Despite all the hype, the first Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring was a bit of a damp squib. It was not met that warmly by fans watching at home on television and the drivers were critical as well. The biggest problem was the lack of overtaking. When you create a new circuit from scratch, as is the case with the Madring, it is unforgivable to end up with a layout like this.
From before a car turned a wheel it was clear as day that any action in the race was going to be very difficult. Yes, it may have been a decent challenge for the drivers as well as the engineers, but that should not be the most important part of the equation. People – and that includes the drivers – want to have at least a chance of overtaking.
The fact that leader Charles Leclerc, on old tyres, managed to stay in front of Kimi Antonelli, on fresh ones, for as long as he did underlines how hard passing was. It was almost like Monaco, if you replace the casino, harbour and glamorous hotels for a conference centre, a motorway intersection and soulless airport hotels. To add to that, Pierre Gasly did the full race minus one lap on one set of hards, so Pirelli got their calculations wrong on how degrading it was going to be on tyres.
What made overtaking so difficult?
There are a lot of corners – many of them blind – that lead into one another. This means that there is not a choice of lines for the corner. With sections like this, especially when you are braking and turning left slightly for a right-hander to set up the next corner, there is simply no room for another car.
The risk a driver takes in attempting an overtake is too large. Crashing into the car ahead or into the wall are the two most likely outcomes. There were not many run-off areas, either, which give you a bit of a bail-out from a divebomb. Another problem was a lack of switchbacks, where you can go up the inside knowing that on the exit of the corner you can brave it on the outside or vice versa, like the first chicane at Monza.
Some of the best tracks where we see some overtaking, like Silverstone and Spa, are open, whereas Madrid is confined and closed. You cannot see what is happening ahead which further complicates things for the drivers. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which has been criticised for years for being poor for racing, would have been better than this.
As for the long, banked corner “la Monumental”? Is it really that great to see the cars going round a banked corner like that? In some ways, yes, but what does it do for the racing? Almost nothing. It is just another banked corner, it is nothing special. F1 had gone to great lengths to call it “iconic” in the run-up to the race, which was ridiculous before they had even raced a single lap on it. In any case, given the limitations of these current cars in the way they deploy power, it was not a flat-out corner. As Fernando Alonso said, the Aston Martin press officer could tackle it without too many problems.
Modern-day F1 has a problem
In many ways the weekend sums up the problem with the direction of modern Formula One. Yes, the popularity of the sport has increased enormously and having races in or near major cities makes sense financially. But the racing itself needs to be worth watching. It is a problem with many of the new tracks like the Miami circuit, which is essentially a track around the car park for the Hard Rock stadium. It seems to be a problem in Madrid as well.
Is there anything they can do to improve racing at the Madring? There are certainly tweaks that can be made, perhaps making the track wider at points to promote an option of racing lines. I am not sure that things will improve enormously without a major revamp. I am sure that the FIA and F1 will be looking at this after Sunday’s disappointment, but it should have been addressed far sooner. There are certainly no quick and easy solutions.
It is all a bit of a mess and F1 keeps digging a hole for itself where artificial overtaking is required. The cars are not good at overtaking each other because of their aerodynamic characteristics. Let’s not make it any harder with circuits like this. This race was supposed to be the bee’s knees, but it was anything but.
I suppose one defence of the Madring is that it was a commitment track in qualifying, where a driver digging deep was able to make a difference. Lando Norris did that with what he called the best lap of his career and took a fine pole. That is not always the case with the current regulation cars, so I suppose that is something, but there is no reason that excitement cannot carry over into the race.
VSC ‘luck’ is not right
One other final gripe I have with the weekend is how the virtual safety car (VSC) is used. Norris drove brilliantly in qualifying to get pole and was looking comfortable out front when Lance Stroll’s retirement caused a VSC. Antonelli was able to pit for fresh tyres in this period, saving time from a normal stop at racing speed, but Norris was not because of where he was on the track. This in effect lost the McLaren driver a race that he undoubtedly deserved to win.
This is nonsense in my opinion. A race should not be decided by luck like this, especially when the FIA has the option to operate this differently without even changing the regulations. All it takes is for the race director to keep the VSC going until everyone has crossed the pit-entry once during it. That way race results are not down to luck.
That said, had the track been easier to overtake on Norris might have had a chance of fighting his way back to the front to challenge for the lead, but the layout ended any chance of that.