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...