Five takeaways from the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix

Its layout always rewarded a car with a strong chassis; both mechanically and aerodynamically. The car that went well around Barcelona would end up performing well over the course of the season.

After conducting pre-season testing in Bahrain (not an indicative circuit for an F1 car’s performance), all of the first three races this season had some special factors related to track layout or conditions; consequently delaying the emergence of a clear pecking order.

With Mercedes’ early struggles in winter testing (with the new aero regulations), Red Bull’s plug and play RB16B, and a midfield sending mixed signals in terms of performance, the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix became the first true chance for us to really develop a clear picture of the teams’ relative performances this year.

So here are our five takeaways from the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

Red Bull started this season with so much promise. They were the fastest team in pre-season testing, and seemed to be well poised to launch a proper title fight.

Mercedes, on the other hand, struggled initially with the new floor design based on the new aero regulations and have been continuously working on regaining their lost performance.

Barcelona’s qualifying showed that both title contenders have closely matched cars over one lap with Mercedes starting to understand their car much better, and closing the performance gap to Red Bull.

To make things worse for the Austrian outfit, it is becoming more evident that the W12 is the better car in race trim. It just seems to be kinder on its tyres than the RB16B.

I previously mentioned that Mercedes are a winning machine. They just have the recipe for winning memorized and victories come naturally to them. Their performance in Barcelona backs my statement up.

Mercedes saved an extra set of medium tyres for race day to keep their options open on strategy. That proved to be an inspired decision where, in the race, they caught Red Bull with their pants down serving them with a blinder of a strategy (a two stopper).

Red Bull were stuck between a rock and hard place: react to Hamilton’s second stop and give up position, or go to the end on the same set of tyres which was a risky gamble that ultimately didn’t pay off.

Red Bull are not in a good place now. They lost their performance advantage over Mercedes and are also being outsmarted on strategy. How they react will be interesting to see.

Both drivers were almost matched in qualifying with Hamilton edging Verstappen by 0.036 seconds.

In the race the Dutchman started off in great fashion muscling his way past the Brit to take first place. Classic Verstappen stuff, and things were looking good. Although his driving was faultless after that, one cannot overlook his unannounced dash into the pits on lap 24 with his pit crew not expecting him. Did he panic after his tyres suddenly went off the cliff with Lewis looming large in his mirrors?

When you’re fighting Lewis for the championship, you don’t panic!

In comparison, Hamilton was more composed and it was to his credit that a first lap crash was avoided as he lifted and gave more space to the charging Verstappen. He then went about his job combining blistering pace with impressive tyre managing skills making it possible to execute his team’s bold strategy.

With four races done and dusted, the seven-time champion is having the upper hand for now winning three races, with a solitary win to Max Verstappen’s name.

The gap between these two is slowly growing in Lewis’ favour. Watch out Max!

After their nightmare of a season last year. Ferrari came into 2021 being bullish about their new car and power unit. I was, as many others, sceptical of the Italian team’s claims.

In Barcelona, the Ferraris were clearly faster than McLaren (their closest rivals). Both Ferraris out-qualified the McLarens with Charles Leclerc leading the charge for the Scuderia.

Leclerc’s fourth place would have been a fifth had Sergio Perez performed better. Nevertheless, the Monegasque has validated the progress achieved by the Maranello squad.

On another note, it was exciting to see that the gap between the slowest and fastest midfield car was 0.3s in Q2. Lance Stroll missed out on Q3 by only 0.008s. That’s tight!

Alpine’s improved pace in qualifying did not translate into the race. Alpine put both drivers on a one-stop strategy that worked with the impressive Esteban Ocon but not with Fernando Alonso.

Aston Martin had a torrid race finishing outside the points for the second consecutive race. The upgraded aero package fixed to Sebastian Vettel’s AMR21 this week seems to be a flop after some promise in Friday’s practice session. That is a worrying sign for the Silverstone based team.

After struggling to get on top of his new ride, Daniel Ricciardo seems to be more in sync with his MCL35M. He out-qualified an on-form Lando Norris and beat him in the race as well.

But the Aussie’s duel with Sergio Perez driving a much faster car, was the most impressive aspect of his race in my opinion.

Once Ricciardo is operating at his best, the fight for third place in the constructors’ standings between McLaren and Ferrari should become more interesting.

Last time Yuki Tsunoda was mentioned in this column, his talent was acknowledged while highlighting his need to learn and develop after his dip in form following an impressive debut.

In Barcelona, Tsunoda was out-qualified by his teammate (eliminated in Q1), and proved yet again that he still has a lot to learn.

His post-qualifying rant over the team radio - where he criticized his car while questioning whether his team was treating him equally - was unflattering to say the least.

Although he may be excused for being frustrated, what he did is a big “No-No” in Franz Tost and more importantly Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko’s rulebook.

His teammate Pierre Gasly went down that road during his brief tenure with the senior team, where he blamed his poor performance on the Red Bull car he was driving at the time. Those comments (right or wrong doesn’t matter) didn’t go down well with Marko and Gasly’s demotion to AlphaTauri came before the season was even over.

Yuki should keep that in mind, and maybe have a chat with Pierre about what not to say from now on.