2025 Spanish Grand Prix - Barcelona-Catalunya May 30 - June 1

[avantman]

so many people keep confusing still some hypothetical pace during FP2 with real race pace that we'll see on sunday, despite all the historical evidence. that's quite incredible.

[mwillems]

They may have turned the tyres to mush which always equals understeer, but the car turns on a dime when the grip is there. Lando has literally lost pole positions this year because he has been surprised by the sharp turn in. Miami being an obvious example in the final hairpin.

I think they've lost more time and positions from understeering than anything else to be fair.

The car definately has a lot of grip at the front though, i think both poinys are true.

They were scrubbing speed pre entry more than usual for several races to avoid trail braking to get a higher apex speed because of the grip it could carry through the corner in this manner.

Yeah but you have to put that "understeer" in relation to competitors. Some corners will just always induce understeer no matter what.

Yeah I I get your meaning. I think the car does, relative to last year and the field, understeer more than it has, it's just that you can approach the corner differently, taker a longer braking phase, avoid some of the trail braking and take an exit minded approach with an ultimate net time gain.

I expect the team to find what is the right approach for each corner, how much they can carry speed or shed speed into the corner and balance it, with the understeering disappearing as far as us viewers can see. it doesn't mean it won't have issues getting though the corner if they tried to take a traditional approach, it's just that this doesn't work best at times so they don't drive it like that. i.e. the trait doesn't go, but they avoid it - though Lando finds this harder because he likes a pointy front, whereas Oscar has always shed more speed on entry and leant more on the rears, something that probably also feeds into their different tyre usage.

I do agree with you though, when the car is happy, I don't think anything matches it for grip through the low speeds, it's the best.

[f1isgood]

so many people keep confusing still some hypothetical pace during FP2 with real race pace that we'll see on sunday, despite all the historical evidence. that's quite incredible.

I mean, McLaren were half a second a lap quicker last year and failed to win from pole. Results don't reflect pace and so far it looks Norris will just fly off.

[mwillems]

so many people keep confusing still some hypothetical pace during FP2 with real race pace that we'll see on sunday, despite all the historical evidence. that's quite incredible.

It's not like there is a very complete history this year of Mclaren running higher modes in FPs 1 and 2

[SB15]

Verstappen was lapping consistently in the 1:19 and very low 1:20's. Both Mercedes were around the high 1:20.7's on average, could be wrong. Norris was the only one lapping in the 1:18's. His 2nd stint on the mediums was mighty.

I think we can't judge too much on pace from times as of now as i think many were driving to the Delta the teams set for them, probably testing out tyre degradation and management, but looks like general relative order is same as every race before nothing changed due to TD as some predicted.

Piastri was lapping in the 1:20.8's. So it maybe Fuel and Engine modes loads playing a massive in Norris's times.

Mclaren are still doing this very aggressive race run in free practice. So we can conclude that, we still don't have answers.

Looking at Verstappen's times, that should raise eyebrows.

[Cs98]

FP2 times aren't that interesting because of all the unknowns. What is far more relevant is how the cars went last year given what we have is basically just evolutions of those cars. McLaren being fast should be a surprise to exactly no one given they took pole and had top race pace in 2024. Their car hasn't exactly gotten worse since then. It's a high deg track with long radius corners, right up Macca alley.

[AR3-GP]

Looks like Stella was right, they are going to destroy the competition lol

There are many variables here. We don't know the engine modes. Also, teams will have to use more than 1 tire on Sunday.

The understeer is still there on the Mclaren (it doesn't look like the MCL38 or even earlier this year). It also seemed to me that Lando was driving flatout in his 2nd stint (he only did 3 or 4 laps, and went outside of track limits at T11 on 1 or 2 laps).

[f1isgood]

Looks like Stella was right, they are going to destroy the competition lol

There are many variables here. We don't know the engine modes. Also, teams will have to use more than 1 tire on Sunday.

The understeer is still there on the Mclaren (it doesn't look like the MCL38 or even earlier this year). It also seemed to me that Lando was driving flatout in his 2nd stint (he only did 3 or 4 laps, and went outside of track limits on 2 laps).

I saw telemetry, engine modes look the same. But could be that NOR was pushing and VER was driving to a delta. Usually with a tire change there's a jump in performance naturally. We didn't see that with VER, so there's that.

[pantherxxx]

Verstappen was in traffic.

[AR3-GP]

Looks like Stella was right, they are going to destroy the competition lol

There are many variables here. We don't know the engine modes. Also, teams will have to use more than 1 tire on Sunday.

The understeer is still there on the Mclaren (it doesn't look like the MCL38 or even earlier this year). It also seemed to me that Lando was driving flatout in his 2nd stint (he only did 3 or 4 laps, and went outside of track limits on 2 laps).

I saw telemetry, engine modes look the same. But could be that NOR was pushing and VER was driving to a delta. Usually with a tire change there's a jump in performance naturally. We didn't see that with VER, so there's that.

As mentioned above, Verstappen did every lap of the stint (except the very first lap) behind another car. First it was Leclerc, who he closed and overtook between lap 2 and lap 5. Then he caught Russell's gearbox on lap 6 before Russell pitted end of lap 6. Finally, Antonelli came out of the box on fresher tires at start of lap 7 about 2 seconds in front and remained there until the end. The soft tire is more sensitive to overheating in dirty air.

[f1isgood]

There are many variables here. We don't know the engine modes. Also, teams will have to use more than 1 tire on Sunday.

The understeer is still there on the Mclaren (it doesn't look like the MCL38 or even earlier this year). It also seemed to me that Lando was driving flatout in his 2nd stint (he only did 3 or 4 laps, and went outside of track limits on 2 laps).

I saw telemetry, engine modes look the same. But could be that NOR was pushing and VER was driving to a delta. Usually with a tire change there's a jump in performance naturally. We didn't see that with VER, so there's that.

As mentioned above, Verstappen did every lap of the stint (except the very first lap) behind another car. First it was Leclerc, who he closed and overtook between lap 2 and lap 5. Then he caught Russell's gearbox on lap 6 before Russell pitted end of lap 6. Finally, Antonelli came out of the box on fresher tires at start of lap 7 about 2 seconds in front and remained there until the end. The soft tire is more sensitive to overheating in dirty air.

Yeah noted. I am also not going to read much into that last stint of Lando's anyways. Way too short and I am inclined to think Red Bull simply managed pace that stint.

But I have to say, when was the last time Red Bull looked anywhere near the Papayas on Friday? Maybe a combination of many things might have worked after all.

[stephen]

it is tough to watch Yuki struggle so hard. I hope he has good qualifying tomorrow and at least make it to the Q3.

[venkyhere]

FP2 comparison across the big hitter teams :
(for whatever it's worth)

Quali sims fastest laps :
- Redbull & Mercedes seem to be sandbagging more than Mclaren & Ferrari
- RB21 is the class of the field through T9, T13, T14, next best being the W16.
- MCL39 is mega through T1-2, T4 and the T10-11-12 complex => class of the field, unbeatable in these corners.
- SF25 great through T5 "u-turn", but suffers like hell through the T7-T8 right angle left turn.

Long run on softs :
- Redbull seem to be running with lowest engine mode, Ferrari seem to be running with lowest fuel load.
- SF25 struggles with T10-11-12 direction switches compared to others, despite carrying least fuel.
- MCL39 still unbeatable through T4 but have met their match through T10-11-12 in RB21 (or is it because it is Norris instead of Piastri driving it)
- T9, T13, T14 advantage of RB21 continues, important to note that two of these are before DRS straights.

Of course the above is conjecture from a few onboards and data, all this could turn on it's head for Q and R.

[SB15]

FP2 comparison across the big hitter teams :
(for whatever it's worth)

Quali sims fastest laps :
- Redbull & Mercedes seem to be sandbagging more than Mclaren & Ferrari
- RB21 is the class of the field through T9, T13, T14, next best being the W16.
- MCL39 is mega through T1-2, T4 and the T10-11-12 complex => class of the field, unbeatable in these corners.
- SF25 great through T5 "u-turn", but suffers like hell through the T7-T8 right angle left turn.

Long run on softs :
- Redbull seem to be running with lowest engine mode, Ferrari seem to be running with lowest fuel load.
- SF25 struggles with T10-11-12 direction switches compared to others, despite carrying least fuel.
- MCL39 still unbeatable through T4 but have met their match through T10-11-12 in RB21 (or is it because it is Norris instead of Piastri driving it)
- T9, T13, T14 advantage of RB21 continues, important to note that two of these are before DRS straights.

Of course the above is conjecture from a few onboards and data, all this could turn on it's head for Q and R.

Before the beginning I predicted Mercedes and Redbull being the top 2 teams right after Spain with Mclaren a close third.

Highly, highly doubt this little prediction will age great at all. So, we'll see how FP3 goes. To me, the Season starts this weekend.

[venkyhere]

Do we know who has how many tyres of each kind left ?
Is there an official website where we can look up how many tyres are used up / left over, for each driver, from his allocation set, after each session ? I have seen members fastidiously posting excel sheet snapshots (which I think they are maintaining personally) , but I am surprised I haven't come across any 'official' source of info for the same.