Rivalry set to heat up in Barcelona
MERCEDES and Ferrari renew their Formula One rivalry on familiar terrain on Sunday at the Spanish Grand Prix, but it is far too early in the season to make title predictions.
It is said that cars which are fast on the 4.655-kilometre Circuit de Catalunya are competitive everywhere else as well.
But the Barcelona race has only been won by the eventual world champion three times in the past decade, Jenson Button in 2009, Sebastian Vettel in 2011 and Lewis Hamilton in 2014.
All teams know the track well as it is also used for the pre-season tests.
There Ferrari impressed and the first four races confirmed that they have caught up with Mercedes, with Vettel winning twice for the Scuderia, and Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas once each for the champions.
“Ferrari is competitive again and is feared by our rivals,” Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne said.
Ferrari are just one point behind Mercedes in the constructors’ list while Vettel leads the drivers’ championship with 86 points from Hamilton (73), Bottas (63) and Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari (49).
But the four-time world champion is taking nothing for granted as “we more or less got the maximum” out of the first races.
“Barcelona is another race, and there are many races this year,” he said. “We had a very good start. We are here to win, to do our best, but we can still learn and improve.”
Vettel fell just short of hunting down Bottas two weeks ago in Russia as the Finn held on for his first career win, while Hamilton had to settle for fourth with pace problems and will now hope to rebound in Spain.
Mercedes motorsport chief Toto Wolff said the team is doing everything to make the car perform well again, and also continues to adapt to no longer being the unchallenged number one in the sport.
“I have the feeling that we are moving in the right direction but we need 24/7 shifts to achieve our ultimate targets,” he said.
“This inter-team battle is a totally different situation than what we have seen over the last three years. You simply need to adapt to the challenge and that’s what we are doing, playing the hunter as well as being the hunted.
“This fight will continue on to the end of the season and we will be prepared for that battle.”
Wolff added he expects a three-team battle because “Red Bull will also eventually join the club” of title contenders.
Red Bull in general and their driver Max Verstappen have fond memories of Barcelona as the Dutch teenager scored his first and so far only career win there last year.
“Last year was such a special race to me and in the end we managed to pull it off,” Verstappen said.
“Going back to Spain will always mean a lot to me.”
Like the other teams, Red Bull will have made updates to the car and Verstappen said he hopes it will draw them closer to the leaders.
“We have to wait and see what the updates will bring. I hope we can be a bit closer to the top teams or that we can at least follow them. That would already be a good step forward,” he said.
Meanwhile, American Formula One team Haas have signed Indian teenager Arjun Maini as a development driver, they announced ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.
“It’s an honour to be a part of Haas F1 Team’s driver development program,” Maini said in a statement yesterday. “All of my racing to date has been with the focus of becoming a Formula One driver, and this opportunity puts me one step closer to my goal.”
The 19-year-old Maini is currently a driver in the GP3 series of Jenzer Motorsport and joins another teenager, 18-year-old American Santino Ferrucci, in Haas’ development programme.
“As Haas F1 Team continues to mature, we must look toward our future and develop potential talent,” Guenther Steiner, team principal, said. “Arjun was successful in karting and has transitioned well to various Formula series and now GP3. We’ll keep a keen eye on his progress this year.” – dpa