2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix - Barcelona, June 12 - 14

[venkyhere]

Whichever way I dice it, I can't see beyond a Mclaren 1-2, if they get their new front wing to work.
This track is a clash of 'who has the best front end' and given the innovative front suspension design by RobMarshall (as evidenced by 2024/2025), and unless McLaren goof their setup, others won't come close. Qualifying doesn't matter on such a flowy track where PU performance gaps are going to be huge, given that there is only turn 1 with 'huge braking'.

If McLaren flounder, it's going to be Mercedes, obviously. Even Ferrari might surprise, but Redbull with their overweight, don't stand a chance, as the entire track is made up of quick direction changes post medium speed and high speed long corners, where a tyre has to suddenly unload after sustained loading, and vice versa.

Bold of you to keep guessing McLaren dominance in a year in which they haven't won anything yet (as far as main events are concerned)...

Haven't both Lando and Lewis admitted that their cars lack downforce compared to Mercedes as of now?... Relative car strengths and weaknesses can shift quickly in a year of a brand new regulation set of course, but your car needs to be at least in the ballpark to be able to obtain "the best front end", clever tweaking of the CoP/mechanical balance won't do the trick if you fundamentally lack aero load...

I was specific about this track. My post has no mention of 'dominance' in any way or form. And this is the first track where I expect Mclaren to surpass Mercedes, so I haven't been 'keep guessing' it.

McL40 was the closest match to the W17 in T1-2-3 in China, Sector1 in Japan, both of which were before they made a step up with their PU in Miami. In Miami, they looked good in Sector1 for the SQ and Sprint, before they goofed their Q, and were back with good Sector1s in the race. My comments were based on these observations, wherever quick high speed direction switches or long corners were involved. Ferrari is good with the same, however in Barcelona, PU strength will matter.

[HungarianRacer]

McL40 was the closest match to the W17 in T1-2-3 in China, Sector1 in Japan, both of which were before they made a step up with their PU in Miami. In Miami, they looked good in Sector1 for the SQ and Sprint, before they goofed their Q, and were back with good Sector1s in the race. My comments were based on these observations, wherever quick high speed direction switches or long corners were involved. Ferrari is good with the same, however in Barcelona, PU strength will matter.

It seems pretty clear to me that Mercedes' Canada upgrade has proved more powerful than their rivals' 'phase 1' upgrade pacakges... Sure, initially, both Ferrari and McLaren were making inroads on Merc's advantage just from seemingly capturing more "low-hanging fruit" gains from optimizations with their early season car packages, but you really cannot use those earlier races as reference points anymore...

James Allison quantified this early reg-set development rate we are in right now to be about a quarter of a second per month, all teams will have some parts coming to Barcelona in all likelihood, let's see how the pecking order develops...

[langedweil]

With ADUO out and the 'new' compression tests are being executed (with Monaco as weird outlier) I'm just curious whether there will be any different PU outputs .. just to be able to tell or decide if control-systems were or have been gamed.
Still don't buy into the reasoning .. MB PU's have been too dominant too be just that much better by only the electrical side.

[Mr5in1]

With ADUO out and the 'new' compression tests are being executed (with Monaco as weird outlier) I'm just curious whether there will be any different PU outputs .. just to be able to tell or decide if control-systems were or have been gamed.
Still don't buy into the reasoning .. MB PU's have been too dominant too be just that much better by only the electrical side.

ADUO will take a few months before affects, teams need to design test/dyno new parts/upgrades for the engine

Teams will be bringing new aero upgrades or V2 aero packages this weekend, track puts emphasis on a strong front end, question to me can McLaren and Ferrari find gains on Mercedes, gut says Kimi win 6!

[FW17]

Would have been nice if they continued with the Monaco deployment rules

[langedweil]

ADUO will take a few months before affects, teams need to design test/dyno new parts/upgrades for the engine

Well, aside from the fact that teams (like Fer) have already been working on their updates, I just purely meant the 'gaming' of that ADUO testing .. like clever but purposefully sandbagging your ICE.

[langedweil]

ADUO will take a few months before affects, teams need to design test/dyno new parts/upgrades for the engine

Well, aside from the fact that teams (like Fer) have already been working on their updates, I just purely meant the 'gaming' of that ADUO testing .. like cleverly but purposefully sandbagging your ICE.

[erudite450]

The cars are so nervous.

[Artur Craft]

The cars are so nervous.

and quite a bit slower. During Russell´s fastest lap, he lifted quite a bit for Campsa and was doing "only" 240km/h. The cars are lighter now but the diminished downforce and slightly narrower tyres are playing a bigger role than the weight reduction

That aside. Aaron is confirming to be very quick, he impressed me on F2 more than any of the newbies (Bortoleto, Hadjar, Bearman, Antonelli), I hope he get´s a chance soon. Meanwhile, Herta is proving to be the Lewis Hamilton of Indycar....

[search]

based on the FP data so far, Pirelli expects "at least 2 stops" in the race.

[zibby43]

[media] [/media]

[search]

it's kinda funny that right after Isola retired, Pirelli announced to bring softer tires. Hopefully it's not just a coincidence.