After a brief excursion across the Atlantic, Formula 1 returns to Europe for the Spanish Grand Prix and the traditional start of the ‘European’ phase of the championship.
With so many upgrades expected this weekend up and down the paddock and a direct comparison for teams to make to the first pre-season test in February, this weekend could be the most enlightening of the season so far in terms of how the rest of the year may pan out.
Here are the talking points for the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix.
How will upgrades affect the order?
For many years, the Spanish Grand Prix acted as a major milestone in the annual car development race that is so critical in Formula 1. As one of the earliest European races of the season, often the first, Barcelona was the most cost-effective early-season event for teams to introduce major upgrade packages forged by applying the knowledge learned over first few rounds of the year.
This year will be no different, with many teams having already confirmed they will be running upgrades to their cars during this weekend’s event. Alpine will be applying upgrades to their car after introducing a revised floor in recent rounds, while Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has previously stated that the team will introduce upgrades to their car around the Spanish Grand Prix.
For Mercedes the race offers an opportunity to benchmark the radical ‘zero’ sidepods with the more conventional design they ran at this track for the first pre-season test. Will that shed more light on the porpoising problems which have vexed them ever since? Could they even contemplate a ‘downgrade’ back to the original specification?
This weekend is also a vital one in terms of data collection, as teams will be able to directly correlate data directly against the three days of running their completed at the opening pre-season test. While the first test was far more about understanding the basics about the all-new cars and troubleshooting reliability issues than it…