2023 Spanish Grand Prix Weekend Recap

June 6, 2023

I’ll be honest, the Spanish Grand Prix was kind of a disappointment. It just wasn’t the exciting, action packed race we usually get. However, it was still a pretty cool weekend. So here is your 2023 Spanish Grand Prix weekend recap:

Free-Practice: June 2-3, 2023

This weekend’s Free-Practice sessions were highly anticipated as teams put their upgrades and a new Pirelli tire to the test. Mercedes’ upgrades seemed to be a bust at first, with the team only going as high as P8 during Friday’s sessions. However, by FP3 on Saturday, performance improved and the team went P3 and P6. Ferrari also brought changes, but they didn’t seem to make a big difference as the Ferrari duo stayed at their normal P6 and P7 in FP2. Max Verstappen topped every practice session, but his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez still couldn’t keep up. He was consistently a couple of tenths behind Verstappen and just didn’t seem to have the same control over the car. Alpine’s hopes to replicate the amazing weekend they had in Monaco didn’t seem to be a possibility as the team’s pace declined from P3 in FP1, to P18 in FP3. Williams knew their car was not suited to this track, so their goal for the weekend was damage limitation. Unfortunately, Logan Sargeant caused a great deal of damage when he crashed his Williams during FP3 and brought out a Red Flag.

Logan Sargeant's Williams getting taken off the track after his FP3 crash

Qualifying: June 3, 2023

By the time Qualifying started, the track had almost fully dried from rain earlier in the day, leaving only a few damp patches.

Q1:

The damp patches proved to be a hazard as numerous drivers lost control and went into the gravel at Turn 11. Race Control ended up Red Flagging Q1 to clean up the gravel that was strewn all over the track.
Eliminated: Bottas (P16), Magnussen (P17), Albon (P18), Leclerc (P19), Sargeant (P20)

Throughout the session, Leclerc complained about his rear tires and Ferrari didn’t seem to be able to solve the problem. Even on his final lap with fresh tires, Leclerc couldn’t improve his time and qualified P19.
The damage Sargeant picked up in his FP3 crash limited his performance and relegated him to P20 yet again.

Q2:

Teammates George Russell and Lewis Hamilton made contact on the main straight and Hamilton picked up front wing damage.
Eliminated: Perez (P11), Russell (P12), Zhou (P13), De Vries (P14), Tsunoda (P15)

Perez’s qualifying was over after he ran wide at Turn 5 and went through the gravel. This is the second week in a row where Perez has failed to make Q3, and if he wants to threaten his teammate for the championship, he needs to really step it up.
Russell’s elimination was also a shock but the Brit said he just couldn’t get enough speed out of the newly updated car. He probably needs more time to adjust to it.
Yuki Tsunoda’s 2023 bad luck continued with his lap time being deleted for exceeding track limits.

Q3:

Max Verstappen brought back the “one-lap-wonder” as he clinched Pole position on his first flying lap.
Carlos Sainz secured P2 for his home race and Lando Norris put his McLaren in P3! We got a Carlando 2-3 for Sunday’s start.
Pierre Gasly qualified P4 but after being investigated for impeding Sainz and Verstappen in Q1, the Frenchman was handed penalties that dropped him to P10 on the starting grid.

Race: June 4, 2023

Following their poor Qualifying results, Ferrari replaced the entire rear of Leclerc’s car and Williams adjusted Sargeant’s suspension and brake cooling. Since these changes were made under parc ferme conditions, both drivers went from starting last to starting from the pit lane.

As cars made their way to the grid, it became clear that tire strategy would play a huge role in the race. Verstappen, Perez, and Sargeant started on mediums while Leclerc was on hard tires and everyone else opted for softs.

When the five lights went out, Sainz slightly threatened Verstappen for the lead but the Dutchman managed to defend and pull away. Meanwhile, Hamilton challenged Norris for P3 and Norris picked up front wing damage when the two made contact at the exit of Turn 1. Sadly, my McLaren went from a P3 start to dead last in the matter of a lap as Norris pitted for a new front wing. Lance Stroll managed to put his Aston Martin in third amid all of this chaos and George Russell, who had started P12, was up to P7 due to an amazing start.

Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hulkenberg, Zhou Guanyu, and Nyck DeVries were the first to stop for fresher tires as their soft compounds seemed to be wearing by Lap 7.

By Lap 11, the Mercedes were showing the true potential of their newly upgraded car. Hamilton had quickly made his way to the podium positions by overtaking Stroll for P3, and George Russell had made up 7 positions to get to P5. Leclerc was also on a charge after starting from the pit lane, and the Monagasque got up to P11 by unleashing the aggressive Demon Charles.

On Lap 14, Esteban Ocon became the first of the front-runners to pit and Stroll responded by pitting one lap later to avoid the undercut. Soon after, Sainz, currently in P2, pitted from softs to mediums but questioned the strategy. Hamilton, who was chasing Sainz, felt that his soft tires were still doing well and opted to stay out rather than cover Ferrari’s attempted strategy. I mean, at least the team was trying to have a strategy. Ferrari then pitted Leclerc from hards to softs, and he came out in P17. It was going to be a long day for Demon Charles as he made up those places again.

At this point, Verstappen had a comfortable lead and the top six were the only drivers yet to pit. Alonso and Gasly were the first to stop, followed by Hamilton who pitted for mediums and came out behind Sainz. However, Hamilton staying out for longer put him on significantly fresher tires and Ferrari’s strategy looked like it would probably fail. Russell and Verstappen were next to pit, and Verstappen’s lead was so great that he pitted and still maintained 5-seconds on P2. Perez was the last to pit and came out in P9.

The next 10 laps saw Hamilton overtake Sainz for P2 and Leclerc and Perez try to make up positions they lost in pit stops. Ferrari then successfully double stacked Sainz and Leclerc for hard tires on Lap 42 with the goal of going to the end of the race.

Alonso, Russell, Perez, Hamilton, and Verstappen all pitted again around Lap 50 but the order remained Verstappen P1, Hamilton P2, and Russell P3. In the end, Verstappen won with a 24s. lead. Even with his three black-and-white flags for exceeding track limits, nothing was going to stop Verstappen from getting that win; he was just in a league of his own. Mercedes was more than pleased with their 2-3 finish. It looks like the Silver Arrows might officially be back.

It was smiles all around for the three on the podium

Tsunoda’s bad luck still persisted as he dropped from P9 to P12 because of a penalty he was given for forcing Zhou wide at Turn 1. Poor Yuki just can’t seem to catch a break. Every time it looks like he’s going to score points, something happens in the final stages of the race and he loses out.

Leclerc was unable to get into the points after starting from the pit-lane and only managed a P11 finish. The Ferrari just didn’t seem like it had the pace for either driver to excel today. Aston Martin was the same way, but slightly better, as Stroll and Alonso finished P6 and P7 respectively. This track didn’t seem to suit either car.

The Spanish Grand Prix was not as exciting as I had hoped it would be. Qualifying was intense and Practice gave us a lot of meaningful information on the upgrades, but the Race – like many other races this season – was sort of uneventful. For the future Ferrari strategist in me, I loved seeing how the different tire choices affected the race. But the actual race itself wasn't really fun to watch. I hope teams like Mercedes and Aston Martin can give us more battles as the season progresses, because I want to see Alonso v. Hamilton part two. Their original battles are before my time and I think we deserve the 40-Year-Olds version (like Taylor’s Version).

Anyway, I’ll be back next week for the Canadian Grand Prix!

- Divya

Where I got these