The drivers love the 14-turn ( eight rights, six lefts) Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya because the track has a fantastic mix of high-speed and low-speed turns, with two long straights. On top of that, the drivers know it really well due to it being the pre-season test track for many years.
The Team have had some amazing times at the Spanish Grand Prix with five wins and a total of 14 podiums. The most memorable coming in 2016, when a fresh-faced Max Verstappen made his debut. The 18-year and 228-day-old Dutchman made history when he took the chequered flag and became the youngest – and first ever Dutch – driver to win a Grand Prix. His record still stands.
There was then a big gap between wins in Spain for the Team, until 2022 when both Max and Checo roared to a one-two finish, with Checo taking the fastest lap for that extra point. Max made it two in a row by claiming a Grand Slam in Spain in 2023, so will be looking for his hat-trick on Sunday 23rd June.
The Spanish Grand Prix consists of 66 laps of the 4.65km-long circuit. There will be a sprint down to turn one which is 579m from the grid and the cars are expected to reach 322kph as their top speed. The current lap record is held our very own Max Verstappen, who set a time of 1:16.330 on his way to his win in 2023.
We are back to the European races for a while now and I have been with the Team at the factory this week preparing for the Spanish Grand Prix, being the first race of a busy triple header. Barcelona will be the first race where I will be debuting my new orange helmet. As a tribute to my fans and all of their support, they are actually featured on helmet and I think the final design looks really cool and detailed. I have great memories from the circuit, especially winning my first Formula One race there. It has a good mix of high and low-speed corners and we have historically driven well there so hopefully we can maximise the performance of the car this weekend. We are aiming to keep the momentum going from Canada, so we are looking forward to racing this weekend and hopefully have some good weather!
Coming into Spain I know I need a successful weekend, after a disaster in Canada. Sometimes you are forced to reset a little and we have done that since the last race. I have been in Milton Keynes working with the Team to try and identify where and what we can do better to ensure I am getting the most out of this car. I am confident in the car and the performance we can execute from it, but I need to show that on track better in Barcelona. I always enjoy the Spanish GP, it feels a lot like home and everyone makes me feel so welcome. It’s a circuit I know very well and the RB20 should be quick around this type of track, so it’s down to us to get things right and bring home the result we know we are capable of.
