Three things we learned from the SpanishGP? Max dominates, whilst Mercedes return to the front is on?

​Well the week before Monaco GrandPrix was a interesting affair, obviously helped by rain but it was a good GrandPrix with drama but Spain, it was a decent qualifying but then again the race itself I thought was a bit dull. Don’t get me wrong wasn’t Miami level of dullness or anything like that but so far I wouldn’t say it was a memorable GrandPrix. On my list of best GrandPrix we’ve had this season it probably ranks fourth or fifth. Depending on which you preferred SaudiArabia or Spain? But here nonetheless are three key take aways, I took from Spain.

Max Verstappen hit a new level of form.

Max this weekend was something else, all three practice sessions of FP1, FP2, FP3 was quickest, that then translated into a Pole Position for the Dutchman and was miles clear of the field and then a gentle cruise to the finish line on Sunday. I don’t think he was even pushing that’s how mad it is I mean Max could have won this race by 50 seconds if he wants but decided to win it by 24 seconds.

The was times on the team radio where his race engineer told him he was exceeding track limits but seemed oblivious to that and ultimately for me that either indicates two things A) a driver who’s really pushing the boundaries or B) a driver who’s actually so happy and relaxed and at one with his car that he is in another world compared to what reality is. He ain’t even breaking into a sweat and also pulled 6 extra seconds in final the final two laps. End of lap 64 the gap was 19.2 seconds or something by time got to the finish line it was 24 seconds.

You can change the track but can’t fix the problems.

Look I think it’s cool they’ve changed the track slightly to make it a now much faster track, much like what it use to be and rather instead that slow and Mickey Mouse last sector, I think it’s better but problem is still there when it came to overtaking. Yes we did see overtakes but every overtake was down that main straight into turn 1. I can’t think of many overtakes that was elsewhere, we saw some decent racing maybe a bit better racing than what seasons of past have given us but nonetheless a lot of it was dull and boring in my opinion. I mean i watched the DetroitGP of IndyCar later on that evening and I must say once again IndyCar delivered much better show than what F1 did and that’s on the streets of Detroit. A street track with walls so therefore any mistake and would be costly.

I feel these 2023 cars have a real problem when it comes to following and giving us fans exciting racing and yeah Spain has always been a bad venue for track action but I believe with other types of cars that F1 could be doing better also to address these fundamental issues and problems.

Are Mercedes back?

Right Monaco, I said last week I believe that the updates we saw weren’t truly reflected and basically looked forward to seeing what they could do in Spain and ultimately did the updates deliver? I would say in the race yes, apparently both drivers felt a lot more comfortable in race trim but qualifying no. Of course it’s still early days for them running this new package but it does appear they’ve made some gain forward especially in race trim. The race trim in fact even in Monaco was decent and race trim again in Spain was very good but have they closed the gap to RedBull? I’m not convinced but have they leaped frogged AstonMartin and Ferrari? I would say so. I think the updates to that Mercedes probably now ever so slightly puts them ahead of AstonMartin. But of course though one could argue if AstonMartin had a better lineup then maybe not. AstonMartin struggled a lot this weekend despite Stroll positive performance but look Alonso worse performance is still able to match Stroll best performance.

Anyways I looking forward to now the LeMans this weekend and then of course when F1 2023 the GAME gets released next Tuesday (Early Access) and then hopefully we will have a exciting race weekend in Montreal Canada of which is a track I really like and has produced some of the best races in recent history.