Barcelona - Catalunya 2021 Pre-Race thread

I'm desperately hoping that it won't be another snoozefest like Portimao.

 

As i said before, only the rain can save us from a boring race at catalunya track.

 

This track is unforgiving for exposing car deficiencies like poor aero, traction and power so you can imagine which car will dominate.

On the other hand, the teams have a lot of knowledge of the track and if weather conditions are more normal than the last two races I expect we’ll be better able to assess the relative competitiveness of the teams, especially the mid-field.

 

I'll probably watch this one live since I'm normally sleeping during that time anyways. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.

 

Maybe the reprofiling of T10 and T11 will bring something to the game.

 

With correct Catalan pronunciation

 

They will analyze the new floor to bring it next year. oh but wait, the rules change completely in 2022, too bad !

 

Home race for Carl . . . . GO#55

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Would've liked to have seen that convoy rolling up the road

 

Lets hope he's not the victim again of Ferrari's inability to manage 2 cars in their team...

 

Get it right in Spain Charles!!

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/stash-leclerc-portimao-qualifying-shows-i-have-a-lot-to-learn/6502815/

Leclerc qualified fourth for each of the first two races of the 2021 season, but slumped to eighth in Portugal last weekend after struggling to nail his final lap in Q3.

It resigned Leclerc to a qualifying defeat to Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr and meant he could only recover to sixth place in the race, losing out in the midfield fight to McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies said that Leclerc seemed “less comfortable” at Portimao with the tricky track conditions, lacking the usual “magic” he can deliver across one lap to outstrip the performance of the car.

“He has this capacity to extract two-tenths that we didn’t know were there in our car,” Mekies said. “He does that on a regular basis. It’s nearly normal business for him to do that.”

Leclerc said that while he was grateful for Mekies’ comment, he felt his display in Portugal showed that he still had room for improvement when it came to approaching qualifying.

"I feel like yesterday shows also that I've got a lot to learn still,” Leclerc said after the race.

“Surely qualifying is one of my strengths. But yesterday, and overall, this weekend has been quite poor for me. So, very inconsistent. So there's still a lot to work on my side.”

A number of drivers reported struggles with the low-grip asphalt at Portimao, which combined with the hardest selection of Pirelli tyres left many feeling uncomfortable throughout the weekend.

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Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Leclerc explained that he struggle with building up his lap time across all three stages of qualifying, having gained just 0.067 seconds between his best laps in Q1 and Q3.

“What I learned from this weekend is maybe I should have taken it step by step, especially on such a difficult weekend like this,” Leclerc said.

 

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2021: from Portimao to Barcelona
2022: from Montreal to Miami

 

Well should be another cracker of absolute dismal racing which is a feature of Barcelona

 

I anticipate the boredom now. Its overwhelming already. I actually needed to make espresso to type this given what is coming this weekend lol

 

Hope it was a double with some red Bull thrown in too

 

Only the best

 

Weather is pleasant and 20-21C for max temps. Sunny. Not too warm it seems for the race weekend.