For round 8 of the 2023 Formula 1 championship we’re headed over to Barcelona, Spain. The new track layout as well as the upgrades the teams will bring with them promise lots of excitement and adrenaline.
One of the teams that supposedly achieved a breakthrough discovery in Monaco is Aston Martin. If reports are true, the UK manufacturer has found additional pace and is -0.200s faster per lap. This would put them on par with the likes of Red Bull, giving Fernando Alonso an opportunity to fight for his 33rd career victory. Will they pull it off? UK bookmaker William Hill has the latest odds!
※ Current Odds Date & Time: May 31st, 7:00 A.M. (EST)
As is customary at this point, Max Verstappen is by far the favourite to take victory in Barcelona with the odds on him priced at a mere 1.36, followed by his teammate Sergio Perez with a price of 4.33. The interesting odds however are the ones placed on Charles Leclerc and his Ferrari.
Following a rather disappointing home race, the Monegasque driver is priced at a staggering 29.00, leveling him out with Lewis Hamilton in the W14 challenger. The upgrades Mercedes unveiled in Monaco will only just now show us their true potential on the high-speed corners of Barcelona and this could very well be the reason for such odds.
The Circuit
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a rather old track, built in 1991 with its first ever GP held in the same year. This circuit is a 4.657 km long track featuring 66 laps. It consists of 14 high-speed corners and 2 DRS zones making this one of the most entertaining tracks to make overtakes and gain positions.
An important feature to note ahead of this weekend’s race is that this GP will be driven on an altered layout. Its setting has changed as the usual chicane has been cut short returning to the original two corner finish. The only driver on the current F1 grid to have raced on this track layout is Fernando Alonso.
What to Expect?
As mentioned, the Monaco GP proved to be quite useful for some teams as new data was collected and analysed with reports emerging that teams like Aston Martin have found additional pace for the remainder of the season. The reports suggest that a vital part to this discovery was Sergio Perez’s Red Bull being flown high up in the air at Monaco following his crash that allowed teams to take a good look at Adrian Newey’s masterpiece from below. This report also suggests that Aston Martin have capitalised on this making them -0.200s faster per lap. If true, this would mean that Aston Martin could potentially challenge Red Bull for 1st place and give Fernando his 33rd career win.
Moving on to another team with high expectations ahead of the Spanish GP, we come to Mercedes. With their new side-pods unveiled at Monaco, Mercedes was unfortunately unable to unleash the W14’s full potential on the narrow streets of Monaco. Even though Toto Wolff claimed it was a step in the right direction, the Spanish GP will be the ultimate test for their new aero design. Can they advance further and fight for the podium? We sure hope so!
Last but not least, we have to take a closer look at Ferrari. With their car performing slightly better than before, the team still managed to bottle their chances of a podium finish with bad strategy and awful planning. Ferrari’s Monaco calls infuriated Carlos Sainz as the Spaniard went off at his team over the team radio. Broadcasted for everyone to hear, it would seem that if Ferrari is to continue fighting for podiums, they seriously need to rethink their strategy.
