Gran Premio de Espana Telefonica 2009

The European season starts in two weeks time. The Barcelona race is traditionaly the race where most new development parts come out, as its closer to home for many teams and is the dominant circuit for testing. Every driver should know this track very well, and Fernando Alonso always excells here, his most notable performances being 2003 and his pole position last season. The circuit itself is largely unspectacular, the only real overtaking places being turn 1 and turn 10. And ofcourse we have the horrible section at the Europcar Curve designed by the evil Herman Tilke (the designer of Sepang, Shanghai, Bahrain, Istanbul and the horrible developments at spa and ofcourse his latest project at Abu Dhabi) which takes the amazment out of the, what used to be excellent, New Holland curve. Expect the Brawns to do well here, they dominated here in pre-season testing and have new floor and wings ready for the Circuit de Catalunya, however, expect much more tech developments from Renault, Toyota, Red Bull etc and ofcourse, Ferrari, can Ferrari reverse their recent fortunes, or lack of them, and not become the 'Failrari' that they have been in the past 4 Grands Prix.

One more boring track to get out of the way before we hit Monaco two weeks after this.

Circuit Statistics

Race Date: 10th May
Number of Laps: 66
Circuit Length: 4.655 km
Race Distance: 307.104 km
Lap Record: 1:21.670 - K Raikkonen (2008)

FIA F1 World Constructors Championship (top 5)

1 - Brawn-Mercedes - 50
2 - RBR-Renault - 27.5
3 - Toyota - 26.5
4 - McLaren-Mercedes - 13
5 - Renault - 5

FIA F1 World Drivers Championship (top 5)

1 - Jenson Button - GBR - Brawn-Mercedes - 31
2 - Rubens Barrichello - BRA - Brawn-Mercedes - 19
3 - Sebastien Vettel - GER - RBR-Renault - 18
4 - Jarno Trulli - ITA - Toyota - 14.5
5 - Timo Glock - GER - Toyota - 12

Discuss, speculate etc..

F1's been quite quiet this week hasn't it

I see they have already confirmed the 'Winner-takes-all' system for next season...

http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5288324,00.html

Oh, and a Brawn car will win again.

Ah... I may have to turn my attentions of top level single seaters to Indy Car next season.

Oh wait! Tony George will pull the plug on that if it isnt profitable by 2011..

Oh joy...

And jense does it again........

vettel is heavyer tho and massa is much heavyer than the top 5

Ferrari have made great progress, and im loving the new BMW nose!

BMW loooks......better. Ferrari are ok but I still dont think they'd have the pace without KERS.
Jenson still had a scrappy-ish lap but got it on pole. Excellent work once again. Good to see Mark up there too

eddie jordan asking the hard questions from ross brawn.

i love the BBC coverage with DC and Jordan and brundle. it is far superior to the speedtv coverage team. peter windsor and bob varsha. windsor just hunts people down to get interviews with them on the grid when they obviously dont want to be interviewed and varsha wont shut up about the stupid kers system.

now watching the thing about the british GP in trouble. what a shame.

Isn't Dereck Daily in the SPEED line up? Or have I been watching too much old CART videos?

nicky wrote:Isn't Dereck Daily in the SPEED line up? Or have I been watching too much old CART videos?

i dont know, i dont watch speed f1 coverage simply because of peter windsor. i think he's atrocious.

varsha's not terrible. but he seriously dosent shut up about the kers system. no lie he probably mentions it once every 2-3 minutes or at least every time a ferrari is shown

Peter Windsor is..... infuriating to listen to. So full of his own self importance. Even moreso now he has US EFF OFF.... sorry USGPE

I'd like to see Gary back in the BBC lineup. He was really good on the technical stuff and not quite as annoying as Eddie Jordan. Plus the height difference between himself, David and Jake is hilarious!!

Ah, gotta love Martin...

"At least Fisi is in the Top 20 of the Grid...pity there are only 20 runners today..."

lol, Mark aint afraid to swear to the world

EJ with some very strong opinions!

By Gary I meant Mike..... well they ARE both technical directors...or were.
Yeah Eddie not pulling any punches with his views today. Liked the comment David and Martin made about the 96 Jordan too! Gotta love it.

i like when they have ian phillips up in the booth.

it's also awesome when eddie and DC get snippy with each other on the grid. like yesterday in qualifying...

I bet when DC said, 'I wouldnt have liked to drive for you' because of his 'suspend him' comment, EJ was taken back to Heinz-Harold Frentzen! lol