If Catalunya is showing the shape of the season to come, it’s thrillingly close · RaceFans

Throughout most of the Circuit de Catalunya’s three decades of gracing the Formula 1 calendar, the track has had a reputation for being the best indicator for relative car performance of any in the championship.

A track that more experienced drivers know better than any other, the Barcelona circuit used to see cars run thousands of laps annually around the 4.6km course in pre- and in-season testing prior to the Spanish Grand Prix.

With its generous main straight, several sustained mid-speed corners, a fiddly low-speed section or two and a pair of high speed sweepers to end the lap, Catalunya was believed to be the best ‘all-round’ circuit to test any F1 car’s fundamental performance. And when it came to the grand prix itself, teams would often run roughly in rank order of performance.

But as F1 cars evolve over the years, so too does the calendar. And now, the Barcelona circuit may not be the bellweather track it once was. As Fernando Alonso pointed out, that is partly due to the rising number of street circuits.

“I think now we have a lot of ‘Bakus’, ‘Miamis’, ‘Las Vegases’,” Alonso said of the current calendar to the official F1 channel after Friday practice. “So to come here, maybe there are six or seven venues the same as Barcelona and 18 that are different. So it’s always a trade-off that you need to make.” Sure enough, last year showed that Spain is no longer a litmus test for the rest of the season.

Yes, Red Bull and Ferrari were the quickest cars over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend in 2023, as they were on average over the season. But only they and the slowest team – Williams – ranked the same in terms of outright performances as they did over the season as a whole.

McLaren performed better here than on average and Alpine, ultimately sixth in the championship, were fourth. Mercedes, who went on to take the runner-up spot in the standings, were only fifth here.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

So whatever the outcome over the rest of this event, don’t assume that this weekend will give us a truly representative order for how the teams fare against one another and what to expect over the bulk of the season to come. Especially when there was so little to separate the field after the opening two practice sessions.

At the end of Friday, Lewis Hamilton’s advantage at…