Barcelona is an eye-opener for Rob Smedley

The entire paddock and all the specialists have agreed for several years that a car performance in Barcelona is generally in rhythm throughout the season. Which could be all the more true with the change in regulations effective this year and the introduction of the new V6 turbo/hybrid Power Units. “Spain will be a good indicator, explains Rob Smedley on the official website of the stable Whole grained. Coming back to Europe gives the teams the opportunity to make further improvements, which we will also do. Barcelona and the next two or three races give everyone a good indication of how the rest of the season is going and who has made the most progress. The teams and drivers know the track well, which means we can gather a lot of granular data on how the updates are working. We feel ready and are now curious to see where we stand compared to our competitors. »

If Felipe Massa believes that aero support will play an important role in Catalonia, Valtteri Bottas explains that, unlike other years, where pre-season tests took place partly on the Montmelo circuit, the team does not have as much data with the new FW36. “We’ll have to work on the set-up. » declares the Finn. Williams obtained on this same track in 2012 what remains to this day his last victory in F1 with Pastor Maldonado.