Formula 1 Circuit, Barcelona, Spain > Reviews > Circuit de Catalunya,Tough and Demanding

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Advantages:	Tough ,demanding circuit .  Purpose built .
Disadvantages:	Not many

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona home of the Spanish Grand Prix,like Sepang in Malaysia,is a purpose built circuit which has also become renowned for being the most important FI testing facility.This year's race is especially interesting as this will be the first race since 1992 with traction control in operation which basically means all the drivers will be a lot faster into corners and coming out of them,as compared to when the device was outlawed.

The circuit is a tight,technical circuit with a good mixture of fast and slow corners,a very long pit straight and undulating bumps which means it is demanding on both the cars and the drivers. Common difficulties at the Spanish track include understeer and very high tyre wear.Set-up is also a big challenge for the teams as the slow corners require downforce whereas as little as possible is needed on the long straight and sweeping turns.

Although well known to many of the drivers since many of them do a great deal of their winter test driving at the track at Barcelona,it is undeniably a tough circuit. The length of the circuit is 4.728 km and there are 65 laps in the Spanish Grand Prix. Past winners of this Grand Prix include Damon Hill in the Williams Renault in 1994, Michael Schumacher in both 1995 and 1966 in a Benetton Renault (1995) and a Ferrari in 1996. The 1997 race was won by the French Canadian driver Jacques Villeneuvre in a Williams, whilst Mika Hakkinen in the McLaren Mercedes was the winner in 1998,1999 and last year.

The lap record at the Circuit de Catalunya is currently held by Giancarlo Fisichella at a time of 1:22.242 min.You can expect that record to go. You can also expect the Grand Prix to be very interesting because with the return of traction control it is almost like a new season starting again !Expectations are high not only for frontrunners such as McLaren and Ferrari but for the BMW Williams team after their triumph at San Marino.