To be able to spar with you in the espresso corner, we have the position after the GP Spain 2023 for you. In addition, we noticed 7 things.
We were all looking forward to this race. The GP of Spain had to be the track where Nyck de Vries could fully push and show what he can do. We were curious how the adjustments to the track would turn out. Oh, and of course did the weather forecast come true?
7 Things that stood out
In this article we will cover everything in detail, so that you are completely up-to-date about the past weekend. Of course we have all ranks, positions and overviews for you, but we start with 7 things that stood out to us about the GP of Spain 2023:
McLaren quickly out in the cold
From closing the gates to the top 3. McLaren does it in 2 races. But isn’t that very strange? Nothing has been adjusted to the car since the GP of Azerbaijan 2023. It is due to the circumstances. When it’s cold (and damp), the McLaren is a rocket. Unfortunately, everything immediately went wrong for Norris: he had damage at the start and had to go straight to the pits.
Pérez not title challenger after all
Naturally, the press – and so did we – hyped him too much. We all WANT an exciting battle for the title. And it is quite clear that the Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes AMG GP Petronas are not going to deliver this season. There is a good chance that they will aim their arrows at next year. So everything comes down to Checo. Pérez is particularly strong on street circuits and has had a few lucky breaks for Max Verstappen.
Still, there is something that stood out to us about the past weekend. It was logical that Verstappen was going to put things in order. But that Pérez goes wrong with qualifying two weekends in a row? We didn’t see that coming, especially since it was absolutely unnecessary given the overspeed of the Red Bull RB19. That is also the reason why we were not impressed by Checo’s ‘catch-up race’.
Mercedes big step forward
You couldn’t really judge the updates from Mercedes at Monaco. It remains a street circuit where you should not crash and be lucky. Especially in the race it became clear that Mercedes has taken a very big step. The lap times were pretty good. Not only that, the tire wear was also neat. It is still not a match for Red Bull, but the difference has really become smaller.
Verstappen exceptional
Max Verstappen is untouchable in 2023. He is relaxed yet sharp. A dangerous combination for the competition. The biggest show of power was the last lap in Q3. Verstappen didn’t even finish his lap, because it was an improvement. His engineer Giampiero Lambiase advised to skip the lap to save the tires for the race. That is an extreme luxury and force majeure that is reminiscent of the dominant years of Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton. In the race, the display of power was even more impressive.
Aston Martin has ‘lost it’
Well, the predictions of ‘an all-Spanish podium’ or ‘Alonso might win the race’ could soon be scrapped. It was supposed to happen last weekend. But somewhere it didn’t go for a meter for the team from Silverstone. It was a disaster weekend in particular for Alonso. Now everything is relative, because last year an Aston Martin driver would sign for a points finish. It wasn’t until the second half of the race that Alonso’s Aston Martin came into its element.
Nyck de Vries ‘meh’
Mind you: ‘meh’ isn’t bad! De Vries drove reasonably well, namely a solid race. Yuki Tsunoda seems to be in great shape. You can do that after 2 seasons. De Vries did quite well in qualifying, although the P14 gives a distorted picture. De Vries has had some good overtaking action, despite the low top speed of the AlphaTauri. The problem is mainly Yuki, because the difference is already too big. There is an upward trend, but it seems too late and too little what brings Nyck to F1. AlphaTauri is a junior team and then it is better to let an 18-year-old talent mess around than a 28-year-old.
New circuit layout works out well
Let’s talk about the track, which was normally challenging to drive, but boring to watch. That in itself is still the case, but there is now more to experience. The fact that the chicanes in sector 3 are gone means that the entry speed of the straight is higher and there is more chance of overtaking. It’s going more than excellent so far.
Drivers Championship
Verstappen is still the leader in the championship! Much more exciting is what happens beyond that. The order does not change, it remains the same. However, the gap between Verstappen and Pérez is ‘suddenly’ 53 points. That must hurt. Lewis Hamilton is also catching up with Fernando Alonso. Stroll makes a nice jump to Leclerc. Sargeant and De Vries are the only two drivers without points.
The standings after the GP Spain 2023 in the drivers’ championship are as follows:
PositionRunnerTeamPoints1VerstappenRed Bull1702PérezRed Bull 1173AlonsoAston Martin994HamiltonMercedes875Russell Mercedes656SainzFerrari587LeclercFerrari428StrollAston Martin359OconAlpine2510GaslyAlpine1511NorrisMcLaren1212HülkenbergHaas613PiastriMcLaren514BottasAlfa Romeo415ZhouAlfa Romeo416TsunodaAlphaTauri217MagnussenHaas218AlbonWilliams119De VriesAlphaTauri020SargeantWilliams0
Constructors’ Championship
It is no surprise that Red Bull is lonely at the top. That cannot be found out in one race. But there are now a few extra exciting battles. The battle between Aston Martin and Mercedes is going to be a fun one. Alpine is in a kind of no man’s land, despite last week’s excellent performance. A small change at the bottom compared to last weekend is Alfa Romeo passing Haas. More importantly, Mercedes has taken P2 from Aston Martin.
The standings after the GP Spain 2023 in the constructors’ championship are as follows:
PositionTeamPoints1Red Bull Honda RBPT2872Mercedes1523Aston Martin Mercedes1344Ferrari1005Alpine406McLaren177Alfa Romeo88Haas Ferrari89AlphaTauri Honda RBPT210Williams Mercedes1
Qualifying game
In Spain it was noticeable that there was a big difference between the drivers in qualifying. Usually the cars are pretty close to each other, but there were big gaps this time. You don’t see it in this overview, so we’ll mention it briefly. What else stands out:
Stroll is faster than Alonso for the first time Hamilton has momentum on Russell, again faster in quali. Sainz (very much) faster than Leclerc Gasly and Ocon are evenly matched Hülkenberg have the upper hand in qualifying over Magnussen. De Vries is lucky by exceeding track limits Tsunoda Albon only driver who is at 100%
The position after the GP Spain 2023 in the qualifying game is as follows:
RunnerRunnerVerstappen5Pérez2Alonso6Stroll1Russell4Hamilton3Leclerc4Sainz jr.3Norris6Piastri1Ocon4Gasly3Hülkenberg5Magnussen2Guanyu3Bottas4Tsunoda5de Vries2Albon7Sargeant0
Fastest race lap
Verstappen asked a few laps before the end what the fastest race lap was. Giampiero Lambiase indicated that Verstappen had to focus on finishing the race, as Max had already broken track limits 3 times. Of course, Verstappen thought his own way and took the fastest lap on 12 laps of old C3 tires: 1:16.330 in lap 61. It mainly shows how much margin the combination of Verstappen and the Red Bull has.
The standings after the GP Spain 2023 in terms of fastest race laps are as follows:
RunnerTeamNumber of fastest race lapsVerstappenRed Bull3ZhouAlfa Romeo1RussellMercedes1PérezRed Bull1HamiltonMercedes1
Driver of the Day
Lewis Hamilton! He took this trophy with 24% of the vote. And somewhat rightly so. Lewis seems to get more out of the car than George anyway. In the race Hamilton could not make a fist against Verstappen, but you can also see it differently. Nothing strange happened in the race (safety car, rain, etc.) and Hamilton’s P2 was never in danger. Well done from the British champion who is far from finished in this sport.
The standings after the GP Spain 2023 in terms of Driver of the Day nominations are as follows:
RunnerTeamNumber of nominationsSergio PérezRed Bull2Max VerstappenRed Bull2Fernando AlonsoAston Martin1Lewis HamiltonMercedes1Esteban OconAlpine1
Did the Autoblog editors predict the race correctly?
No. Absolutely not actually. Yes, the win for Verstappen was a good bet. Pérez’s second place didn’t happen in real life. Since all three editors had VER-PER for P1-P2, the P3 prediction was going to be the deciding factor. None of the three editors had expected Mercedes to take such a step.
The position after the GP Spain 2023 in the editorial ranking is as follows:
EditorPointsJaap (VER, PER, STR)52Wouter (VER, PER, ALO)40Michael (VER, PER, SAI)25
Good driver = 1 point, good driver in the right position: 5 points.
These Grands Prix have already been held:
March 5 | Bahrain GP March 19 | Saudi Arabia GP April 2 | Australian GP Apr 30 | GP of Azerbaijan May 7 | Miami GP May 28 | Monaco GP June 4 | Spain GP
These Grands Prix are still on the calendar:
DatumRace16 Jun. – Jun 18 Canadian GPJun 30 – Jul 02 Austrian Grand Prix Jul 07 – Jul 09 Great Britain GP Jul 21 – Jul 23 Hungarian Grand Prix Jul 28 – Jul 30 Belgian GP Aug 25 – Aug 27 Dutch GP Sep 01 – 03 Sep. Italian GP15 Sep. – Sep 17 Singapore GP Sep 22 – Sep 24 Japanese GP Oct 06 – Oct 08 Qatar GP Oct 20 – Oct 22 United States GP Oct 27 – Oct 29 Mexico GP Nov 03 – 05 Nov. Brazil GP17 Nov. – Nov 19 Las Vegas GPNov 24 – Nov 26 Abu Dhabi GP
The first meters of the Canadian Grand Prix will be held on June 16 at 6:00 PM.
This article Stand after GP Spain 2023 and 7 things that stood out first appeared on Ruetir.
