Spanish GP: Williams Martini Grand Preview

The Catalunya circuit on the outskirts of Barcelona is well known to the drivers and teams, following two pre-season tests in February and March where we got an early glimpse of the performance of this year’s cars. A staple on the calendars of not just Formula One but many other motorsport series, the layout combines long sweeping corners with twisty technical sections – a key reason why Formula One chooses this circuit to give its cars a thorough workout before the season starts. Williams has managed to secure six wins at the Spanish Grand Prix, including a memorable victory in 2012.

For Barcelona, Pirelli have made available the hard, medium and soft tyres. This will be the debut of the hard tyre this season. In Spain, Williams has chosen to allocate each driver with the same sets of tyres. Felipe and Valtteri will have one set of hard tyres, five sets of medium tyres, and seven sets of soft tyres available throughout the weekend.

PAT SYMONDS:
The Circuit de Barcelona is a track we know well having completed eight days of preseason testing at the venue. It is, however, a circuit that is very reactive to climatic conditions, even over the course of a day, therefore the car characteristics we saw in the temperatures of February and March, may not necessarily be indicative of what we will see in May. It is also the first appearance of the Pirelli hard compound tyres, which bares testament to the severity of the circuit. In general, we were happy with the car performance during testing, and hope we can repeat that level of competitiveness, or better, when it matters during the race weekend.