We’re at the fifth race of the year, the Spanish Grand Prix, and already 2017 is shaping up to be a less one-sided year than we’ve seen in some time. Ferrari have been stiff competition for Mercedes this year, with four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel leading the championship standings over Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton himself is facing stiff competition from his new teammate Valtteri Bottas, who won his first ever Formula One race last fortnight and has been neck-and-neck with the Briton in the championship.
Bottas, after being recruited as the replacement for 2016 champion Nico Rosberg, has proven he is no No. 2 driver – and looks to be clawing away from the fate Rubens Barrichello once suffered – immense talent, but a team where he was always ‘second’. He’s led from Hamilton in the second practice session, but it’s early – and qualifying will give us a better picture of what’s next.
After what has seemed like three years of pure Mercedes racing, Ferrari finally have an engine that is regularly knocking seconds off its predecessor’s time – and seconds ahead of Mercedes, with Vettel right on Bottas’ heels in FP2.
Another practice session will really let us know what’s what.
Pluses, minuses and...Alonso leaves McLaren?
McLaren continued to move further away, it seems, from their goal of providing a ‘better engine’ as two-time championship winner Fernando Alonso suffered yet another setback, with his car failing mid-track on his first lap, spinning out of control with what appears to have been a rear axle failure, and leaking oil all over the track. We imagine Alonso is pretty used to it by now, but it can’t have been pleasant either way, with the Spanish champion carted off by a marshal on his bike heading off to his hotel soon after. He was already there playing tennis when other drivers were out on track with cars that have not failed them consistently.
It really hasn’t been a great couple of years for McLaren, but Alonso has still somehow struggled and fought to points finishes in 2016 – more a testament to his immense talent than anything else. One can’t help but think at this point that the game-changing Alonso deserves better than the car he currently has.
The team will now have until then to keep their No. 1 driver – but it doesn’t look great for the legacy squad.
Fun fact – the grid penalties that McLaren will incur as a result of Alonso’s engine change will be taken on by Jenson Button, who will return for a one-time appearance at McLaren for the Monaco GP as his former teammate competes in Indy500.
We now hear Alonso has issued McLaren an ultimatum – find an engine that can win championshis by late summer, or Alonso is open up to late summer transfers/sales – and a little birdie tells us his former team Renault – with whom he won two championships – have expressed interest! Certainly a better car up for grabs there and a possible drive alongside 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and former Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg.
Alonso to Renault again in 2018? Let’s see.
Practice wasn’t great for McLaren, but let’s look at last year’s race for a second. Barcelona, Spanish Grand Prix 2016. Max Verstappen made his debut for Red Bull Racing after a quick transfer from their B-Team Toro Rosso – and that’s paid off and how. The youngster won his first F1 race on DEBUT for a team, practically unheard of, and has already been more successful than his racer father Jos.
Barcelona’s known for testing and it’s a high-speed track – so we should see some great racing here, with Red Bull upping the ante, or so they say, Mercedes topping practice but Ferrari absolutely not far behind, and both Verstappen and Bottas looking for sustained glory. Not a one-horse race anymore.
Kimi’s been behind Vettel so far this year, but finished up on him in the early practice sessions. The Finn has looked a bit lackluster this year and disinterested – but maybe that’s just Kimi. Leave him alone. He knows what he’s doing. Maybe he’s born with it. Maybe it’s just Kimi.
While most will be looking at the Mercedes – Ferrari fight, there’s some great talent waiting around with even Force India’s Sergio Perez doing quite well in P2.
FP 1 and 2 results
“We could have had better tyre compounds”
Pirelli have made the hard tyre available for the first time this year, but both Daniel Ricciardo and Felipe Massa have made their dissatisfaction felt – as has Perez, who said it would be “only good for the pictures” – with comparatively lower track temperatures, Perez and many other drivers felt Pirelli should have made super-softs available for the race weekend, if not the purple ultra-soft compund.
Massa has called it a ‘joke,’ echoing what Perez said earlier – that the hard compound would “barely be used.”
What’s the weather like?
Initially we were expected to see a high chance of rain – and goodness knows fans would enjoy a good wet race. But that won’t likely happen this time around with...er, 0% chance of precipitation. Cool and sunny in Barcelona with some temperate weather, and we’re good to go for FP3.
Here’s your quick look at the weather!
As we strap in for FP3, we’ll update you on just what it’s looking like for qualifying later this evening. Let us know your predictions below!
