asphalt, wider cornering speeds.”
Despite his caution around Mercedes’ chances this weekend, Allison is optimistic the team will be able to continue to close the gap to their rivals. This is because he says the team knows what is coming to improve the car, as they look to better Montreal in the future.
Mercedes had introduced a new front wing at the race before Canada in Monaco, but at the time only had one available version of the part, which Russell ran. The difficulties of Monaco made it harder to judge the impact of the upgrades, but they have met their targets of making the car feel easy to drive, well-balanced, and made the car the driver’s friend rather than the thing they had been fighting for.
Talking Points Barcelona
A dramatic Grand Prix last time out in Montreal saw a genuine three-way fight for the win, with McLaren and Ferrari also taking a victory each in May. Max Verstappen’s early season dominance appears to be gone and the championship leader has been under serious pressure at recent events.
However, this weekend should give us answers to whether the closeness in recent races has been caused by the unique factors we have in Montreal and Monaco, with many expecting Red Bull to return to form. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has long been used as a testing venue for F1 because it has a range of corners, however, teams haven’t been here yet as testing took place in Bahrain
But its mix of high, medium and low-speed turns, plus a long main straight, means the teams can see how their car is strong and what type of corners they are lacking performance. Often teammates line up alongside each other because a clear pecking order is dictated in qualifying.
The relative performance of the Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes should give a good indication of how competitive the second half of the season will be among the top teams.
All the teams and drivers know this place very well, thus making it easier to optimise car set-up and to extract the most from the tyres too, so there is no hiding place at the Spanish Grand Prix. Since 2014, except 2016 when both Mercedes crashed into each other, the constructor winner of the race has gone on to win the championship.
That means Ferrari and McLaren to give themselves a serious chance at winning a title this year, they must show quick pace this weekend.
This is also a strategic race like in Montreal, with the long and high-speed corners which means a multi-stop race and Pirelli have brought the three hardest tyres (C1, C2 & C3). We have only seen these tyres in Bahrain and Japan, meaning less data on the C1 tyres.
Sky & F1’s Strategist Bernie Collins writes, “High tyre degradation leads to a powerful undercut, however, it is not a track position race so many have made the mistake of gaining track position by stopping too early or not converting to an additional stop lap early enough. This race is more like Bahrain in that optimum stop laps will lead to a better finishing position.”
McLaren needs changes for more wins
Lando Norris says that McLaren needs to make key small changes so it can “provoke” itself to take more wins and avoid mistakes. The Englishman had a frustrating race in Montreal where two decisions around pit stops, one under safety car conditions and one not, cost him a shot at victory.
But the team also needs to understand that other key calls or small performance improvements at Imola and Monaco could have swung things more in its favour rather than handing the opportunity to rivals.
Speaking ahead of the Spanish GP, Norris said that both he and McLaren had conducted a deep dive into the events of Montreal and have agreed on some key changes in their approach. One of the key conclusions from its analysis is that they need to be better prepared for unforeseen circumstances, with teams and drivers challenging each other even more to ensure that there was no room for error.
Norris said about Montreal, “We reviewed it a lot. The team reviewed it. I reviewed it. We listened to radios, and all those kinds of things. There was nothing like, ‘Oh, we’ve clearly messed up. We’ve done something wrong’. But it [not stopping when the safety car came out] was still a tricky decision.”
“We simply should have been a bit little bit more prepared. I should have simply had the ‘if safety car [comes out] box’ call, because, at the same time, from my side, I don’t know how much rain there is going to be. I’m getting told there’s rain, and so I’m judging a lot of my feelings and decisions off what the team are telling me.”
I agree with him as he went on to say McLaren doesn’t need to dramatically change things rather the fine margins are making mistakes more costly.
Norris’ belief is echoed by team-mate Oscar Piastri, who suggests that McLaren is now in a position in the field where any tiny error is punished and exposed.
He added, “There’s more pressure, you’re under the spotlight more, and your mistakes cost a bit more. You’re fighting against teams that have, certainly in Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes’ case, be at the front for decades basically. For us it’s been a bit of a more recent return to the front.”
McLaren might now having got that win in Miami being adjusting slightly to fighting for wins again. We know that you need to maximise results when Red Bull are struggling, Norris also rightly pointed out how far they have come since Austria last year. Two wins, highlights how much they have turned it around.
Newey given Aston Martin tour
The Times are reporting that outgoing Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey has been given a tour of Aston Martin’s Silverstone base by owner Lawerence Stroll. Earlier this year admits the internal fighting following the allegation made against CEO and team principal Christian Horner.
His availability has put the sport’s top teams on red alert. While Ferrari has been seen as the most likely, Stroll has made no secret of his wish to sign Newey. The newspaper says that the designer was also given a private tour of Aston Martin’s Silverstone facility which they hoped to keep ‘secret’.
As part of his exit from the team he won’t need to sever a period of gardening leave, which allows him to have an impact on whatever team he joins ahead of the 2026 regulation change.
Although Max Verstappen is set to wrap up a fourth title in a row this year, Red Bull’s season has been controversial. The furore around Horner overshadowed the early part of the year.
Newey then confirmed his exit, giving Red Bull’s rivals hope that they could recruit one of the most respected minds in F1. It is Aston Martin, rather than Ferrari, who have seemingly edged closer to convincing Newey.
Bearman gets another outing with Haas
Ollie Bearman will get his latest FP1 outing tomorrow with Haas, who is said to be under consideration for a seat with the team next season. His debut in Jeddah, after Carlos Sainz underwent surgery for appendicitis finishing seventh and also took part in FP1 in Imola last month.
He has had a difficult F2 season with him currently thirteenth having raced in four of the five weekends this season, having missed Jeddah, but he continues to impress with his FP1 outings. Bearman will have four more outings this season, this weekend replacing Nico Hulkenberg
Asked about Bearman’s prospects of turning these practice runs into a full-time seat for 2025, and when he will appear in a practice session again, Komatsu made it clear that the youngster is at the forefront of his mind. He said, “Of course, we are evaluating him. If he is not [under] consideration, we wouldn’t be running him in FP1, and the next time he’s going to be in the car is in Barcelona.”
Hulkenberg is leaving the team for Sauber/Audi at the end of the season, while Kevin Magnussen hasn’t signed a new deal having rejoined the team in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which saw Nikita Mazepin sacked and sanctioned by Western governments.
Asked by f1.com, how many candidates the team are speaking to, Komatsu added: “I don’t particularly have a timeframe, it’s more about getting the right driver for our team. We are still a pretty small team. To have somebody experienced, somebody who’s got a really good work ethic, to integrate with the team well and really push the team forward… that’s what we’re looking for, so we’re talking with several different drivers.”
Williams promote Kenyon to Head of Aero
F1 has learned that Williams has promoted Adam Kenyon to Head of Aerodynamics, a position that has been vacant for more than a year. Kenyon’s appointment is just the latest in team principal James Vowles’s attempts to rebuild the team, since joining from Mercedes around eighteen months ago.
Adam Kenyon to Head of Aerodynamics, a position that has been vacant for more than a year. Vowles confirmed the move, saying “Adam Kenyon is our Head of Aero – that was done without a big fanfare in March this year. I worked with Adam back at Mercedes and he was at Red Bull prior to that.”
“He was chief aero but an extraordinary chief aero and, really, he was running the operation and doing a good job with it. I just wanted to make sure that he was able to take on the role because it was a large amount of addition to him.” Vowles says he is doing a brilliant job with the restructuring and the focus was around building the team around him.
In Montreal, the Englishman said the team were working hard to grow the teams workforce and were in the process of signing some “big names” across their technical organisation.
It is understood many of these signings will join from rival teams, following periods of gardening leave, and have extensive experience in F1. One surprising name has been Carlos Sainz, after he was dropped by Ferrari in February when they signed Lewis Hamilton for 2025 leaving him without a seat
The British team are currently ninth in the constructors’ championship, courtesy of the two points Alex Albon scored in Monaco, and head to Spain hopeful of fighting for more after an encouraging weekend in Canada went unrewarded.