Spanish GP
Canadian GP
The very different demands of Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya and those of Montréal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve would be an important litmus test for the three closely matched teams directly behind Red Bull.
Aston Martin, Mercedes and Ferrari have three very different but quite well-matched cars, each with at least one stellar driver. The competitive order between them is shuffled between each race. But the big deficit to the dominant Red Bull had been unchanging in the first six races. Mercedes was the first to introduce a major update of its car in an attempt at closing that gap. This had debuted at Monaco, but Barcelona would be the first realistic test of its effectiveness. Ferrari’s major bodywork upgrade would debut in Barcelona. Aston Martin’s would arrive in Montréal. How would this reset impact upon the order between them and the deficit to Red Bull?
After a quick trip down the coast of southern France and northern Spain, F1 decamped to Barcelona just a day or two after leaving Monaco.
Mercedes had ditched the ‘zero-sidepod’ concept of the last two years, with a more
